10 Trout, 10 Kahawai and a Stargazer.. South Westland!
I could not resist the urge to go back to the coast for another mission. After an epic, full on Saturday catching 3 species I set up camp on a wild South Westland beach. Just myself, the sound of crashing waves, a roaring fire and a few beers under the stars. No better way to spend an evening! A whitebaiter woke me in the morning. He opened the truck to see if I was inside because he was worried by the sight of my vacant camp chair and smouldering fire. “I though you might have been washed out to sea” he said! We chatted for a bit, me still stretched in the back of my truck, and him leaning in the door. The whitebait season had opened an hour before at 6am. Shortly after our chat I got up and took on the day. Waking up exactly where you want to fish is always sort of magical for a fisherman.
The tide was going out in the morning and fished pretty well but I was banking on the flowing tide to produce the best results like it did the day before. I had planned on taking a sea-trout and a kahawai home but it was not to be! Nothing happened after the tide turned so I went home empty handed! I’m curious to see what these sea / estuarine trout are like to eat. The 2 days were completely different. I would have put money on the Kahawai coming back on the flowing tide but they didn’t. There are no guarantees in fly-fishing.
The fishing and whole wild experience was great as always! It fired at different times each day making it hard to nail down. Watching the place come alive with Kahawai was pretty cool. They were the biggest I’ve encountered. 10 trout, 10 kahawai and a stargazer (what a cool little fish he was!) in total. All the kahawai bar one were 5lb plus. My best brown was about 5lbs too. I didn’t get many trout pics because I caught most of them in the surf. No place to set up the camera and timer and I didn’t want to take the fish too far from the water.
I still don’t know what I’m going to do tomorrow!
Ronan..
- Morning cloud hanging over the rainforest.
- Whitebait patterns.. Mostly be Mike Wilkinson. More on Mikes flies in the near future.
- The whitebait season opened on the Sunday so there were lots of people about..
- 3 species ate this!
- An Estuary Stargazer! Another first for my species count..
- Fresh meets salt..
- The hotspot was in the surf just away from the main flow into the sea..
- The birds let me know the Kahawai were on the way!
- Magnificent, strong fish.. The place came alive with them late in the flowing tide.
- These fish tested my tackle! In fact, the destroyed the drag in my Sonik! I have another Lamson on the way…
- Into another Kahawai.. At the top o the tide I could not get away from them. No chance of catching a trout!
- South Westland..
- Man, I love this place..
- I’d be lost without John’s old truck..
- Sunset..
- One of many west coast lagoons.
- A modest west coast campfire!
- I can’t believe this has not been a regular haunt of mine in the last couple of years.. It will be from now on!
- Sometimes crushing the barb creates a weak point through metal fatigue.. This was the cause a lost fish.
- Lunch!
- The only trout I got a photo of! All the rest I caught in the surf.. too difficult to use the 10 second timer.
- A whitebaiter with his net..
- Room for everyone! Most of them take a breake from the net every so often and take a few casts with the spinning rod.
- Heading home…
Howya here’s an article that was in the Irish Times today….
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/if-you-can-t-win-the-scientific-argument-suppress-it-1.1529543
Thanks Breandan.. So the farm has not yet got the green light?? I’m out of the loop over here. Inagh and Ballynahinch have had an amazing season, as I’m sure have many other west of Ireland fisheries. I pray this farm does not happen. There is so much to gain from having healthy wild fish populations.