NZ South Island, the trip that almost wasn't

With one hour to go at work I excitedly rang Julia to go over the last few items for tomorrow's trip. It was Wednesday afternoon and we were flying to New Zealand the next day. Jokingly I remarked on how long it took me to find my passport and how close I was to calling her to cancel the trip. At this point Julia realised that she still hasn't packed her passport. What followed was total shock and disbelief. The realisation that her passport had expired a month ago hit hard. We spent the following 12 hours agonising on what would happen tomorrow and what if we couldn't get the passport renewed before our flight. Well, we shouldn't have. Even more unbelievably the Australian Passport Office had her passport ready in only 4 hours.

The first night of our trip we spent in Christchurch. Having arrived there on a school night we were surprised by the number of drunken louts on the city streets. These scenes made Melbourne's King St on a Saturday night look like a well behaved quire boy. They say things usually look better in the morning, I wish I could say that for Christchurch. I guess you got the picture, we were not impressed by Christchurch, but thankfully from then on everything was better, much better.

The next two nights we we stayed in Franz Josef, staying at YHA. This reminded us both of our younger days, except that this was possibly the nicest hostel I've ever seen. Here, we did a full day guided glacier walk which was definitely the highlight of our trip and provided some awesome photos.

From Franz Josef we made the long drive south to Te Anau. The drive was kept interesting by some great scenery and an unexpected stop at Stu's Fly Shop. I bought a "Fish Before You Die" t-shirt here, which I refused to take off for the remainder of our trip.
Unfortunately NZ's infamous westerly winds played havoc not only with my fishing plans, but also with other activities on our trip. Our sea kayaking tour of Milford Sound was canceled due to the weather, but we still got to experience the Sound in all it's glory from a small tour cruise ship. The usually boring tour guide commentary was kept interesting with the skipper's fishing stories.

From Te Anau we drove to the final destination of our trip, Lake Tekapo. The scenery around Lake Tekapo is simply magnificent, and what made it even more special was that we could enjoy the scenery from every room of our apartment. I finally caught my first South Island trout at Tekapo, it was no monster, but a tick on the to do list nonetheless.

As is always the case the trip came to an end much earlier than we wanted it to. For both Julia and I it was the most enjoyable trip and we are already planning our next SI visit (although, might land at Wellington next time).

Fishing Update

Admittedly I have been a bit slack in maintaining my fishing records in the last couple of months. This is not due to a lack of fishing reports, but only to a bit of laziness on my behalf. Here are some events that might or might not have happened...

1. NSFFC Trip to Lake Eucumbene, Australia Day 2010

Fishing wise this was a tough trip with not many fish caught. After putting in a lot of hours on the lake I was rewarded with a couple of "football" rainbows. Thankfully river fishing was much easier. Fishing new waters on the Bidgee was awesome fun with regular takes on hopper patterns and numerous fish spotted. The highlight of the trip was seeing Dicko hook and land his PB trout, a 5 pound brown. It was a beautifully coloured fish, great work mate!


2. NSFFC Trip to Timberlake, Valentine's Day 2010???

Fishing on Valentine's day, yeah I am one lucky man. Thanks babe.

This was my first time targeting natives and a real opportunity for an encounter with the monster of the Australian freshwater fish species. Over the weekend I met many a new faces and learned as much as I could about fly fishing for natives. My efforts were rewarded with a small cod that nailed a whistler. This little fella was never going to break any records for its size, but being my first cod on a fly it brought out a huge smile on my face. Mission accomplished, new specie on a fly!


This must have been its momma , maybe next time...

Rubicon, First Fish for 2010

Past weekend saw me hit some of the waters close to home with Mark, aka Dicko, from the fishing club. Our plan was to fish Goulburn River, unfortunately it was still running dirty from the rains we received on New Year's Eve. To my surprise Eildon Pondage was no different. This left us with only one option, Lake Eildon. We found some nice looking water where we both quickly picked up a couple of redfins, but we quickly grew bored of this, we needed some trout. We decided to check in at the Goulburn Valley Fly Fishing Centre. On Antony's advice, we hit the Rubi. What a great advice it was, the river was the only fishable running water we saw in the area for the whole day. In a two hour session we both hooked into some 30 cm plus trout and landed our first Mr Speckles for the New Year. Oh yeah, my first fish on the x-mas pressie too, the Waterworks Velocity, niceee...

Lake Eildon Camping Trip

After years of neglect it was time to pull out the old family tent from under the house and put it to some good use. The first camping trip for Julia and me together seemed to be just the occasion for this. With the car loaded to the roof we set out on our mini adventure to Eildon National Park. As we did not have to be at the camp site till midday we took the longer route through Yea, via the historic Cheviot tunnel. A little detour definitely worth taking.

Lake Eildon looked picture prefect as always. It's famous "serenity" was somewhat diminished by the number of cars and people present. This was the biggest number of cars I've ever seen on a boat ramp. A camera with a wide lens was needed to truly capture this, as the cars continue on either side of the above photo.

