River Haven Lodge — Local services in South Island

Wild, South Island brown trout are not easy, but if you want to test your fly fishing skills against some of the world's best, River Haven Lodge (RHL) is the place to do it. I just returned from my 13th NZ fly fishing trip and my 12th fishing with the guides at RHL. Scott, Leya, Doug and the lodge staff are all fantastic. Beautiful riverside cabins, main lodge and landscaped grounds. Wonderful meals, great service, excellent, reasonably priced helicopter service into backcountry rivers, and the best fly fishing guides I have ever fished with. Everything about RHL is world class. I've done a lot of fly fishing travel and a lot of fly fishing to tough trout back home in Colorado, but sight fishing to big, South Island brown trout is absolutely the most exciting and rewarding fly fishing I have ever done. During my 14 days fishing out of RHL this trip, I landed 15 trophy (8 lb. +) browns, and 5 of those were between 10 and 12.5 lb. All on my 4 and 5-weight rods. Most were on mayfly nymphs, but the trophies also included a beautiful 8 lb. brown on a #14 parachute mayfly pattern dry fly. We helicoptered into the backcountry 8 of the 14 days to some of the most beautiful scenery on the planet. For a trout fly fishing finatic like me, it doesn't get any better. We had a couple of tough weather days, but RHL's strategic location, experienced guides and access to a wide variety of streams in different river drainages means fewer days lost to weather. While other South Island lodges/guides were cancelling due to rain, we were fly fishing and doing well on smaller rivers that clear quickly. Just bring your fly fishing A game for these...

Wild, South Island brown trout are not easy, but if you want to test your fly fishing skills against some of the world's best, River Haven Lodge (RHL) is the place to do it. I just returned from my 13th NZ fly fishing trip and my 12th fishing with the guides at RHL. Scott, Leya, Doug and the lodge staff are all fantastic. Beautiful riverside cabins, main lodge and landscaped grounds. Wonderful meals, great service, excellent, reasonably priced helicopter service into backcountry rivers, and the best fly fishing guides I have ever fished with. Everything about RHL is world class. I've done a lot of fly fishing travel and a lot of fly fishing to tough trout back home in Colorado, but sight fishing to big, South Island brown trout is absolutely the most exciting and rewarding fly fishing I have ever done. During my 14 days fishing out of RHL this trip, I landed 15 trophy (8 lb. +) browns, and 5 of those were between 10 and 12.5 lb. All on my 4 and 5-weight rods. Most were on mayfly nymphs, but the trophies also included a beautiful 8 lb. brown on a #14 parachute mayfly pattern dry fly. We helicoptered into the backcountry 8 of the 14 days to some of the most beautiful scenery on the planet. For a trout fly fishing finatic like me, it doesn't get any better. We had a couple of tough weather days, but RHL's strategic location, experienced guides and access to a wide variety of streams in different river drainages means fewer days lost to weather. While other South Island lodges/guides were cancelling due to rain, we were fly fishing and doing well on smaller rivers that clear quickly. Just bring your fly fishing A game for these...

This is a very professional operation from an anglers point of view. In the morning before there is a decision made on where to go phone calls are made over breakfast to other camps to ascertain where guides are going to make sure the beats are clear. This meant that I never encountered another angler on the stretches I fished. Doug was my guide and he is a man of infinite patience. If there was an opportunity to c*ck up a cast there was a good prospect that I would do so. Despite this I was landing great fish of 3 to 6lb in weight on a daily basis in very hot and low water conditions. On one or two occasions I lost my footing to find the firm hand of Doug grabbing me by the scruff of the neck to stop me porpoising further down the river. My advice to anyone doing this for the fist time (as I was) is concentrate on your casting prior to your arrival, you will improve your catch rate enormously. Having returned to the UK I have employed many of the tactics I learned here on local waters with great success. In addition to the burden of responsibility of helping me catch fish Doug was also delegated to get me some hunting whilst based at the lodge. He did a great job of securing me some good culling opportunities on local farms which is exactly what I asked for. Scott and Leya are great hosts and the hospitality and catering were...