Do you find a large expanse of water slightly intimidating, as far as fly fishing is concerned? Do you arrive at a lake and look out at all that water and think "where do I start?" What follows is two different examples of fishing a lake successfully, and hopefully they might give you some ideas on how to catch fish around the edge of lakes.

We arrived at Lake Brunner on the West Coast of New Zealand around 2pm. It was a hot day, with a reasonably strong wind coming off the lake -- hardly ideal fishing conditions. But after a 5 hour drive, I was determined to go fishing, no matter how bleak the prospects! We set off around the lake edge, and after a 20 minute walk we stopped to set up the rods. I would say that 90% of people fish within 15 minutes walk of an access area, and if you go just that little bit further your chances of success increase.

I put on a #10 Black Gnat, always a favourite pattern for lake edges, and began to scan the water. It only took several minutes to spot a fish slowly making his way upwind, about 15 feet out from the edge. Circling around ahead of him, I put the fly out on the water, and crouched down to wait.

30 seconds later the fly disappeared leaving a swirl on the surface. I tightened up to a nice 3lb Brown which put up a good fight before being landed, photographed and released. I got another 3 that afternoon, all spotted within 20 feet of the bank, and ambushed with a fly placed ahead of it.

So why were fish caught on an afternoon that my fishing buddy felt would have been better spent relaxing in the pub?
*Prepared to walk just that little bit further, to get away from the over fished areas.
*Realising that fish would be in close with the cover of waves and wind.
*Spending the time looking for fish, rather than blindly casting.
*Using a fly suited to the windy rough conditions.

The next example was a trip to the head of Lake Tekapo, in the McKenzie country, South Canterbury. Possibly the worst conditions I have ever tried to cast a fly in -- it was difficult to even stand up in the wind, let alone cast and the waves on the shore were well over a metre high.

The North--West wind was howling down the lake, it was cold, with rain squalls, and lightning in the hills. Definitely a day to be indoors, but stupidity knows no bounds at times. Besides, we were there, we may as well give it a go!

But how to cast with a gale force wind? Not a chance -- so different tactics were called for. To get to the lake, we had walked down beside a small stream. This flowed out into the lake, and having fished there once before we knew there was a drop-off hidden in the waves - perhaps there were fish over the edge of that?

So I stood on the upwind side of the stream, and cast a line directly downwind over the current of the stream. A wet line, or sink tip would have been a better choice, but a dryline was all I had with me, so it was going to have to do. My choice of fly was an olive Wooly Bugger #8, which I find to be a good general purpose fly when fishing blind in deeper water.

As the current took my fly out into the lake, I would pay out more line, until there was 20 metres or so out. Then slowly strip the line back in and repeat the process. Bingo! A hookup. It was impossible to keep in touch with the fly, so hooking a fish was a hit and miss affair, but there were plenty of Rainbows sitting over that drop-off. We caught 5 Rainbows that afternoon. Nothing above 3 pounds but in those conditions, every fish was a bonus!

Which all goes to show one thing, sheer stupidity can sometimes reap its own rewards.

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