Carl's Award winning Once in a Blue Moon DVD - best I've seen.
And thats where Peter Hayes, Matt Howell, Tony Loader and myself come into the picture. We all went over to test the guys.
We were warmly welcomed by the Canterbury Fly Fishing Club through their spokesman Ricky Ehau. Ricky gave us all an unbelievably warm traditional Maori welcoming. Its not often that I see Peter Hayes lost for words (who was nominated by us to respond to Ricky's welcoming) and I dont honestly think he was lost for words, merely searching for the right ones to do justice to Ricky's welcome. It was a moving experience.
As part of the ceremony Ricky gave us these Toanga (Maori for 'treasures'). The Toanga had been commissioned for our visit specially by famous local Maori Pounamu (Greenstone) carvers. They had been asked to carve Hei Matau or Fish Hooks for each of us. What a special and truly generous and treasured gift!! Thanks so much Carl, Ricky and the Canterbury Fly Fishing club!
Haysie has transcribed the welcoming words that go with the Toangas. You can read them here.
(Photo courtesy of Haysie)
12 o'clock position - Matt's
3 o'Clock - Mine
6 o'clock - Carl's
9 o'clock - Peter's
They each came with a lovely certificate. Below is a photo of it:
Unfortunately we didn't get a photo of Tony's as he had to leave early due to a health issue back home. We were sorry to see Tony go.
The conditions for the testing event on the Saturday 13 October were terrible. Cold, rainy and plenty of snow around on the hills. We had to do a lot of the test in sheds to keep out of the weather.
Carl and Chris Dore had prepared the guys very well. There were a total of 8 passes, a couple of them were exceptional passes too! You know who you are guys :-)
Haysie gave a talk (well it was actually more like infotainment - plenty of information and entertainment!!) to the Canterbury Fly Fishing club on Monday night for a few hours at an indoor basketball court, that I think they all liked. At one point Matt was asked up in front of everyone to do some casting for distance and as part of that he dropped the fly into the basketball hoop on his delivery shot! Great cast from a great caster :-).
Given the formalities were now over we headed to Fairlie (where we were going to base ourselves ) for a few days fishing.
We had some great fun even though it was early season.
Gearing up to go smash em :-)
Haysie putting the bend into one of Carl's new prototype Fibreglass Rods.
You can read all about them on Carl's Swift Fly Fishing website. They are awesome rods (even for prototypes!)
The result
I got to fish with Mr Carl (left) and Matt The Dog Howell.
Lovely warm weather as we walked to the river :-)
Carl and I found a little feeder creek that we ventured up. There were a couple of good fish in there but they proved tough to catch given the overgrown creek. Carl did a great job to get the fly in front of the fish. He did managed to get the fish to take the fly but on the set the hook came out... but thats fishing isnt it?!
There it is
Matt with a nice fish.
Ian Cole and Steve Carey came and stayed with us for a few days. Steve and Ian are both professional guides. Not only are they sensational guys and good fun to hang around when it comes to spotting fish well hold on to your hat!! Bloody oath I reckon they could spot fish at 1000 yards in a snow storm at night with one eye shut while riding upside down on a three legged horse. No joke!
Different day today weather wise!
Putting the secret 'never fail' fly on.
Go time - here you can see how the loop is on the way and I have started to reach the rod to the left....
Had another go at this fish from a different position - which was designed to try and reduce drag. Need I mention that the the aforementioned 'secret never fail' fly has been rename 'bucket of s***' fly.
Hmmmm....
I am not sure what Haysie is thinking here, but I reckon its something to do with whats for dinner... I could be wrong on that but I dont know.
Yours truly with Ian Cole in the background.
40+ years of experience on both sides of the bank looking for fish!
I walked through the gorge and got picked up at the other end. While I was doing that Haysie was juicing a few up with Carl's Epic fibreglass rods.
Art - Haysie's cast.
Super guide Ian with a fish.
In the clip below Haysie and I are testing out the Epic fly rods. We were deliberately seeing how much pressure we could exert on the fish. The rods handled it well, so too did the fish actually as they were all landed and released quick
Haysie, Carl, yours truly and Matt.
I was sad to say goodbye to Carl, Steve and Ian as we had had some great fun together. I was also sad to say goodbye to Haysie and Matt, the three of us seem to have a lot of fun each time we travel. Just on that, Howell is a dark horse when it comes to composing on the spot rhymes, ask him to do some for you. He created a few as we were driving back to Christchurch that had tears coming out of my eyes they were so funny.
We are lucky like that - 3 mates with a shared passion who each enjoy each other's company, collectively and individually.
It doesn't get much better.