This was the last trout of the NZ season for me. A colourful four pounder. It was patrolling a deep pool beneath a cutbank, mopping up spent Deleatidium spinners and moving fast. I watched him for a few minutes to figure out how to get a fly down to him from the high bank and to avoid the conflicting currents, which were bound to create drag no matter what I did. A tough situation.

I had on a very skinny and almost worn out DHE, which wasn't maybe the best choice for a spinner feeder, but finally I just gave it a shot from where I stood. He missed seeing the fly and I just picked up and put it back down as quickly as I could. The DHE was pretty sodden and sank like a nymph. It also started to drag immediately. He swam over to it and ate it like it was home cooking. You just never know with trout.