SHEEP RESCUE

while on the river the other day we came across a poor little sheep who had fallen into a hole into the ground. i saved him. then he almost ruined my day. see below.

i will also add that this is the second sheep Lucas and i have saved while on this trip!

Sheep Rescue from Jesse L. Robbins on Vimeo.

Tour de Silver Fox

The long awaited and much anticipated van video tour!

Tour de Silver Fox from Jesse L. Robbins on Vimeo.

ice sweat

greetings! just a quick whatup post. we're current in Fox Glacier. that's the town. we just went to the actual glacier though. as you might guess, the water coming from that glacier is rather cold. i put my hand in it, which, Lucas tells me, is the official way to "see" a glacier. he speaks from experience.

that fish up there is a blinding bright sea-run brown all of 7 pounds that Lucas took on a cicada pattern. his biggest kiwi fish to date. absolutely gorgeous.
we've been on the west coast for a while now and the scenery is wild. the rivers are like jungle waterways and it's amazing that they hold trout, but they do, and the trout are hungry for cicadas and blowflies.
we stayed in a hut that was dated 1905. it was a great spot. the bugs were bad. we've had several restless nights of stinging sandflies and buzzing mosquitos. what it is.
another absolutely gorgeous brown, this one taken on a parachute adams. first cast, thereof. just wait 'til you see the video of that. woowee!
hooked up!

here's a nice 5 pounder that took a blowfly that i carefully put in front of its nose.
while driving up the coast this afternoon we came to a beach and noticed a couple rock and stick structures that someone had built out of driftwood and beach rocks. we slowed then realized that a half mile stretch of road next to the beach was absolutely full of these little sculptures. i can't think of an adjective at the moment to describe it. i built three.
oh, and here's this giant moving piece of ice. i can't think of what it's called.
roll on!

ROLLOUT 4.2

queenstown rollout, take who knows. family goodbyes made, last beers cheers-ed, last sausages had. destination west coast. two weeks and a day remain. here we go.

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!

Back in The Game

en route to queenstown, we picked up a couple hitchhikers. we had plans to stop at a river that had treated us well in the past so our new friends tagged along to watch. we couldn't have been in the river more than 10 minutes before Lucas spotted a rise. four casts later a solid hookup. booyah.

around the next bend there was a nother fish rising. two casts later the fish came up to eat my fly. then i pulled it out of its mouth. sigh.

scenery moderate: