Happy New Year Everyone

We spent New Year's Eve fishing a small stream, thoroughly enjoying life. AJ nets a good trout that took her nymph. Given that she'd missed one 2 casts earlier on the dry, she was thrilled to take this one to the net. It was a little cloudy with the odd drizzle and sunny periods too. A mixed day for early summer. A great way to bring in the New Year. Some great video footage of the day and another trout wheeling the reel into the backing for Dave. :)
Happy New Year everyone.
:)

No you don't!

A good hook up and another brown screams downstream. This time, the fish has a little shoreline structure to work with. Over and over, the 7 1/2 pound brown made his way to the overhanging sticks, gorse, matagouri, beech limbs, and whatever else it could find. I think I did an ok job, leveling the rod to the water sideways and cranking the old 4 wt. I managed to land it after 4 or 5 solid runs into the bush and 2 deep runs into the backing. Good fun!

The perks of high water

As they do everywhere, after a NZ monsoon and heavy, high water, trout move to the edges and tailouts. The good news in NZ is that clear water comes 12 hours after a heavy rain of 100 - 200mm dumped in a day, where back home that kind of rain could wipe a river like the Red Deer for 10 days. The trout above was caught the morning after a rain event, in near gin clear water, holding a foot from the bank. It was sighted and a flip of a 20 foot cast with a small nymph, and the fish took, no question. 15 feet in front of it another trout was caught in the same fashion. The frustrations of losing a day to rain sometimes gives the gift of gaining less wary trout. Such is life on the west coast.

When it's -40 at home

About the time Edmonton was the coldest place on earth, we were wheeling a back road, spellbound by the gorgeous summer scenery. 11 weeks fly fishing in NZ, or shoveling snow back home. Now we've done it... gloating should bring on another rain front.

Two for the show

We'd had a good day on a small stream but were running out of good water as the drizzle began. A long run revealed nothing and we were about to turn back to the car. The last 10 yards of the run... a trout sidled up against a white rock in a flat bit of water on the far side. It was a good spotting as the fish blended well. AJ was up and she had a taker first cast through. A great bit of video and some good photos of a good, fat brown of 7 3/4 pounds. Just to be complete, as AJ released the trout and we watched it swim under the far bank downstream, I spotted a good trout on the same white rock, sidled up to it in the exact same fashion hers had been. Dave's turn. Second cast through, again on the dry, a good hook up and a good bit of video. An 8 pound fish followed AJ's fatty. Not to get greedy, we did a good hi-5 and headed for the car.

Hangin' On

A fish holding in a fast water seam takes a mayfly and screams away, burning through the slack line. A good fight as it heads up and across the current to the far boulders before turning and coming my way for a change.

A beautiful spot

There is a stunning wall of ferns and waterfalls on a favorite river here on the west coast. The high cliff bleeds water with 5 cascades pouring into a deep run with excellent soft shoulders the trout adore. A wonderful place to cast to 4 or 5 trout lined up in a row.

Christmas Eve

For three years, we've driven past a river on our way to many days of fishing. We've been told not to bother with it, the fish are small, that it's a nursery water for browns. This year, we began thinking about fishing it. It is a tannin water, hard to sight fish unless it's a sunny day. The upper reaches flow through a beech forest and it's a good year for big browns living in beech forests. And, frankly, it's a very pretty river in spots. The trouble is that the main highway runs right beside it from top to bottom. There again, in 3 years we've not once seen anyone fishing the river along the road. So, a week or so ago, we talked about it as we drove past, asking and pondering of ourselves, and made the decision the next sunny day we drive past, we're fishing it.

Enter Christmas Eve.

We drove across the island to spend Christmas with friends and their family. It was mid afternoon and we had an hour to spare. It was a sunny day. On a lark, we stopped at a bridge 75m off the highway on a busy road leading to the mine. Trucks came by every few minutes. Holiday traffic on the highway was brisk (by north-central south isl standards, anyway).