Once put up, the tent looked surprisingly good for it's age. It's big size meant camping in style, or "glamping" (glamour camping) as Julia called it. In fact the tent did so well that I decided to scrap my plans of selling it.

Both Julia and I enjoyed this short camping excursion and have decided to do few more of these in the near future.

Alex & Covo’s New Zealand Fly Fishing Adventure

Intro

The following story reads a bit differently to my previous blog entries. Parts of it have been written on location and parts of it are currently jotted down in dot points with my intention being to expand these as I find available time. Until then I hope you enjoy the story so far...

Day 1, November 14th 2009

This is it! The trip has officially started, and as I write this on board flight DJ146 to Auckland, Andrew is planning the evening’s activities. Any serious planning is somewhat impaired by Australia’s Finest, Crown Lager. We were both a bit disappointed with our drinking efforts last night, as we didn’t succeed in finishing a slab of beer, but are doing our best to get there now, down goes number 20! Awahou stream mouth is the first destination of the trip. My arm is starting to twitch in anticipation, only 4 hours to go till that first cast.

Day 1 Evening

Arrived at the stream mouth around 9 pm, empty car park brought out smiles in both Andrew and I, as we knew we’d have the water ourselves. This allowed us to search for the current flowing into the lake and pick the likeliest looking spot. Andrew was quickly onto it, and within 20 minutes he had his first take. Unfortunately the hook didn’t hold and it was trout 1, Andrew 0. After I too lost a couple of fish I managed to net the first one for the trip... oh YESS, what a feeling! The night ended with Andrew landing two more fish in the last 10 minutes of allowed fishing time, talk about leaving it till the end.


Day 2, Sunday November 15th 2009


Slept in

Fished Ohau channel, Andrew got 2, lost 2 good ones

Fished Hamurana, Andrew got 2, Alex got 1

Fished Hamurana, Alex got 4, Andrew got 2


Day 3, Monday November 16th 2009

Slept in

Fished Waihou Stream, Andrew got 7 (6 tiddlers, 1 acceptable) Alex got 3 (2 tiddlers, 1 acceptable)

Fished Awahou, Andrew got 2, Alex zilch (no takes)

Fished Hamurana, Andrew got 2, Alex 0 (lost 2)

Day 4, Tuesday November 17th 2009

Slept through 6 alarms

Fished Ohau channel, Alex got 3 (lost 3)

Fished Hamurana, Alex got 3 (lost a fcuking big one...), Andrew got 3

Day 5, Wednesday November 18th 2009

Packed the backpack and left Rotorua around 10 am

Arrived at Mohaka River car park at 5 pm

Walked for 3.5 hours in our waders and with 20 kilos backpacks, almost killed ourselves from dehydration

River was chocolate brown on the walk in, not a sight we wanted to see

Day 6, Thursday November 19th 2009

The river clearing, still dirty but fishable

Alex got 1 (3.5 lbs brown), lost 1, Andrew lost 2

Slow day after that, no more takes or sighted fish

Dip at the hot pools at the end of the day

Day 7, Friday November 20th 2009

Main river completely cleared

Fished the Nunya, fish sighted on every pool, pool after every 300 m

Alex got 2 browns around 4lbs, 1 on Royal Wulff, lost 1 and missed 2 more, fcuking loved it too!!!!

Andrew lost 2, got broken off by a big one estimated at 6lb+

Fished the evening on the main river, Alex landed a 3.5 lbs brown



Day 8, Saturday November 21st 2009

Walked out of Mohaka at 11 am

Fished a run along the way, Alex lost a small 1lb rainbow

Had a dip at the hot pools after the 3 hour walk

Back at Rotorua at 6 pm

Fished the lake at secret spot, Andrew got his mojo back and landed 2

Day 9, Sunday November 22nd 2009

Fished Hamurana in the morning, no success in the lake, Alex stalked and spotted a chunky rainbow in the stream

Fished Rerewhakaitu with no success

Fished Hamurana, Alex got 2 (one nice one, one small of about a pound)

Day 10, Monday November 23rd 2009

Fished Rangatiki river (secret local spots)

Andrew got 4, 3 out of the first run known as Andrew’s run

Alex got 2, couldn’t find the path to Alex’s run where he lost 5 two years ago

Fished the lake in the evening

Alex got 4, all on black woolly buggers

Andrew got 3, 2 in 2 casts

TOP DAY!

Day 11, Tuesday November 24th 2009

Got the Forest permit to go to a special place

Couldn’t go to special place due to bureaucracy and general bull shit, also 50 ton trucks aiming for us

Dropped in at Aniwhenua, didn’t fish

Fished Rerewhaikatu, no good

Day 12, Wednesday November 25th 2009

Fished Whirinaki

Alex got 1, lost 1?

