Trout Tramps Trip Number 5
29 December 2008
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Well, Clacko and I had made our minds up to go fly fishing in New Zealand again. So plans were made, remade, discussed, rediscussed, changed again, discussed, rediscussed, contingencies planned, replanned and double checked, all over coffees on a daily basis for 3 months before we actually left. Nothing new there. If I put the same effort into my work I reckon I would be a millionaire by now. I hear you though... would I be happy... ?! Hmmm... fly fishing around the world, going to Alaska, Patagonia... I reckon I could make do. Ok, I digress... back to the topic at hand... me, Clacko, 4 fly rods and 2.35million sheep.
We caught Emirates EK 412 from Sydney to Christchurch, cost $537 return. Baggage weighed 21.3kg, Clacko was 19.3kg. Plane left on time. We hired a car through Renny Rentals (in fact it was the same car I had had with Darren back in 2006. It cost $844 for 19 days. Also got myself a New Zealand sim card. My number is 0211 693 446 ( I have to write it here, so I know where I can look for it if I forget it).
We drove out and said hello to my cousin, then the next stop was at the New World Supermarket... a quick shop later, ie $487 .... we were on the road. We drove through to Moana. Stayed at the Lake Brunner Country Campervan Park, cost $58 for a room with 2 bunks for Clacko and I. I took the risk of sharing a room with Clacko given his snoring, but, and I can't believe I am saying this, it wasn’t too bad!
We saw some fish on the Crooked River on the way over, but we didn’t really have time for a fish.
30 December 2008
Today we fished the Crooked River. We fished from the top bridge up, from 8 am till about 1pm. We saw about 8 good fish but they were all spooky. One average cast and they would take off. I cast to 4 fish and spooked them all! So much for being a FFF Certified Master Casting Instructor – better hand back the certificate based on today’s performance! Actually to be honest some of the casts were pretty good... ok, ok, to be even more honest, (cause honesty is all about degrees and not absolutes isnt it?) who was I kidding, if they were good casts I would have caught the fish.
| Deciding that the fish were just too touchy (and I couldnt cast) we walked back to the car. At one point on the walk back I was standing on the edge of a rock and Clacko was above me. Anyway his footing gave way and he slid down the hill and banged straight into me! I was lucky that my right leg was solidly anchored as it was the only thing that stopped me taking an impromptu swim! Believe it or not we actually had a laugh about that.... thinking back I don't know why I didn’t swear at the old useless bastard.... ok, that feels better. Now I can move on. |
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Me levitating myself above the Crooked River
We got back to the car and drove downstream to the second bridge and then decided to walk down from there and fish up. We started about 1.30pm and finished at 7pm. Clacko had a nice 4 ½ lber come up to his bionic bug (photo below). I only managed one that was just under 3lbs on a nymph. I lost another one dead drifting a woolly bugger. At least we were both on the score board.
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We stayed again at the Lake Brunner Caravan Park ($58 a night for a room for two.) For some reason I was very sick that night. Had to hobble up the road and vomit under a tree two times over the period of an hour, after we had gotten back to camp. I felt really weak and ill, with stomach cramps and nausea. I went to bed at 9.30pm feeling pretty sick. About 12.30am Clacko inadvertently woke me when he came to bed, I was amazed and relieved to find that I was back to feeling 100%! I can't tell you the relief I felt. So we had a chat, and I ate an apple (which was dinner) and had a lot of water and then I went to back to sleep.
31 December 2008
Late start today given last evenings antics. We decided that an easy day would be in order so we went and fished the Little Grey river, not getting there until 11am. We fished until 5.20pm.
Today was an interesting day for me – as I had decided to try some new techniques – ie using a big wet fly with a sink tip line in some of the deeper holes. So we came to a good looking hole, and I put on my sink tip spool and a big woolly bugger. Anyway the water was eddying in a position that I couldn’t really get a good drift to from where I was on the true left bank of the river – so that was part of the decision to try the big wet. So anyway I put on the big fly, threw it straight into the eddying water and stripped it, using the Kelly Galloup Jerk Strip retrieve, straight back out into the current (fly was actually facing downstream as I had let the current form a belly in the line.) Anyway second cast into the eddy and wham a 4 ½ lbs fish nails the fly!
