Ronan's Report

As the rain got heavier the steep track from the hut was looking increasingly foreboding. I was trying to politely rush Robbie along, “Oh, your waiting on me are you?” he said, relaxed, as always. “We better move or we wont get up the hill” I said. We left the hut, wipers on full, low range gear box engaged. With only a couple of minor slips we were up the hill and onto the plateau. Relieved to be over that hurdle, we continued. The farm track had turned to mud and was as slippery as all fuck. The only option was to drive out at a snails pace. This I did. To err on the side of caution I stayed on the side of the track that didn’t have a 300m drop on it. This lead me to slipping off into a ditch. We got out of the truck into the pissing rain and gathered what rocks we could find to wedge under the wheels. After about 30 miserable minutes getting soaked and straining my back lifting big rocks, we got the truck out of the ditch and continued. Sitting in the truck, soaked, back hurting, I just wanted to get out of the place. Robbie briefly had the same idea but shortly after he said “Well, were here to fish, aren’t we?”. That we were! The words hardly left his mouth when we slipped off the track again, a sudden jolt into the ditch. I turned to Robbie to see if he was okay, he looked a bit shook with a mark on his forehead and the rear view mirror had turned around. He was getting a little whiter and his head hurt a bit but he was fine. Due to the decline in the track the truck popped out of this one no worries at all. Another kilometre or 2 down the track we were at a good point to drop into the river to fish a favourite pool of ours. We gathered some motivation, put on some dry clothes and started the long and steep decent through terraced hillside, beech forest and into a gorge. On arrival, the river was clear but the rain kept coming. We knew our time was limited, the river was bound to blow out. We saw 2 trout, Robbie got one and I got the other. Then at the head of the pool I saw another. As I fished to him he became harder and harder to see as the river got dirtier. He made four pretty full on but failed attacks at my streamer and then fecked off. It was time we did too, we did not want to get stuck on the wrong side of the rapidly rising river! I took a few quick blind shots up into the head of the pool with a heavily weighted streamer, got a cracking 7lber and then we left the gorge. We climbed back up the mountainside to the truck. On the drive out we had no more slips and managed to fish for another couple of hours when we got to the safety of the non-gorge.

The Hilux has been through the mill lately. 4x4ing is certainly something one gets better at. Like anything, when you have nobody to teach you the learning curve is not very steep! I think I need full on mud tires instead of my All Terrain ones. Also dif-lock, a winch, a snorkel, some proper tow ropes and as Robbie advised, a lesson! I’ll keep trying and hopefully I wont kill the truck doing it.

Ronan..

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A large Late season fish can be absolutly stunning! This one ate a blind fished streamer in very coloured water. A great end to the day!

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Robbie reminiscing over the day gone by and contemplating the one to come!

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What a great place to kick back and tell a few stories..

Home for the night. A tram car converted into a back-country farm cabin. Luxury!

Fishing was hopeless but we did find a large stag with his two broads.

Fabulous water, unfortunately there were anglers in front of us all day. We jumped the first lot by about 4ks only to find more fresh prints later in the day.

A quick visit to the long drop before getting out. Heavy rain in the morning meant we had to move quickly or the truck may not make it up the steep hill from the hut. Same thing happened the last time Robbie and I stayed here!

The truck slipped off the road a couple of times. This took about half an hour to get out of. We had to build rocks up under the wheels. We got soaked to the skin!

Wet and cold or not, we were there to fish. We climbed down the steep incline to the river. Thankfully it had not yet coloured much.

Robbie wanted a good fish..

On a size 8 chartreuse rubber legged nymph.

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..and he got it. 8.5lbs.

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A nicely marked brownie for me!

And then this beauty on a streamer!

The sun came out as the river rose and coloured. Time to leave the gorge.

Riverdance

No wind to drift, no sun to see.. Beautiful place to be. They call it Paradise!

We managed a couple of hours on the water but conditions deteriorated.

Once the wheels lost traction there was no hope! When there was water around the peddles it was time to get help..

A good friend said of me once that I'd "never let common sense stand in the way of a good idea"

The trench from my front wheel!

We tried a local river the next day but saw no fish.

A truly spectacular river it is..

Stuck again. This I managed to get out of without any help..

The little stream leaving Lake Sylvan.

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The Homer burr!!

The beech forest on the way to Lake Sylvan.

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The Dart River valley..

Lake Sylvan. Worth a mission with a float tube!

Iza and I at the beginning of an eventful mission to Glenorchy.

The Mouse year of all mouse years!

North Canterbury is enjoying what is probably its biggest ever mouse plague. The trout have been gorging on mice all season and on some rivers double figure trout are now common. I heard of an angler catching 17 doubles this season, another 28 and the most insane figure of all, a friend of mine, who I won’t name because I think he prefers anonymity, had 42 when we last spoke over a week ago. His best was 16.5 weighed on a digital scale. He saw one weigh in at 17.75.

Jeff and I decided to have a crack before the season ends. To be honest, I was not that keen on going at first, even with the prospect of catching a very large trout. I thought there would be anglers everywhere and the fishing would be painful because of it, getting jumped on every turn. Jeff twisted my arm, I phoned a friend up there and that fired me up a bit more. We were going. We’d take it whatever way we found it, even if that meant only having a pool or two to ourselves. We’d just join in the madness!

