NZ Holiday Trip Report – Part 1
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As fair warning, this report contains a lot of pictures, you may need to refresh a couple of times in order to get all of the pictures to load. It also ended up being much longer than anticipated, so I apologize if I got a little long-winded.
As some of you have probably already gathered from my previous and recent posts, I have recently relocated to Auckland, NZ. I moved here to pursue a PhD, but it definitely wasn’t a coincidence that I chose the world’s best trout fishing destination as the location to do my Phd. I managed to slip out for a couple weeks over the holiday and used the time to take a fishing excursion all over the North Island. I’ve been back to civilization for a couple weeks now and figured it was high time to start putting together a report on IA.
I’m going to try to keep this report very picture heavy, as we all know a picture tells a thousand words. (edit: I failed in my attempt to keep the text to a minimum). I started my trip a couple days before Christmas by pointing my recently purchased and loaded down Subaru toward Rotorua and hitting the right pedal. Driving on the opposite side of the road came surprisingly easy, although I did manage to turn on the windshield wipers instead of my turn signal for the first 274 times that I went to make a turn. I made it to Rotorua without any major hiccups and decided to poke around town to see what sort of information I could pick up from some of the fly shops. My “plan” for the trip consisted on a list of rivers and locations that I scribbled down over the previous month or so that were supposed to offer good fishing. Needless to say, I could use all the information and advice I could find.
The first thing I discovered is that fly shops in New Zealand are much different than their American counterparts. Over here, almost all of the “fly shops” are not fly-specific at all. They are usually combined hunting and fishing stores, with only a small percentage of their inventory dedicated to fly fishing. Often their fly inventory is just a small set of draws containing the 50 most productive patterns, as opposed to most of the fly shops in the US that boast thousands of patterns. They were definitely all full of information, though, and not all of it was good. Before I get into the negative stuff though, here are some pictures from Rotorua. It’s like Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone, except way more touristy and the geothermal features are literally right in town. The pictures below were taken in an area that is honestly right next to one of the main roads through town. The entire town smells like sulphur, and supposedly people have these geothermal features right in their backyards throughout town.
I quick found out what no one had ever mentioned prior to my move here. Theft is a huge issue in NZ. Everyone I talked to in all of the fly shops emphasized how important it was to not leave any gear or equipment visible in my car. The one guy went so far as to say, “don’t even leave a pack of smokes visible, someone will break your window to get in, and they will steal whatever they can.” I don’t smoke, so that wasn’t an issue. What was an issue is that I had thousands of dollars worth of fly fishing gear, camping equipment, clothing, and electronics with me, and I was driving a station wagon so it was all visible. Needless to say, I was pretty bummed out when I realized how big of a problem theft was. After a minor freak-out session, I got pointed in the direction of some good fishing and a campground. I hit the road and tried to not let the theft issue bother me.
As a side note to emphasize how bad the theft really is, I have since found out that it’s such a severe problem that many of the guides in the Taupo area just leave there cars unlocked. That way the thieves can get into the car, look through everything, and find out that there is nothing to steal in the car without breaking any windows or door locks. Theft is definitely an issue that brings the entire experience down a notch because it’s not exactly comforting to have the constant worry of whether or not your car is going to be broken into when you return to it after a day of fishing. Unfortunately though, it’s just something that you have to live with.
I continued on my way in the direction that I had been pointed, and experienced an absolutely beautiful drive. It had portions of ocean coastline, native bush, and small towns, all of which were awesome to experience.
My recently purchased car a few weeks prior to it taking a total dump on me:
The final leg of the drive was up the scenic gorge of the river that I had come to fish. I pulled over at nearly ever opportunity to take it all in, and needless to say, it was breath taking.
After a long day of driving, I finally arrived at the campground and settled in to setting up my tent. I enjoyed a beer with the neighboring campers at their campfire, and then climbed in to bed with dreams of monstrous NZ trout dancing in my head.