Hmmm... there might be something to this technique - I reckon it might warrant a closer inspection
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Hooked on a big streamer after fishing an eddy.
So I decide to persist a bit with this technique, chucking it across the river and stripping the fly back, noting that as the current had formed a belly in the line the fly was actually running headfirst down stream when I strip. Just like Mr Galloup says. Anyway I caught another good fish of just over 4lbs that day using this technique and had 2 others chase the fly. Now given that we had fished this river before and the biggest fish we had caught was only about 3lbs, I thought this technique was pretty damn good! Ok, ok, truth be known I was a little excited by it, and it's applicability (more on that later).
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First fish 4.5lbs
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Clacko didn’t catch any today, I think he was too overawed at my casting and fish catching brilliance using a fly that was close to 5 inches long! Either that or he was just tired. But he did put his Bionic Bug to good use to get a splinter out!
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It bucketed down with torrential rain during the drive from the river to Reefton. We stayed the night at the Old Nurse’s home in Reefton (for $35 a night each, we got rooms 4 and 5).
We didn’t stay up for the New Year, I was actually a little tired from being the chief conductor in the play “Vomitorium” the night before.
1 January 2009
Happy New Year. I wonder what this year will bring.
We decided, due to the rain overnight, to walk into Lake Daniells. It was drizzling on the way in. We took a bit of gear with us as we were going to stay the night at the hut there. Still, in saying that, we got it all into and strapped onto our fishing back packs.
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The calm before the storm... (see the 'after' photo below)
Took an hour 45 to walk in – bit slower than usual given our loads.
No someone didnt steal the feather duster... its my secret weapon.... Not that it worked too well at all mind you...!
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We found some empty bunks in the hut and then went for a fish. Clacko caught two with a woolly bugger. We were then stopped having a chat when he saw one cruising the edges, well one quick cast later he had hooked the fish! Impressive work Clacko. It came to the net and was a beautiful 5lbs rainbow! Great fish and great fishing.
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I didn’t catch any, looking back I reckon I was fishing too deep (as I was using a sink tip line) and a big wet, as Clacko had all his luck fishing closer to the surface. Lesson there was that I should have adjusted my technique faster and maybe, just maybe, I would have caught a couple.
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So end of day one Clacko had a 3 fish lead, a 5lbs, 3 ½ lbs and a 1 ½ lbs fish.
Dinner was pre cooked gluten free sausages and baked beans, it was actually pretty nice meal. I ate mine out of a saucepan lid that was in the hut, as we didn’t have any plates. Clacko ate his out of the saucepan we had used to heat it up. There ended up being two families, 8 people, in the room I was in (Clacko had decided to sleep in the kitchen on mattress he pulled off one of the bunks.) Surprisingly I slept pretty good - you wouldnt think it from looking at this photo!
Hmm... whats worse... these guys or Clacko's snoring...? Actually, there's no contest.. thats like saying whats worse a splinter in your thumb or a chainsaw cutting your leg off while you are watching... (yep Clacko is the chainsaw).
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2 January 2009
Got up at 6.48 am and went fishing. Stepped over old mate in the kitchen as he was sound asleep – thought he needed the sleep so I didn’t want to wake up (plus it may, or may not, have occurred to me that I was 3 fish down and any sort of fishing advantage would be good. Now... I wonder how long it will take him to find his reel....when he wakes up)
I ended up catching a nice 4 ½ lbs fish on a woolly bugger and a floating line. Then the wind came up big time and Clacko and I decided to walk out at about 11am.
We had lunch at the eatery at Springs Junction. I had a bucket of chips, raspberry fanta and an ice cream. Old mate decided he wanted to see what he could get for $350 Australian dollars... he had an orange juice, a powerade, 2 sandwiches, a coffee, a slice of cake and some ice cream. Actually that wasn’t the biggest feed I have seen him have but still it wasn’t bad. Just as an aside someone you may have heard referred to in these diaries, put on 10kgs on this trip. Least Clacko does know how to do some things properly!