After a 7 hour drive we arrived at 2am and made camp. There were signs that the area had been busy with campers with all the rectangular patches of flattened grass, but we could see no other tents in the darkness.

The next day we realised that there were indeed lots of anglers about. We carefully selected our water each day and managed, both by design and good fortune, to have almost uninterrupted fishing over the 4 days and nights. Luckily on day one, even though we blanked during the day, we found 2 perfect pools for night fishing. Each day consisted of a 9am start, fish all day, back to camp around 6, have a beer or 2 and a snack as darkness fell, head off into the darkness to our 2 pools for a night fish, back to camp for dinner and beers and bed around 2am. If we knew that a total lunar eclipse was forecast for one of the nights, we would have been on the water for its duration. Unfortunately we were already back at camp when it begun and neither one of us could have been motivated to venture back out again. We just enjoyed it from our camp-fire!

We got a mixed bag weather wise; pissing rain, gales, blue skies, warm sun, icy mornings. We fished hard day and night over braided river and tight gorges to make the most of our time there. The mission was to catch a double figure brown which we succeeded in. I might go back before the season is out!

It was an incredible trip. I think it’s pretty well described in the photo’s below. Thanks, Jeff, for making it happen!

The Schnide

If you’re in no way competitive “The Schnide” wont effect you at all. Personally, I’m a little competitive. I want to fish well alongside my fishing partner. I want us both to have a great day. “The Schnide” is a term used by a few fella’s who guide in Western Alaska. The term describes that rut we find ourselves in from time to time, when nothing we do seems to work. It’s compounded by the fact that our fishing buddy is catching but were not!  There are few rules to help you out of “The Schnide”.

1. Don’t loose your cool. It will pass.

Actually, that’s it, One rule!

It can be difficult not to let it get to you. For example, on Jeff and my recent trip to North Canterbury, Jeff caught 2 very big fish to my zero on the first night. Of course I was delighted that he was getting it right but I also felt a little sting that I couldn’t put it together myself. The next day first blood to Jeff once again, and another big fish. At that point I had to keep my cool. Because I was in “The Schnide” no fish were turning up on my bank, If I was to swap banks with Jeff then there would be no fish on that side either but they’d show up on the bank I left, that’s the way it is. You just have to wait it out. When a shot does present itself (and it will) you must have the confidence to fish as well as you’re able to nail the chance. If you don’t, “The Schnide” gets deeper and harder to climb out of. I’ve seen fella’s so deep in “The Schnide” that they’re beaten before they even cast. I did not want to be that person. Jeff very graciously offered me a shot at a fish on his bank. Pickings were lean that day so I came across, took the shot, got the fish and “The Schnide” was over. A good fishing buddy can  help you out of “The Schnide”, so maybe the second rule could be, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”!

Tight lines and screaming reels!

Ronan..

The wee nymph. I played the fish to the limits of my tackle. 4x tippet.

I had terrible viz all day with the position of the sun so had to use blind fishing tactics. This pigglet took a size 16 nymph from a 3' riffle. This was a quite a high point in all my years on the water!

A little more admiration before he swims away.. What a fish.

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A quick pick up before he swims away. We were 2 very happy men leaving that pool!

On the same pool opposite my fish, Jeff spotted one deep in a run. Persistance, lead-shot and ability gave him the desired result.

A little more admiration before he swims away.. What a fish.

Let the big fish mission commence! A box of mice and were off..

Home for a few days..

I tried showing a doggo fish this mouse but he did not respond!

This inch long ant like creature is a new one for me. Will you ID it please, Breandan??!

On the first night Jeff had a couple on a black streamer.. I had one hit on the mouse.

What are the odds?! My camp cooker and Jeff's stove both broke down. Luckily I had an emergency grill..

Back to camp for a beer and time for Jeff to tie a few flies..

We blanked on day one but we found a couple of ideal pools for a night fish.

Same fish, fabulous condition.

And the second.. Jeff can catch fish!

Day 2. Cold and rainy all day but we managed one each.

A great fish for Jeff..

Nice water..

"the food of god's"

Steak, spuds baked in tin foil and beans. Spectacular!

..and a 7lber for me to bring down the average size! An important fish to break the "schnide" though!

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There's the barbless mouse down there!

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The fish of the trip "The Terminator" (see his bionic eye!) ate my mouse fly in the dead of night! Yet another angling high ..

Back he goes. My second biggest brown.

Day 4. No mission would be complete without tackling a gorge. I hooked 2 in here, both much bigger than anything we landed. One swam down stream, around a rock, then swam upstream. There was nothing I could do but see the funny side of it!

One for Jeff, this time on a mouse which made our night!

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Day 3. We found some nice water away from the masses of anglers.

The glare was frustrating at times...

A well skinned box of flies by the end of the trip! What a trip it was...

Away he goes...

I had some great fishing a couple of weekends ago on a difficult river. A river that demands intimate knowledge more than most. Slowly but surely I’m attaining that knowledge and where I once blanked quite often, now I rarely do. On my last trip I picked up fish blind in riffles, I sight fished a few and hooked a couple of free risers. A fantastic, well rounded day.

More recently Jeff and I went chasing big trout about a days drive north. I already had these pics selected for the blog so before I start on the big fish mission I’ll put this little one out. Watch this space! There will be big trout in the next one… very big!

Tight lines..

Ronan..