We parked, hopped out and walked across the bridge for a look. Below the bridge was a marvelous run and two trout finned. No hesitation, it was a perfect place to fish for an hour. I was lucky to rig up and headed below. A rise. A cast, and a 17" brown to hand after 5 or 6 jumps. I began prospecting the water and moved 2 or 3 more trout. I moved upstream to the head slot of the run and searched with a large dry. A ghostly shadow rose to my fly. The fly dragged as I was in the motion of lifting to cast again but paused enough to slow the fly. The fish still came 4 feet downstream. It took! A nicer 2 - 3 pound trout, I assumed, as it tore off downstream. But, as the fight progressed and it wasn't so easy to move the fish or turn its head, that 2 or 3 pound trout grew.

After releasing, I fished a little more through the run at the bridge...

We walked 100m upstream of the bridge and sighted this one... For good measure, this one was sighted a few yards upstream and absolutely hammered the cicada pattern.

In 90 minutes on a sunny Christmas Eve, 6 to 8 pound browns were landed, a few nice photos and video taken, and a couple Canadian kids both got sunburns as they didn't layer or lather up. AJ simply said Merry Christmas to me as we hopped in the car and drove to our friends' place. With a lot of time on our hands through Feb, think we might fish that one again?

:)

Merry Christmas everyone.

Dave & Amelia.

Another NZ Van

Mary had a little lamb
Her father shot it dead
Now it goes to school with her
Between two bits of bread.

Seems like something to put on a mural on a side of a van, eh?
:)

The beat goes on...

We took a break from the posting of fly fishing in New Zealand. We'd heard that Edmonton was the coldest place on the planet this past week at -52C. We've sen the heavy snowfall warnings earlier in the month. It sounds like everything about winter we hoped to avoid for a little while, anyway. But, since it has warmed up considerably, here`s back to our fly fishing...
AJ got a good break a while back now. We walked a small stream and came to a small pool. It looked much smaller than what it is, certainly for depth. There was a fish holding and swaying to the subtle seam. It was a short, easy cast, nothing special. The dry rode the current very slowly. The fish turned and came to look. It barely moved a fin but surely rose towards the tandem flies. It took about 7 seconds - pure slow motion, as the fish drift downstream and within 3 feet of AJ`s rod tip before its mouth opened a wide, bright white chomp. The mouth closed, the dry fly indicator never did register, but AJ set anyway. Then the fight was on. The optics confused us both as the fish looked about 4 or 5 pounds in the water but the rod couldn`t budge the fish. Eventually, however, we were about to net the fish. A strong, 10.5 pound beauty, no doubt fattened on the area`s mouse population. A good day and a great moment. :)

Good ol' Nor'wester

If we didn't see this again on our trip, we'd be happy. Lows come screaming into the west coat of the island, rain deluging (up to 450mm in a day) the coastal ranges. While the east side of the ranges often escape the rain, Nor'Wester winds pick up. In the similar fashion to our Chinook winds, the Nor'Wester winds form an arch of cloud in the sky similar to the Chinook arch. The worst we have seen is sustained 115kmh with gusts near 170kmh. Cast a small dry fly into that!

Not to be seen in Canada

We think that driving this van around Ottawa or Vancouver might get you 5 to 10 yrs. In Nelson, NZ, it gets some laughs.

Jack Gartside Has Passed Away

Jack Gartside has passed away. he was an avid flyfisher and creative fly tyer:

http://www.jackgartside.com/


Bob

Lucky

"Did you enjoy yourself?"

Amelia asked this question after I had a few moments to come down from the event. It was a strange question to ask if you'd just shown up at the photo moment with an 8 # brown in my hands. But it was appropriate and I totally understood why she would ask the question.