After lunch we drove down Palmers Road to check out May Creek that flows into the Upper Grey. We had to walk down the Blue Grey and then up stream to get to it. It was a small little tributary with no fish in it that we could see anyway. So it was a bit of a pointless exercise, but at least we checked it out, as otherwise we would always be looking at it on a map and wondering.
Dinner was at a pub in Reefton, the first one on the right as you drive in from Springs Junction. The reason I am telling you is that the steak I had, and I will try and be diplomatic about this.. but it was abso fucking lutely horrendous... and who said I couldnt be diplomatic? Shows how much they know. My god it was bad. Sort of surprising really as the place looked pretty clean and modern.
3 January 2009
We left Reefton at 7.48am and were in Greymouth by 8.40am. Breakfast was at the golden arches. Then Clacko and I went and checked out a fly fishing shop and bought some flies (not too many mind you as I had a heap with me.) We then did a bit of shop at the supermarket, then petrol, where I bought us a couple of travel mugs (filled mine up) Clacko didn’t want another coffee after the one he had at Mcdonald’s – he has no ticker sometimes that bloke.
We got to Hari Hari by 12pm. We booked in a the Flaxbush Motel (formerly the Tomasi Motel) apparently the sign said under new management, but it was the same bloke there. He wanted $55 a night each for a room but I got him down to $45 each as long as we stayed 3 nights. Not bad Simon! We decided to go and fish the La Fontaine. We accessed the river from the International Airport (ie the dirt landing strip). The river looked like it was flowing a little high, so I broke with tradition and thought I would try something a bit different on this spring creek... yep... a sink tip line and a 4 inch wet! 'My' new found technique (courtesy of Mr Galloup's video!) Well bugger me if I hadn’t caught 2 within 50m of the car, before Clacko had even rigged up!
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Smoko on the La Fontaine...
It ended up being a big day for me. Caught 6, largest 4 ½ lbs the smallest 1 ½ lbs. DC didn’t have any luck. We stopped fishing at 8.07 pm, sunset was at 9.14pm but we were a bit knackered from fishing hard. We then had a 25 minute walk on the road back to the car... it was a quiet 2.5km walk back in the cool of the evening. A beautiful place... I hope Clacko has more luck tomorrow.
4 January 2009
Waitangitaona River today. We were on the water by 9.30pm and finished fishing at 7pm. It was a frustrating day. We spooked heaps by walking along the banks where the fish could see us move, but given that the light was bad (ie it was overcast and cloudy) it was hard for us to see them. So that became a little frustrating as the day progressed (looks like I have taken diplomacy to a new extreme with that statement).
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I caught mine below the jet boat launch, Clacko caught two above the jet boat launch ( as we did that section of river first then drove down stream). We were both pretty tired by the end of a long frustrating day. Tomorrow it's Clacko’s birthday and I am not sure where we will fish.
5 January 2009
Fished the La Fontaine again today. Clacko decided to take the day off, well the morning at least - which was perfectly fine since it was his birthday... and you can do what you like on your birthday! He dropped me at the bridge and I took off fishing. He caught up with me about 1pm. I only caught 2 today both on a bead head nymph, one 4lbs one 3lbs. I remember today for the long walk back to the car... took close to an hour to get back. We covered some territory.
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Bought Clacko dinner in the pub for his birthday. It wasn’t as good a day as last year – where he caught 8. To be honest I felt a little disappointed that I couldnt get a better result for Clacko - but I did try. As aside dinner was only slightly better than the one in Reefton. I mean how hard can it be to do a steak and vegetables. You know it must be bad when I am sitting there while I am eating my dinner thinking I would have preferred luke warm pre-cooked gluten free sausages and beans than that crap. Oooops... diplomacy skills need a brush up.
6 January 2009
We drove to the Jacobs river today. It was threatening to rain, and it sure did halfway through the day. We had asked permission from Anthony Sullivan and then walked up stream. I got one of 4 ½ lbs on a big wet - once again using the jerk strip retrieve. Clacko had a couple of fish rise to his dry, but the one he caught, a nice brown of 2½ lbs he caught on the nymph he had trailing under the dry.
