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. :)
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
