Another River Visit 27/6/13
After last week’s superb day on the river with Ben I was keen to get out again fairly soon. I checked the weather on Tuesday, Wednesday was looking best with reasonably light winds, blowing upstream and relatively stable temperatures. I tied a few flies, decided that I was going fishing and even with the forward planning of a whole day by the time I’d managed to convince my brother to come fishing it was 2030 Wednesday when we arrived at the water! The first mission was unfinished business with a trout I lost on the last outing, I sat down and waited beside his bush and then...
Read MoreSuperb Day On The River 20/6/13
Last week I met up with Ben for a day on one of my local rivers. He was back home in Scotland visiting friends and family for a short time and we promised we’d get some fishing in together. If you can’t remember who Ben is, check out this post from Tasmania. We were fortunate enough to have a good forecast for the day we’d chosen, intermittent white cloud and sunshine, warm temperatures and a moderate wind heading predominantly downstream. There’s always a little apprehension in the air when you promise to take a mate fishing as you want to show off your waterways to...
Read MoreExmouth 2013: Final 3 Weeks
My final 3 weeks in Exmouth didn’t quite follow the weather pattern of the preceding weeks. The first large swell of the year coincided with spring tides and high winds to colour up the water to an extent the gulf was blown out for weeks. Fortunately before that happened I managed to get a couple of great fishing days in with Craig. The first day was one of pristine sunshine as I’d come to expect in Exmouth. We set off mid morning with a plan to chase blue bastards and permit in the bottom of the gulf. Bastards get their name by the fact they have a very unpredictable feeding...
Read MoreExmouth 2013: Week 3 and 4
Fishing somewhere new and learning from the bottom up with very little help is a very interesting and rewarding experience but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t come with its low moments. I was going through a spell where motivation was lacking as I was getting a bit disillusioned fishing hard every day and having very little to show for it other than the same fish over and over again in roughly the same sizes. You try to learn as much as possible, I write down all my experiences, weather observations, fish observations, absolutely anything that might help me piece together the...
Read MoreNZ 2013: Day 31 – 37 Backcountry Mayhem
The backcountry is an amazing place, perhaps made even more amazing by the fact I have no idea what the backcountry actually is. What is the definition of backcountry? Should one seek clarification from the dictionary or should one have a think about the concept and develop their own definition? Since I don’t have a dictionary handy I’ll have to settle with what comes to my mind when I think of the word backcountry. My ideal involves no other anglers, a hike in and out, big hungry trout and lots of excitement. We’ve fished a few different waterways over the last week,...
Read MoreNZ 2013: Day 6 – 16 Fiordland Fish Raging Part 2
I came out from the previous river and rested for a day as a rain storm passed through. In my mind I was completely undecided on where to fish next. On the one hand I had a river that I had fished before and knew it was good fishing and on the other I had new options to explore. The familiar choice won and what I witnessed was one of the best fishing trips I’ve ever had out here. There was a 4 or 5 day weather window where winds were sensible and blue stuff overhead was forecast. For all the remote Fiordland rivers it is compulsory to get your gear cleaned at DOC and pick up a clean...
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