Stunning

As per our last post, we've run into some of the most incredible fly fishing of our lives recently. In coming blog posts (many more after we return home) and upcoming magazine issues, we`ll detail a few of our days. Stunning is perhaps an understatement.

About a week ago we decided to change the pace and try for rainbows. I`d done the obligatory backgrounder on a few waters and, hand in hand with our focus this trip on small and out of the way waters, we decided to give the creek a go. How we stumbled upon the fishing is a story to be revealed when we get home (it involves a 4 foot wide canyon and an 18km jaunt through bush), the fishing was insane. A creek that ran 3 to 9 feet wide, ankle deep, and evidently has less fishing pressure than the moon was offered to us. The kicker, 1 rainbow trout every 75m on average, each fish between 20 and 28inches and gullible. You want insane video footage... it`s coming. Dry fly fishing the likes we`ve not seen before. The topper was one reach of water where we kept hooking up and having trout 24 inches scream us into our backing as the creek disappeared between two narrow grass covered banks wide enough for our shoulders... barely. In this, the undercuts were intense and allowed no room for hauling trout from under the banks. We had to leave the rod on the bank and fight these fish by hand to reach down and pull them out. A couple dozen fish were landed, including some of the best takes ever with intense fish leaping onto the shore before wiggling back in and racing downstream into backing. Yes, incredible stuff.

A few simple shots..

Amelia lands an amazing fish caught in 12 inches of water. We walked up to the run and saw a it tailing in the tailout. The head would pop but the tail simply waved at us like a flag. The video of the fight is wonderful

Amelia lands another, 15 yards away from the tank above. Stunned, to say the least...

Amelia`s watched me toss rods on banks to pull fish out from under cut banks before. Below, she celebrates having done it to land a 22 inch rainbow from under those tussocks (grasses). She says it`s amazing as you reach in to feel the line wrapped about a stick and expect to find a broken tippet, but feel the tail of a fish and feel it pull line from your hands. Fighting it by hand and netting it after is a bonus!

Below: I`m just in the process of making my mind up to toss the rod to the bank and going at it mano-a-peche. Those undercuts go back 3 feet and the fish know how to use them. Amazingly, we only lost a couple of fish having hand lined them.

A glorious day, and another 5 pound rainbow on the line.

On the walk back we giggled as we walked up to this sign on the back of a sheppard`s posting. Save for back country mtn biking (we ran into several folks who love it), and a few hundred sheep, the area is never used. It was neat that the sign was there, seen at the end of the day on a perfect evening.

All this and 4 or 5 days to cross country skiing...

:)

How the month has gone!

The above photo about sums up the past month. AJ enjoys a wee bit of time on the endless beaches of the west coast of the south island, New Zealand. With nobody else around us for miles, it was fun to have fun.
It has been some time since the last post here. Our 11 weeks in New Zealand is coming to a close and, frankly, the past month has been a little over the top. Having fished some apparently tough spring creeks and then moving on to various tributary waters that few seldom fish, the fishing has been incredible, in suit with the weather. Amelia & I return to Red Deer in a week. In the meantime, we still have a couple of days of fishing, a swim with dolphins, whale watching, and a flight home that shows as about 30 minutes according to our tickets, thanks to the international date line.

Pick your poison

Don't be shy, you have a choice. On the west coast, the rain comes every other day. We're not talking chump drizzle. We're talking 100 to 300 mm in a 12 hr period. The kind of rain that takes the N Ram and makes it flow like the Bow below Carseland. It rages. Sure, 18 hours later you can fish, but you have 10 hours to fish that water before you get soaked again.
Your other choice is to head east of the alps, where it's dry. There's a catch. Every time a front moves along the west coast and soaks the coast, the winds howl everywhere east. And anyone thinking the Crowsnest winds are bad, try sustained 110 to 130 kmh with gusts 130 to 150. The worst we've seen is near 170kmh. Now, imagine 3 weeks straight of choosing rain or wind. Pick your poison, live with it.
Today, I stood 17 feet below a 6 pound brown and couldn't cast to it in 45 min of trying. The wind too every cast and put it on the rocks. Had I tied a rock to my fly, I don't think the fly gets there.
Below is a typical NZ weather forecast when we get a progression of fronts moving through, often every 36 hours.
Pick yer poison, indeed!

Cycling

It's been interesting to watch trout cycle feeding. I watched one fish feeding in a seam and thought,"good a gimmie". I continued to watch it feed to the head of the seam. It turned and I watched its shadow go right across the river to the tail of the run across the river. It fed up the seam on the left side, to the head, then crossed the river to my side, fed up the seam to the head, then crossed again. The river is 40m wide, the seams 25m apart. It was impressive. I finally timed the approach well and caught it, but I had to lay claim to it as AJ was on the other side about to work "her" fish on her side. Not so fast, there, dear wife. ;) Some days the sighting is easy, remarkable. Other days, it's a grunt. Here's an obvious one...

Catch Magazine

Click the link to see the new issue:
http://www.catchmagazine.net/