I woke up the next morning with the sames dreams of big trout still dancing in my head. I immediately got the feeling that it was going to be a good day after discovering this guy clinging to my tent (check out the awesome coloration on him):
I eventually wandered over and talked to one of the neighboring campers who agreed to watch my gear while I was on the river. It turned out that he was a fly fisherman as well but was up there this time on a camping trip with his kids. So, in addition to finding someone to watch over my gear, I also picked up a few pointers. Over the course of the next few days he and I would swap stories and become close enough friends that he ended up giving me his phone number and inviting me to come visit him if I got the chance in the future. It is definitely true that Kiwis are extremely friendly people…aside from the theft of course.
Anyway, I suited up and hit the river. It was a smaller stream that had a repeating pool-run-pool-run- characteristic to it. It didn’t take long to spot my first fish…a nice brown feeding on the surface in the very first pool I came to, which also doubled as the local swimming hole during the heat of the afternoon.
To make a long story short, I didn’t hook that fish. In fact, I didn’t hook any fish for a very long time, but I definitely got to enjoy some great scenery along my walk up stream. Each pool held at least one fish, and almost all of them were in the 17-22″ range, with a couple of fish that went a solid 24″. My mouth was watering at the thought of getting to tangle with fish like that.
After a relatively long morning of missed (read: “blown”) opportunities, I found a fish that looked like it was willing to play. It was cruising up and down a decent-sized pool. I had learned from my morning of blown opportunities, so I stopped and watched before doing anything. After the second or third time that the fish swam down to the bottom of the pool, turned, and proceeded back upstream, I launched a cast midway up the pool assuming that the fish would turn and head downstream again. Fortunately, I got lucky and the fish did just that. My huge terrestrial ticked, I set, and was tight to my first fish in NZ. After a battle that was much larger than the fish itself, I got it corralled, setup my camera on its tripod, and managed to get a couple of pictures before sending it on it’s way.
The pool:
I managed to land another small brown further upstream before turning around and proceeding back to camp as it got late.
My camp overlooked this awesome old bridge. Definitely not a bad view:
I chowed down on a quick dinner of pasta with any and all spices that I could scrounge up, and hit the hay in anticipation of another day in trout heaven.
The obligatory IA food shot:
The next day (Christmas Day) I proceeded to a different stretch of water with my fingers crossed that Santa would pull through for me with one of the monstrous browns that NZ is famous for. The river was much bigger water than the section that I had fished on the previous day, and supposedly held bigger fish to match. To make a long story short, I hooked zero fish that day. The day consisted of a lot of walking, and not nearly as much fishing. It was hot, and the sun was incredibly intense. Do you remember that whole ‘hole in the ozone layer’ thing that was a real hot topic in the ’90s? Well, according to one of my coworkers, it turns out that hole is conveniently located above New Zealand. When I say the sun is intense, I mean every single aspect of intense. It can be brutal. Sunscreen is an absolute must. Despite the heat, I fished in long sleeves and long pants (usually waders) everyday just to keep the sun off. I will also highly recommend having a buff (or two). I realize that this description is similar to how I would describe many of my favorite destinations in CO or MT, but I will say with 100% certainty that the sun in those places doesn’t even come flose to the intensity of the sun here.
Anyway, the day consisted of plenty of walking. I probably covered 2 miles upstream, and then the same 2 miles again heading back to my car. I saw a total of 3 fish, and hooked 0 fish. I honestly didn’t even have a legitimate shot at a fish all day. I fished to every fish that I spotted, and fished a lot of the “fishy” water blind with either a deep nymph rig or a dry-dropper combo. I did manage to spot the biggest fish of the trip in this section of river. An honest estimate would be 10lbs, no BS. It looked like a submarine at the bottom of the pool. I only got to see it for about 5 seconds as it swam from its obscured location in the shade, out into the sun, and then back into the shade. The 5 seconds that I did see it were definitely plenty of time to entice me to fish that pool for a good half hour on the way both up- and down-stream. I guess I was naughty this year though, because Santa brought me no fish for Christmas.
The above pictures do not even come close to doing that river justice. First of all, the river is about 4x bigger than it appears in those pictures. It was an easy 50-100 feet wide at places, and the pools were 30+ feet deep. To add to the difficulty of fishing it, it flowed exceptionally slow. My drifts would literally last for minutes. It was painfully slow fishing, but nonetheless, it was awesome to experience a river like that and to even see a fish like the one described above.