Finished fishing at 4pm as the river was getting high and the rain was really coming down. We reckon that the river easily rose a foot and a half in about 2 hours.
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The Jacobs in the rain.
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We then drove to Queenstown where we met up with Chase Jablonski (a fellow FFF Certified Master Casting Instructor – who I had met in Montana last year). We also met Andy there as well. It was funny seeing Andy as we had seen him leaving Lake Daniells when we got there a week before and had had a little chat to him before he walked out. We had Thai for dinner and a couple of drinks. We stayed in nice motel overlooking the lake. In bed by 12am.
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View from the Motel room
7 January 2009
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A sneaky little fish... before we got to Stu's shop!
In the morning we drove to Stu Tripney’s shopin Athol and met Chase there ( Stu is another FFF MCI – there are only 2 in New Zealand (as at writing this) Stu and Carl McNeil). I may have stopped for a sneaky fish before getting there.
We looked around, said hi to Stu then we decided to go and have a fish. Do you like how I condensed 3 hours into one short sentence? It was a good day, we caught some willow grubbers on the dry – our first bit of consistent dry fly action.
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Chase with a nice one caught under the willows.
Clacko decided he wanted another rest day so he just took it easy back at the Mossburn camp ground where we had decided to stay. I also managed one on a streamer in the pool just above the bridge, while Chase was rigging up. A good start. We started fishing at 1pm and finished at 6.45pm. Old mate had good sleep in that time.
8 January 2009
Fished the Mataura Rv today from the bridge off Ardalussa road. There were plenty of fish feeding on willow grubs. Used a caddis nymph imitation greased up with floatant and caught 3 good ones in a back eddy, ended up with 4 for the day ranging from 4 ½ lbs to 3 lbs. Chase did well too catching a few too (can't remember how many). It was great to see some fish rising and being able to chuck a fly to them.
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Clacko lost the tip of his rod on the way out and we spent 35mins looking for it (dont ask me how... and as an aside the diplomacy skills took a major battering in those 35 minutes). Then the farmer’s wife and kids came down and asked what we were doing and then started looking with us. The son found it in about 5 minutes! Cheeky young bastard. But Clacko was very happy. Chase had in the mean time walked back to get the car for us, which was good of him as it was a fair way, but when each stride is like 4m long you can cover some territory. (As an aside.. geez I am getting a few 'asides' in here, well anyway, back to what I was saying, we took to calling Chase 'Skylab' (the only satellite from the Southern Hemisphere we knew of) as he is sooo tall. Actually that is a slight understatement, as to say Chase is tall is like saying the Great Wall of China is a great rabbit fence. We were back at camp by 7.45pm.
9 January 2009
We left camp early this morning (6.15am) and drove to the Waikaia below the township bearing the same name. Skylab, Clacko and I all caught fish (2 apiece for Clacko and I) . I got mine on a willow grub imitation.
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Cup of tea before the morning's activities commence.
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Chase using the old fashioned way of brewing a cuppa.
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Clacko with a nice fish he caught blind fishing a run!
Clacko called it quits at 3.30pm and then came and picked us up at 6.30pm.
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Willow grub
A long, but good day.
10 January 2009
There had been lots of rain in Mossburn over night so Chase, Clacko and I decided to drive west to Te Anau. Proved to be a mistake. Should have gone east as the rivers around Te Anau were flowing high. Anyway we booked into a caravan park the other side of town. It's cost $32 per person for a room (bit like a room you got in the boarding house, bed and a desk – but ample).
After booking in, Chase and I took off in his car looking for fishable water, as DC wanted the day off. We eventually found some at Lake Manowai Canal. Not very scenic but we thought what the hell. I managed 1 on a 6 inch streamer. We were back in Te Anau by 7pm.
