Ronan's Report

Saturday was a disaster. The weather closed in, It was cold and there were no fish where I decided to fish. That’s the price I pay for fishing water I know nothing about. Sometimes taking a gamble  pays off  of course, that’s the nature of it! One of the beauties of NZ fishing is the sheer amount of water available. Seek and you will find. I got home Saturday night and tied a few flies. I could not decide where to fish the next day.

Sunday morning. Still not sure where to go. A couple of ideas but surely they’ll be high a coloured… but maybe not. Perfect blue sky day I must get it right, have to make the most of this. Right, plan A. decision made and I’m off… I’m pretty stubborn. I’m going there now regardless. Small streams are coloured. Ronan you idiot, this is a bad idea.. I keep going, on dirt roads now and getting higher.  Trickles of water are coloured, rivers swollen.. I keep going. 80 minutes driving now. Snow on the road.. getting thicker on the ground but the day is perfect. If I get this right I’ll surely have it to myself, everyone will expect it to be coloured. I’m feeling pissed off now because I know its going to be dirty and I’m miles from anywhere else worth fishing. About to turn the corner and see the river…….. Fuck me, It’s clear.

My plan, if by some miracle the river was clear enough to fish, was to go upstream but on arrival I got a strong urge to go downstream into uncharted territory. I learned before to listen if god speaks so once again I did. One hour walk downstream and the season begins.

I messed up the first opportunity. Rusty? Maybe a little! Then I lost a few but after a while everything fell into place and I found myself in the middle of a perfect fishing experience. No one else around, blue sky and no wind, decent numbers of feeding fish and then a hatch. Only a few fish were taking advantage of it and I got them all. They were all in the 4-5lb bracket. I soaked it all up. I took a moment every now and then just to enjoy where I was and what I was doing. This is what I love to do.

As I got back to the truck at the end of the day, snowmelt was colouring the water.

The gamble paid off.

Ronan..