NZ Season Ending Bender – Trip Report
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In hindsight, I’m not even sure how I managed to pull it off, but somehow I got a pass from work for 6 straight days. A few phone calls later, and I had a couple of buddies lined up to hit the water with, one of whom I hadn’t seen in ages. I threw my gear together, pointed the car south, and headed for trout country.
In the end, we had some GREAT days, and some tough ones. Disappointment and elation. Big fish landed and big fish lost. Fish on dries, fish on nymphs, and fish on streamers. The food was good, the beer was cold (usually), and the sleep was few and far between. Life is good.
Day 1 was slow. Lots of hiking, very few fish. Here’s Hamish sneaking up on what turned out to be the dumbest fish ever. We got him to eat 3 separate times within 15 minutes…actually, that probably means we’re the dumb ones…
Day 2 provided browns along the edges:
And bows in the current:
With these coming off all day, it was only a matter of time until we got one on the dry:
And the last run provided a great fish to end the day on:
By day 3 we needed something to get us going in the morning. Spaghetti on toast did the job:
This day proved to be one of the best either of us has ever experienced. Fish everywhere, and in great nick.
A good start:
And it kept getting better:
We got the above fish and this guy back-to-back. Needless to say, it did not suck:
Joel, remember this fish? Same spot, and he was hungry again. With that massive red side he stuck out like dogs balls:
We caught a tagged fish, which was very cool. According to the records, this fish has put on about 2 pounds in just over a year.
Simon’s Ugly worked a treat all week:
And a few good bows ended the day for us before a long walk back to the car on what Hamish described best as “like walking on cannonballs covered in vaseline”:
I think days 4-6 might need to go in a separate post. I’m afraid I may have overdone it with the pics already.
The friendships were great, the beer was cold, and the fish were big. It doesn’t get much better than that.
For the next few days Paul came down to join the fray and we faced some tougher fishing. Definitely can’t complain though, as we still managed to wrangle quite a few good fish.
Paul got a nice one on the streamer:
Then we found a pod of fish rising to emergers. 6 browns, all within 1 meter of the bank and only spread across about 5 meters of river. By about 1% strategy and 99% pure luck we managed to stick every one of them, with the biggest tipping the scales at about 4-5lbs. I realized that I’m a fisherman first, and a hack photographer second, because I didn’t bother getting my camera out while the action was on.
We picked up a few more nice browns on streamers before the sun decided to set:
The next day was full of the excitement of getting the opportunity to check out some new water, but ultimately proved to be a disappointment when the river was too high to cross only two pools up from the access. We managed to keep the skunk off though, if only barely:
The last day also found us on new water, and again, we managed to rustle up a couple of fish. I think this guy lives at the front of the buffet line:
Billboard on the side of the “highway”:
And that wraps it up. It’ll probably be the last trip for a couple months for me, but if so, it was a great one to go out on.
Hopefully we’ll meet again soon:
DFMD or drooling from my desk!
Great stuff as expected, the pig bow in the first post takes the cake! it looks like it could pass for a steelhead
“Its red stripe stuck out like dog balls”
Best. Line. Ever.
Yep, we’re teaching our Michigan buddy some good old Kiwi vernacular!
Great report Tim, always a pleasures fishing with you mate, roll on Season 2011-12!!!Cheers guys, glad you enjoyed the pictures.
Tim, are you logging (i.e. counting) all your fish?
Nah, just have the memories.
I just think the title of the post is cool. Great year you had down there…but that sandwich would never see the inside of my stomach.
Stoked to see the uglies doing the damage Tim!
It was cool to talk to Joel about who supplies his flies in the US and to find out he used the uglies in the US. Particularly for whitefish – not too sure if thats a compliment?! 😉
I think he was just as suprised as me to find out who Simon was! 😕Awesome! I remember those dogs balls…I mean that red stripe well! Favorite fish of the trip!
Can’t wait to use Simon’s. Uglies when it stops snowing here! God I hope that is soon!!
JT
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