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11 January 2009
We drove back to Mossburn in the morning. We wanted to fish the Eglinton Rv, but as it was still flowing high we decided to give it a miss. Booked back into the Mossburn Campground. We went and fished the Waikaia . It was a fantastic day weather wise... but no one caught a fish!
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NO fish caught... therefore here is some photographic art.
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You know things are tough when you have photos of the boys having lunch!
We had used Chase’s car as a shuttle and so when we got out and were talking to it we saw some other anglers in the water in front of us. That could have explained why the last couple of hours were not so productive.
DC then went home while Chase and I went to the Mataura. Hooked 2 in a back water eddy but lost them both. We were back in Mossburn by 8.45pm.. bit knackered.
12 January 2009
Today we decided to fish the Aparima River, accessing it from Dunrobbin Valley road. Started at 11am and finished at 7pm. I managed one on a nymph after sight fishing it in some faster water. It had refused the dry twice.
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Clacko and I decided to walk along a high cliff. We saw a fish about 50m below us feeding hard. So we yelled and hollered to Chase and he came up the river to where we indicated the fish was. He saw it and first cast he had a nice fish! Great stuff and pretty to watch. Interestingly it had a mouth full of beetles.
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Clacko didn’t have any luck today, and I must admit that Lady Luck wasn’t really smiling on me as I lost 3 others! Biaaaaaaaaaaaatch! The weather was tops and so it was a great day. Dinner was sausages, salad, beans and fried onion. Yumo!
13 January 2009
Fished the Mataura from the Riversdale Access. Clacko took the morning off and met up with us about 3pm. It was another beautiful day, we started at 11am and finished at 7pm. Clacko didn’t manage any for the day, I suppose though that its a bit ******g hard to catch fish if you dont wet a line (better go and do an advance course in diplomacy I think), I caught 5 – one really nice 6lbs fish to boot!
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Thats how you put a bend in a rod!
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Chase caught a few as well. I can't remember the exact number and I am sure he can't either as he didn’t write it down. But I know he was catching them!
14 January 2009
We went to Gore for some cash and a small shop (ie a quick feed while we were there.)
Fished the Mataura from the Mandeville Bridge access – starting at 10am. Clacko saw a pond right under the bridge and started fishing there. We didn’t see him until about 2pm. Chase and I had headed downstream from the bridge. Another beautiful day. I caught 4 for the day (2 on a size 14 purple haze, and 2 on a size 14 emerger), I don't think Clacko did that great... he hooked a few in the pond he was fishing but was frustrated because he broke them all off. However he did have lots a weed to deal with and so he would have been going really well if he managed to land any. Chase caught some as well.
During the day I got stuck in some mud trying to land a fish. Chase then went and got a thick branch which he had to then hold out to me, and I used it to pull myself out. Without his assistance I would have been in some trouble. I wouldn’t have drowned or anything but I would have had to stay there until someone came past and helped me out. There is a lesson there about mud in New Zealand.
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Look at the mud under foot.
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You wouldn’t know it ... but in this photo I am actually stuck in mud.... but thats the sign of a true professional... plus there wasn't much I could do until Chase went and got a stick anyway.
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15 January 2009
We left Mossburn at 8.30am. Said our goodbyes to Chase. Will see him in America at the FFF Conclave in Loveland Colorado in the last week of July.
Spent an hour looking around Stu’s shop and talking to him. We were in Christchurch by 5pm – which was very good going! Clacko may have been speeding but I could not confirm nor deny that.
As we arrived in Christchurch we were stopped at some lights waiting for them to change when some window washing bloke comes up and offers to do the windscreen. We both waved him off but he started doing it anyway. Well, sure enough, half way through his window cleaning effort the lights change, so being a good bloke what does Clacko do... yep.. you guessed...he guns the motor. The bloke got his shirt caught in the side mirror as we take off and he gets spun around into the car.... and all the while the gas pedal never left the floor! And so ended trophy trout trip number 5 to New Zealand - and no mum, he wasnt hurt - it takes a lot to hurt Clacko.
(Still no bloody trophies though.... I might have to think about changing the name of 'Trophy Trout Trips'...... maybe... I will give it a few more trips before I make a rash decision).