The next day I hit the same section of water that had treated me well two days previous. It definitely didn’t disappoint, and offered up the greatest afternoon of fishing I have ever experienced (I took the morning off to drive into town and call home for Christmas). I fished a dry-dropper nearly all day and caught fish on both flies, but the most memorable fish of the day came on the huge terrestrial pattern that I was fishing. The takes from these fish looked more like an explosion than a fish feeding, and the fish would inevitably go airborne shortly after realizing they were hooked. These fish put on some of the most acrobatic displays I’ve ever seen.
Obligatory IA food shot…meat pie and blueberry crumble:
Nymph eater:
This pool held one of the biggest fish in this section of river. It was an honest 24″. I thought I was in business when I found myself tight to a fish in this pool, but it turned out to be his younger brother. I definitely wasn’t complaining, though, because even he went about 21″.
It hunts:
i had the fight of my life in this section. A really solid rainbow blew up on my terrestrial and went absolutely ape-shit, burning up and down every inch of the run and trying to wrap me around every boulder in the process. It was absolutely awesome!
I had a similar experience in a pool a little further upstream that seemed to attract the attention of more than just myself. The pool was shallower than most so I figured that the fish would be in the faster water near the head of the pool. I stripped off a healthy amount of line and bombed a cast right into the fast water up at the top of the pool. The water exploded with a silver bullet launching through the air and the fight was on as soon as I realized it had begun. The fish went airborne (and I’m talking up to a meter out of the water!) four times in a row. It then proceeded to scream from right to left, top to bottom, and then back in every direction 5 more times. I finally managed to get a shot at the fish, tailed it, and found myself holding the largest trout of my life. Somewhere in the process of getting my camera set up on it’s tripod, the fish decided that it was no longer tired after getting to enjoy the half second of rest it had gotten after I had landed it. It managed to escape my Jedi-trout grip and swim off into the depths of the pool. All I could do was smile and wave because it was truly one of those fish that I will remember for the rest of my life, picture or not.
I turned around after “releasing” the fish to discover a 4 foot eel sitting no more than 6 inches from my boot. Now, I’m not exactly used to coming face-to-face with a 4 foot eel while fishing, so “surprised” would be a vast understatement. I splashed around with my boot, which sufficed to scare it away for about 2 seconds. Soon enough, it was swimming right back toward me. I moved upstream…it followed. I moved further upstream…it continued to follow. I charged at it splashing profusely, which sufficed to scare it off back into the pool. I turned my attention back to fishing, only to turn around a few moments later to find the eel swimming right back toward me. I finally decided to end this stupid ordeal and threw a very large rock in the general (read: “specific”) direction of it’s head. The commotion of the rock splashing into the water’s surface was finally sufficient to scare it away, and it went slithering off into the pool, disappearing among the boulders on the bottom.
After my buddy slithered off, I proceeded to walk directly into a spiderweb that was home to a rod tube cap sized spider. Awesome.
I finally got back to fishing and managed to have another really solid rainbow blow up on my terrestrial in the very next run. Unfortunately, he broke me off very early in the fight, and I decided that between getting “chased” by a 4-foot eel, walking into the spiderweb of a huge spider, breaking off both my flies, and realizing that it was getting very late into the afternoon, it was probably time for me to call it a day.
Little did I know, my adventure was just beginning. The road was running “right next” to the river at this point, and I decided that it would be much quicker and easier to climb up to the road and walk back on the shoulder rather than climbing and slipping my way all the way back down the river. Or, at least, that seemed like an easier way to go at the time. After scaling a considerable distance from the river toward the road, I came to the realization that 10 meters of dense thorn bushes now stood between me and the road. Awesome. I initially tried to just “bulldoze” through them, but quickly realized that my waders would likely turn into swiss cheese if I continued to try that approach. I then found a branch and tried to blaze my through them with the branch. That too was highly unsuccessful. I finally discovered a creek flowing from under the road that was only a few meters down from where I was. It sufficed to offer me a place to climb my way up to the road with relatively minor interference from the thorns.
