South Island Holiday Photo Essay

[Tim Angeli]

My Dad and one of his friends came down to New Zealand for 9 days of chasing fins over the holidays.  It was great to get to spend some time with the old man, and we managed to find a few fish for him and his friend.  They both landed the biggest trout of their lives, and long-distance-released a few that I reckon were even bigger.  Here are a few of the snapshots from along the way:

Took the All Black themed plane south:

Then met one of the living legends:

I used to spend a fair amount of time around the 45th parallel in Northern Michigan.  This time, we were at the other 45th parallel:

We caught some fish:

And soaked up the scenery:

Fiordland:

We managed to have one of those magic days that you dream about in the middle of the trip, which included me sight nymphing this guy in a beautiful spring creek:

My Dad landing the best trout of his life, on a dry no less:

And Jim also landing the best trout of his life:

We got amongst some great rises in the waning light of the evening, throwing massive dries toward toilet-flushing rises:

The Southern Cross reminded those from the north where we were:

We had a few great meals:

And it all ended before we knew it.  I was super excited to test drive the new lens that I got, but honestly, I’m a bit disappointed in many of the images coming out a bit soft.  Comments and critiques are more than welcome.  I also broke out a new line for this trip, the Scientific Anglers Mastery Textured in the Trout Stalker taper.  The line is AWESOME, and the Trout Stalker taper is the best dry fly taper I have ever fished.  If you’re in the market for a new line and fish a lot of dries, I highly recommend checking it out.  I think my Dad summed it up well when he cast my rod and turned to me and said, “what line is this?

[Colin M.]

The parting shot has me hungry!

Nice work.

[Tim Pommer]

The Clinton valley has to be one of the prettiest places on the planet.

[Joel Thompson]

Very nice Tim and glad this trip with your pop didn’t end in the ER!

Joel

[Douglas Barnes]

Tim, you’re livin’ right buddy! Great trip report!

[C.B. Crumpler]

Un-Frigin-believable is what this is! Great report and Wonderful images. Woke me up from my quadrangle induced coma for a bit!

[Jason DeBacker]

Wow!

[Corey Kruitbosch]

Damn dude! Is that a Purple Haze? Thing works!

What lens did you get?

[Chris Corneli]

Awesome photo of the parrot (?) in flight. Your fish pics make me sick.

[andrew sturt]

Very nice!

[Tim Angeli]

Glad you guys enjoyed the photos.

[Simon Chu]

If you think the fishing in the South is good. Please somebody ask Tim to stick his recent North Island adventure up!
I have to work out how to get TA’s visa cancelled so some of us mortals can get back amongst it!

[Corey Kruitbosch]

Tim: Did you try the microfocus settings to get that 17-40 dialed in?

[Tim Angeli]

Did you try the microfocus settings to get that 17-40 dialed in?

No, I haven’t tried that.

[Author]

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