As we walked up the river, I was a little disappointed that we hadn't seen more fish - any fish, actually. We'd seen a platoon of kayakers and rafters go through from the highway as we drove to the far end of the valley before crossing and driving up the other side to our put in. I hoped that the boats hadn't come through our water, but with no fish showing, it was likely. I saw a rise in a deep pool, but then the wind began howling. To top it off, my vendetta against paradise ducks was cemented as we came up to a favorite pool. Paradise ducks are the size of Canada geese, just fatter, extremely curious, territorial (at least with me), and extremely annoying with a loud squawk and zipping sound. Every time we come across these birds, we're approaching good water. And as it always goes, the birds see us, take off running upstream up the shoreline seam, fly up, turn, fly low over the water and disappear for 2 minutes downstream before turning to come back up to the run, where they hover above the water, running upstream with their large feet in a slow motion landing that never lands but wreaks havoc on the seamline. This day, these two birds did this to us over 25 times in 800 m of water. High quality water. And we saw no fish.

I am no hunter and don't kill things by nature. But these things drive you nuts.

Agitated and frustrated at the prospects, we came to the very last possible holding water in the long run. A sideways sliding current over top of a static, upstream facing, shallow trough. Enough folding water to keep from seeing in but likely looking water. There was a dark shape under the fold that didn't look right, facing the right direction. I drew nearer and it moved oddly, not in time to the current. A good fish, certainly. I wasn't 100% sure it was a fish, about 90%. Maybe it was the current over a large rock. It was certainly looking too fat to be a trout, perhaps too dark as well.

I slid to the river downstream and took a cast, the wind howling and driving the cast too far right and the sideways current took it 4 feet right of the fish. I was at least safe from spooking it. I cast again and the drift was right. In the choppy water I lost sight of the fly, looked to see where my dark shadow was, then looked and found my fly. I again looked for my shadow - it was gone. I again looked back at my fly - it was gone. So, I set my hook. And in an instant I was 50m into my backing as this freight train took off.

For this trip, I tied a few red wire nymphs that work as well as a few others. The first few fish of the trip were caught on them but they bent out of shape after one trout - useless for any more fishing. The hooks are the first I've ever used to do so and I'd given up on using them. Except in that moment of watching this fat trout screaming downstream around boulders at the far side of the river - it was hooked on a weak hook.

Perfect.

For 10 minutes, which is by far the longest I've ever fought a trout over here, I cursed at the fish to come in, for it to turn its head. I simply couldn't. Eventually it came out of the heavy current, the 10 minute fight not due to any lack of effort on my part (as you see in the bent rod shots below). I considered popping off the fly but held on another moment, just in case. It was worth it.

I finally was able to get a net under it. As I did, a wave of something came over me and I had to sit down on a boulder beside me. I didn't know how to feel, given the environmental factors that had me rattled before the hook up, the fact I wasn't 100% sure it was a fish, then not seeing the take, and worrying about a shoddy hook as I fought the fish. It wasn't the usual elation of catching a large trout or seeing the perfect take. It became as anti-climactic and mundane as landing a large Bow R trout on a San Juan Worm, but as nerve stretching as a 20", hot trout on a small stream on light tippet. I just couldn't, and still can't put my finger to how I felt. But I had to sit down.

As I sat, I looked at my nymph. Yes, bent out of shape. Given where on the lips of the fish it was hooked, how bent it was, how hot the fish was, and how hard I cranked on the rod, I'm rather surprised I was able to land it.

It was just a series of lucky things happening after a series of frustrations. And I'm still not sure how I feel about it. So, when AJ asked me if I enjoyed myself, I knew why she asked. I just didn't know how to answer and still don't. The answer is yes, I just don't know to what degree.

The fish was as wide as it is deep and while short, wound up at 8 pounds.

And it wasn't -33C like it was at home at that exact moment. That made me happy. :)

Regional Words

It's neat to hear different words for simple day to day items. This one caught our attention (so did the price) the first time we came to NZ a few years ago. It's also known as an "Eskie" for slang.

Weather we just don't see in Ab

WESTLAND RANGES
Rain is expected to develop overnight and become heavy around dawn on Tuesday. In the 12 to 15 hours from 6am Tuesday, 60 to 80mm is possible in the ranges. Heaviest falls Tuesday afternoon of 15-20mm/hr.
Rain should ease Tuesday evening, but become heavy again overnight Tuesday to Wednesday, when another 200-300mm of rain could accumulate


Thankfully this is well south of us, but it's the kind of weather that can wreak havoc with fishing vacations along the west coast.

