Spinner Dinner

We got back to the van late. In fact, we hit the idiot button on the day. "Let's walk between bridges!"  Great in concept. But, when you haven't looked at Google Earth or a map to prep the day, you have no idea what you're in for. Such was the day. We'd driven across the river likely 25 times, if not more, the past 4 years of travel to fly fish New Zealand and never fished it. With the perpetual rain and high, muddy waters elsewhere, we opted to try the obvious one... the one we nor anyone else seems to fish for the perpetual lack of parked vehicles. We did well, well enough to keep us there for a second day of fishing. The fishing plus the continued rain kind of keeps you right where you are. Back to the day... we walked and walked and walked. 12km of river in fact. That isn't a long distance, but most days we fish that length we're doing a lot of walking between likely looking water. This day was 85% likely looking water and tannin water, in low, cloudy light = slow going! We arrived at the bridge at 9pm, just enough light now to cycle back the 12 or so km back  the van, load up and find a camping spot. Supper was started at 10 pm beside that river, right on the gravel bar 5m from water. It was a warm evening, quite romantic, right up until we turned the lights on to prep and cook. For as few mayflies you see on most rivers in New Zealand during the day, the equal and opposite affect occurs at night. For as soon as we turned the lights on to deal with dinner, the onslaught of spinners hit. There was certainly a carpet hatch of the buggers, right in our pasta and veggies. As we ate supper, we opted to turn the lights off, leaving ourselves blind to the added protein that had joined the chicken and sausage jambalaya. There again, you can add pretty much any meat to Jambalaya, right? Mmmmm... spinners for dinners.