that lake, those brothers, that river, that pub, that track, those guys

i got to use that new net.

after leaving Hanmer Springs, i decided i would check out that lake i mentioned, Lake Daniells. what i read about it said it was a fairly easy hike and the scenery was worth it alone, so i went there. there were also rainbow trout in that lake. i had yet to catch a rainbow so that was on the to-do list as well. the lake:
and the hut there:
being there reminded me of Daicey Pond and that other pond some "heathens" go to in the spring-time. it was a great change of pace. unfortunately the lake never calmed down completely and i think it just wasn't warm enough for any sizeable hatch to happen, but i landed two rainbows, one about three pounds:
i had a strike from a very nice fish that broke me off immediately. i stayed there two nights and on the first, i shared the hut with a couple of brothers who were enjoying time together as one lived in Christchurch and the other in Wellington. they were very nice guys and they certainly had different eating agendas than i did. they treated me to glasses of what i took to be very fine wine, white and red, and cheeses and spreads of various types. it was a delicious treat. thanks guys!

i hiked out a couple days later and decided i would fish a small river for the rest of the day. it was a fairly good hike in to where the track me the river but soon enough i was fishing. "fishing" that afternoon meant a lot of walking. i bet i walked 4 or more miles on that river and i spotted only 3 fish. the first one i couldn't get to take. the second one was rising and on one drift he came up right next to my fly so i lifted my rod to set the hook but pulled the fly out of the water with a "bloppp!" which put the fish down. i cursed and continued upstream for quite a while before i saw another fish feeding. the first good drift i got over this one and the fish came up and took the size 14 parachute adams. a lengthy battle ensued and once i finally had this fish in the net and took a weight reading, i couldn't believe my eyes. he would go eight and a half pounds. my biggest of the trip so far. a truly amazing fish. i was speechless. Paul, i want to make sure that your fish dedication is truly to your approval, so this fish is also for you:
i decided that would be a fine end to the day so i started the treck back to the van. while doing so i came upon the pool where the second fish feeding earlier. sure enough it was feeding again. i sent that same fly down the riffle and a pair of hand-sized jaws came up and snatched the fly. i stung him good and soon he was in the net. a 7 pounder. Clarka, this one's for you bro:
it was a pretty incredible day to say the least. from there, i headed north to Reefton. i found a local pub and met a few nice guys from the west coast. we shot some pool and had a few beers while the Canterbury-Wellington rugby game played on the television. i camped that night at the car park of a four wheel drive road that would take me to a hut at the confluence of a stream and a river. i had fished the river, downstream, the day before and hadn't seen much in there, so my plans were to fish the stream.

this "track" was/is pretty shitty. most of it looked like this:
it was kind of annoying to hike along and it was a pretty sizeable walk as well, about three hours. near the end, i was getting annoyed and cursing the track. i finally got to the hut and in the pool directly next to the hut, a nice fish was feeding. i smiled. i rigged up and on the first cast, i hooked that fish. soon he was in the net, a beautiful fish of 6 pounds. as requested, here is a very pretty fish for you, Miss Vanessa:

so after that display, i decided i would fish the river first. i got one more nice fish on the river. this one is for Desneige. here's the picture of a fish swimming free for you!
after fishing the river for a while i turned around to get back to the stream and fish that. i walked for what seemed to be way too long and sure enough it was, as i had walked past the stream. i got back on that 4WD track and realized i had walked by it for a good ways. i suppose this might've been my punishment for cursing the road earlier. i wonder if things work out like that on purpose. there i was, swearing at the track and later, there i am, walking on it again. but then again, at the end of the track there was that great fish waiting. hmm...

so after i made it back to "home" for the night, i finally made it to the stream and started fishing. i spooked one fish, then got a take from a great fish. this fish took a size 14 green humpy. another great fish, in a very tight stream, this one would go 5 pounds. this one is for the great people at Hotel Vandertie, Rick and Lynn:
on my walk out this morning, i came across some Department of Conservation guys working on a new swing bridge. they were incredibly nice and we talked for close to 15 minutes about fishing, the DOC, the hut, the bridge, the economy (US and NZ), life, etc. after leaving these guys to their work, i soon passed another truck with some DOC guys in it. they stopped and asked me how the fishing was. i told them i had got 3 fish. these guys, and the two i had just left were both surprised, almost disappointed that i had released all my fish. i found this odd. granted, i do not see a lot of fish in the river, but i would venture to say that fish populations in this river are not high. wouldn't they want to promote catch and release? just seemed odd to me. but who i am to say?

in a few minutes i'm going to consult the atlas and head out again. it will be some combination of these directions: north and west.

a couple more pics from the past few days:

ROLLOUT 2.1

i'm rolling out of Hanmer Springs, after i check the weather and i will be headed for a river or a lake depending on what the MetService has to say. then i'll go to the other. headed towards Springs Junction, right... MEOW