Trying to bushwhack through 10 meters of this is not a good idea:
When I moved here, I didn’t realize that New Zealand was actually Jurassic Park:
Not a bad ending to an awesome day:
The next day I headed to a different river and had similar lights-out fishing. It wasn’t quite as epic as the day before, but I still managed to have slow but continuous action all day. How can you complain when you’re landing fish like this, some of which were, again, absolutely exploding on big dries:
First, some scenery:
When you see this in the first pool of the day, you tend to get excited (look in the shallows in the foreground of the photo):
Payoff:
More scenery:
And more payoff:
Heaven?
The above picture gives you a sense of what some of these pools are like. This fish is a solid 20″+ and it is absolutely dwarfed by the size and depth of the pool and bouldery bottom. For reference, this is no where near the deep section of this pool:
I think I maxed out the size of one post, so this is continued below.
I apologize about the size of the images. Apparently I had the bulk uploader set on some small size rather the usual large size that I use. I’ll try to re-upload them in the largest size tomorrow and edit the post accordingly.
Tim
edit: image size fixed now
Great stuff Tim !
Me and a couple of the Aussie invasion squad will be over to fish the Tongariro this winter and if you’re interested, I will let you know dates.
We will, of course, be sledging the Kiwi’s about the rugby while there as well.. 😉
www.dsaphoto.com
A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.
Tim,
Great story and photos, it looks like an awesome time. Will we be seeing more on your adventures in NZ.
Tim
Wow! Now that is a killer first report Tim … Can not wait for all of the others! It does indeed hunt!
Wow! Now that is a killer first report Tim … Can not wait for all of the others! It does indeed hunt!
No, not the hunter, OMG it’s over. 😎
Great report Tim! That’s the first thing I wanted to read yet the last thing I needed on a bleak winter N. Hemisphere day! Excellent!
db
Keep the reports coming Tim!
It’s almost like reading a book on fly fishing in NZ! 😀Man, you’ll be telling these tales to your grandson one day.
Great report Tim! Funny to hear that theft is so bad as I did not experience that at all last year on the South Island. Your report definitely has me excited about returning there at the end of March!
How addicted to pies are you? The breakfast pie was a staple for me last year when I was there! I had one almost everyday… 🙂
I hope your not letting that school stuff get in the way of your fun time!
Joel
Post has been updated with full size pics. I had to split up up into two separate posts so that all of the pics would load.
David, I would definitely like to get the chance to meet up with you on the Tongariro this winter. Let me know when it’s going to happen and I’d love to tag along. I don’t mind banter about rugby, everyone knows the All Blacks are the world’s best anyway.
Joel, the more I dig into the whole theft thing, the more I find out. It sounds like it’s not really an issue on the South Island, which is likely why you didn’t have a problem or hear much about it. It’s brutal on the North Island though. I love the pies! So good. Did you ever try the sausage rolls? They make you feel like your heart is going to stop mid-way through, not exactly healthy, but definitely delicious. Don’t worry, I’m not letting my studies get too far in the way. After all, I gotta feed my addiction. 😉
I’ll definitely keep the reports coming. I’ve lived vicariously through so many of the reports on this board, the least I can do is repay the favor. I have at least 2 more editions from this trip, and after that I guess I’ll just have to plan another trip.
I definitely don’t have the whole NZ fishing thing perfected yet, and there are a ton of people that know infinitely more than I do (a.k.a. Simon, Clark, Morsie, etc.), but I’m happy to answer any questions that people might have. From what I’ve found, it’s definitely as advertised…spooky fish, long leaders, lots of sight fishing, lots of walking, gin clear water, big fish, and some of the most rewarding fishing you will ever experience. It’s not for everyone, and if you can’t approach a day knowing that there is the definite possibility of getting blanked, then it might not be for you. That being said, I absolutely love it down here!
Cheers,
TimSorry I’ve been so slow in catching up… I have moved properties and with dogs, music, fishing and setting up a tackle store I haven’;t checked in here to get your PM’s… so sorry. Get in touch, we have heaps of room, and heaps of fishing. Let’s catch up!!!
Looks like you had a ball down on the _____
You can judge a man by the size of things which annoy him.
I don’t mind banter about rugby, everyone knows the All Blacks are the world’s best anyway.
Yep, they have the exact same number of Rugby World Cups as the Americans.
1.
😎
(Australia has 2 BTW ;))
Will drop you a PM when we have some dates in mind..
www.dsaphoto.com
A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.
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