Andrew got 3

Fished Okareka

Fished Ruato bay, Andrew got one close in, unfortunately it wasn’t a trophy, needed 9 more pounds

Day 13, Thursday November 26th 2009

Fished Whirinaki

Andrew got 1, lost 1, then he took a dunk and killed the radio

Alex lost 2, then climbed a mountain to get out of a gorge, only to realise the track was even further up, losing those fish seemed even more painful after all that

First fish wrapped me around a log, trailing hook got stuck in the log and straightened

Possibly lost the second fish on the straightened hook

Fished Tarawerra and Okareka, no good

Day 14, Friday November 27th 2009

Fished Ohau channel, 2 1 hour sessions, no fish, Covo left the reel at the cabin and had to use the spool only, all was going good until he dropped the spool into the channel and when he finally retrieved it he was left with a fly line/backing birds nest to untangle

Fished Awahou with 7 other fisherman... bloody hate the crowds...

No fish at Awahou, moved to Hamurana, no good.

Day 15, Saturday November 28th 2009

Shopping and crap stuff

Day 16, Sunday November 29th 2009

Home....

Goulburn River Quinella, October 2009

While at this time of the year most people's minds are wondering off to the racetrack and a chance of winning the big one, my mind is still set on fishing and getting as much of it done before my November trip to New Zealand. With that mindset, I've been lucky enough to manage two trips to the Goulburn in the last fortnight. Due to the recent rain we've had, the water level has been kept low, which has resulted in perfect water temperatures for insect hatches. This in turn has resulted in some great fishing.
My first trip to the Goulburn started off with a bang. A 2 pound rainbow within the first 20 minutes was pointing to a great day. Unfortunately things slowed down from there and I landed only one more juvenile brown for the afternoon. The evening brought a hatch and with it the fish started to show themselves. However, my attempts to fool any of them proved futile, this turned out to be one of the most frustrating sessions I've had in a while. Never mind... another trip was just around the corner...
The forecast for the Eildon region was cloudy with few showers, but on arrival I was greeted with clear skies and summer like conditions. The day started off slow, but I didn't expect much action until the evening. Eventually I hooked two pan size rainbows. These fell to a pheasant tail I tied myself, first fish on one of my own flies, milestone 1 achieved. They were caught on my new Redington CPX 5 wt, rod christened and milestone 2 achieved. While I was waiting for the sun to set and hatches to intensify I tied on a bead head woolly bugger with the intention of swinging it across the current. The first cast was met with a sharp tug and a feisty fight from a 1.5 pound rainbow. The second cast caused a massive bow wave to race across the pool, followed by a swirl and a tug at my fly. Two fish in two casts, things were really looking up now. The next half an hour was pure excitement, with every third cast resulting in a take or at least a follow or a swirl. Two more trout were landed and another 5 or so were given the long distance release. All in all it was a great trip and a great way to prep for the big one, only two weeks left.

NSW Opening Weekend, October 2009

Spending the first Saturday in October on the banks of Eucumbene River has become a tradition for Andrew and me. This year was the fourth in a row, incidentally corresponding to Melbourne Storm's appearances in the NRL grand finals. For most of the 7 hour drive I was accompanied by pelting rain, and as I learned later, Andrew was too. This had me worried about the level and colour of the water, especially given that weekend prior my plans to fish the Ovens near Beechoworth were a non event once I found the river in flood. Having arrived at Kiandra around 1 am, I grabbed my torch and braved the freezing conditions to check the state of the river, waiting till the morning was not an option. Realizing I still had one bar of phone signal I phoned Andrew to break him the good news, it was high but clear. Upon his arrival we opened a bottle of 12 year old Tullamore to toast the new season and to keep us warm. We took our first casts of the new season before dawn, and it wasn't long till we were both playing beautifully conditioned rainbows onto the banks. Great fishing continued into the morning and throughout the day, pity the same could not be said about the weather. At first, fishing in the snow seemed somewhat adventurous, but the novelty quickly wore off. We decided to call it a day once our fingers had lost all the feeling in them and it was near impossible to tie on a replacement fly. By this stage we were nudging 20 fish between the two of us, quite a respectable tally.
In the afternoon we tried the lake. Fishing turned out to be a bit slower on the lake, but seeing water in bays that we haven't fished for some years proved motivation enough to persist with it. On the first night Andrew got a couple out of the lake and I got my first lake rainbow for the trip on the next night.
The river fishing continued to be brilliant. When it finally seemed to slow down, we took advice from a local fishing identity and went deep, really deep. Tying on the heaviest fly I had in my box, the Tongariro bomb, brought instant results. I had one of my best sessions on the last afternoon, catching 8 in 2 hours or so, and loosing or missing at least twice as many.
There was one negative on this trip, and that was the crowds. If you prefer your own space and are not a fan of sharing water, you probably should wait for at least a week or two after the opening weekend before fishing Eucumbene. On a number of occassions we had people drop in on us, some of them fly fishermen, but with the fishing that good we didn't really worry about them. It was definitely one of our best opening weekend trips and what a great way to prepare for a two week fishing adventure in New Zealand. Bring it on!