What gloating gets me

Earlier in the week I noticed a blizzard warning back in Alberta, with 10 - 30 cm of snow, high winds, big time windchill, and temps falling to -35C by mid week. While we were getting some rain here, it had to be better than being home. We made (ok, ok, I made) mention of the fact it was good to be here enjoying warm weather and fly fishing rather than the home weather. Well, the day following the mild gloating we headed into the hills here to fish a small lake as the rivers were blown due to heavy rain over the entire north half of the island. Sure enough, as we drove closer to the lake, it was fairly obvious karma was quickly catching the slow driving. The apples were sour, if you need to know how we liked èm. :)

Built for speed

NZ is a land built for speed - as it relates to dealing with rain. Some 200 to 400 mm of rain can fall in a day and while this would devastate rivers and flood towns back home, its almost a weekly occurrence here, and the drama unfolds quickly. The coastal valleys are of rock and sturdy beech forests, which drain the rain quickly. the chart below is from a local river that had a good deluge earlier this week, going from 1.5m of water depth to 3.6m of depth at the reporting station in a few hours. A 7 vertical foot increase would amaze us in Alberta, but a day or so after the front is over here, the flows return to normal, lest there be another front - which there often is.
It`s an amazing place for handling the rain. Just make sure you have an out if you fish a river before knowing the weather forecast...

Missed it by that much!

We'd been playing with a fish for the 3rd time now. Make that the fish was playing with us. We'd missed and spooked an 8 - 9# brown in the tailout of a run twice. The third time Amelia was up. The water was slightly off color from a big dump of rain that took 3 days to clear - a long time for this river - it was a lot of rain. The trout was down a little deeper with the extra flow and low temps. The first cast AJ took was a great one, it came right down the seam on the inside sandy flat. The fish moved over and took the fly, its huge white mouth opening and closing mere feet in front of us. A split second later the dry fly went down, telling us what was so blatant. AJ set the hook and the fight was on. It took the nymph, turned for the current and before it realized it wouldn't have to rip into AJ's backing, before AJ realized the backing wouldn't be revisited, the nymph popped out. Both seemed stunned as AJ stopped and the fish went back to its lie, both stunned that was the end of the show.

Dave, however, fell to his knees in exasperation that we'd missed the damned fish three times, and the third effort was as close to a sure thing as anyone could hope for. Ah well, there's always tomorrow.

Here's what the nymph looked like seconds after losing the big one...

Magazine Cover photo article

A good piece by Phil Monahan, formerly of American Angler, explaining why cover photos of magazines often look the same...
http://www.midcurrent.com/flyfishing/magazine_covers.aspx

Sight Fishing article in AA

The following link opens to an article on sight fishing, in which Amelia's photos show up as supporting images to the author. It's an interesting article, something we're trying to do here in NZ for another 2 months... :)

http://americanangler.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1071&Itemid=6

A great moment

AJ hooked into a nice trout feeding in the seam. It was a gorgeous day after two quite rainy ones. The sun was high, wind still, trout up, not a cloud. The trout glowed in the river and we had a great time sighting. This photo came by chance, as I snapped shots while she fought the fish.

We do this as we see that temperatures back home dip to -25. Not to think we're gloating (for today anyway) as two more days of rain saw the river depth increase by 2.4 m - about 7 1/2 vertical feet at the reporting station - after the small drainage got 400mm of rain. In Alberta that would be a total disaster. Here, we'll be sight fishing on that one by two days from now, if not tomorrow afternoon. It's rather dramatic as the country is built to withstand the weather. We told our friends of the thunder all day 2 days ago and it was perhaps their 4th or 5th time hearing of thunder anywhere near them. It is different. :)

Happy snow shoveling as we head to a lake in the morning - hope for some sight cruising and sight fishing.