skunk-no-mo

we have been catching some fish.

after a few days of too much work and too much play in queenstown, we hit the bush again. in complete honesty, it had been since before Christmas that i caught my last fish. that's a long time. the details of the skunk/drought could be shared but in regards to landing fish, it simply didn't happen.

i was fishing in the late afternoon by myself when i hooked a large fish on one of Stu's blowflies. it took me far downstream, through rapids, across the river, taking line, jumping, fighting until i finally had the fish in my sights. i went to net the fish, the end of my skunk in sight, when the fish made one last move out of the net. i fell to my knees as i lunged to net the fish and in doing so, wrapped my leader around my rod. a few short seconds later the fish was free.

a day later i hooked another large fish, on the same fly pattern. the story was exactly the same and the would scoot out of the net in Lucas' hands, gone for good. finally, later that day i landed a fish. this fish took the 5th fly i put in front of it, after taking a good look at all four before it. it felt good to get that fish in my hands and watch it swim away. that fish above is dedicated to Captain Lane.
the below fish also took a blowfly. a real beauty. this fish is dedicated to the Hughes in Takaka. these blowflies are incredible. they land in the water with a nice splat and if you can get one of your first 3 casts to land in line with the fish, they will more than likely take it. some of the fish just slowly slowly munch the fly down while others inhale it in a toilet bowl flush in the river. both are really fun to watch.
i see you, fish:
Trippin' for Trout van (left) and the Silver Fox.
highest public road in New Zealand:
this fish is not eating:
crazy, crazy:
this fish also ate a blowfly, then ate Lucas:
tripple decker, pb, j, h. dynamite:
we met up with Johannes and his buddy Markus and had a great time around the fire, sharing stories about our fishing adventures. we had a fairly decent campsite:
i drew a picture of that valley but it didn't look exactly the same.

CAPTION CONTEST!!! in the comments, please come up with a comment for Lucas in the below picture:stateside return approaches. west first, then east. see y'all soon!