Wind, Sand and Stars

i'm currently reading the book Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. this man was a pilot in the early 1900s, running mail routes from France across Europe into South America and Africa. the book is a great collection of air tales and tales of crashes and survival. pretty epic stuff. it has been a great book to read while on the road, as he puts into words the thoughts of being alone in vast places quite well. i suggest you look it up. and also look up one of his other books, you may have heard of The Little Prince. Saint-Exupery was last seen taking off for a flight.

so it's tuesday here and i've been out fishing the past 5 days. 4 of those days i didn't catch one fish. yesterday i hooked 4 and landed 3. that felt good. now i'm back in Hanmer Springs, catching up with email, the folks, etc. i also want to catch up with a hamburger and some Speights.

after leaving christchurch, i headed back into Molesworth Station, where the alternator went on me. apparently i am not supposed to stay in there, as i woke up the next morning to this:
ha! van temp when i woke up: 35.7 F. after clearing the van of the snow i slowly got a hot breakfast in me, the sun showed and decided that i might as well fish. i really felt like steelheading this day. however, the weather would soon turn me around back for the van. no fish to speak of. i was ready to head back into more temperate lands, but i soon found out that the sun had turned the ground into a muddy-slushy mess and the van didn't like that much. i had to spend about an hour going back and forth, then making a gravel path to drive out on. i'm glad i kept my waders on for that though:
from there i headed west to a inspect a few rivers that Chappie had circled on the atlas for me. it was then that my fish drought began. i was on the river early the next day and spotted a fish in the first 100 yards of river i looked at. on the second cast, i hooked this fish. it took off downstream and happened to run into a rock where the fly pulled. this would turn out to be the only tight line i felt for the next 3 days. it was a beautiful river though:
the next day i decided to fish and tramp along the St. James Track. i was crawling into bed when another van pulled in to the car park next to me. turned out that the two young ladies in the van had worked the summer in Damariscotta. it was nice to have some beers in company:
again, no luck on that river. unfortunately my pack took a loss. the magnificent Stevens landing net that my dear Mum had got me for Christmas several years ago was attached to my pack with a magnet device. while walking around/through some bushes apparently it was pulled off. when i realized it was gone, i felt like crying. i backtracked for several hundred yards then realized that i couldn't really pick my path and that it was probably useless. then i thought of all the great fish that net had landed: Wilkie's monster brookie this past spring, Paul's and Pete's big salmon on Sebago, a nice bass I landed while fishing with Chi, other brookies of my own and my fathers. and most recently, a few nice Kiwi trout. i said my goodbyes and continued on. i happened to take a self portrait earlier in the day, and this is the last photo of the net ever:
fortunately, the good guys at Christchurch's Fish Loft are overnighting me a new landing net. this net also has a scale in it, so i'll be able to accurately weight all my fish now. hopefully i will be able to use that feature. some more pics from that day of fishing:
these bridges and sweet/sketchy. when you step off of it, you feel like you've just stepped off a boat that was at sea for 18 hours:
this is the view from the bridge:

i spotted a fish from there, then promptly spooked it.

so, after 3 fishless days, i decided i would do a little tramping. i inspected some maps and decided to hike up a river and camp out at a DOC hut. these huts are peppered across the South Island. i had heard about then from Chi and Nelligan but had yet to see one, let alone stay in one myself. so i loaded up my pack and set off. i reached the hut in the early afternoon and was very surprised to see its accommodations were quite nice. three sets of bunks (some huts have 32 bunks!), a couple tables and a few benches. the hut:
after claiming a bunk and dropping off non-fishing articles, i set off back downstream to fish my way back to the hut. i spotted two fish in this half day of fishing and spooked them both. i was very frustrated with the fishing as of late. i was baffled as to why i could not hook a single fish. i tied longer leaders, shorter leaders, heavier flies, lighter flies, i thought i tried as many things as i thought i could. Chappie's words, "if it was easy, there would be a lot more people doing it," echoed in my head over and over again, but i still couldn't understand why i could cast to holding and FEEDING fish and could not get them to take my flies. i thought it over and over while i got my dinner and a campfire going that night. tomorrow would be a big day on the water i told myself as i slept under a nearly full moon:
i took to the water early that next day and while it wasn't as sunny, and it was more windy than the day before, there i was. i saw two fish right off and could not get either of them to take. i sighed as i continued upstream. the next fish would not be so lucky. i saw the indicator hesitate and stung this fish good. it would go completely across the stream then back so fast i could hardly keep up to it, then do the same. these fish are hard enough to land with a net, so now i was really going to have to play this one well. soon enough and i had its tail in my had. Paul, sorry that the picture isn't great, and i'll get you another one soon, but this fish would go 5 pounds easy. this fish broke my skunk and got me back in the game. this fish is for you, Paul:
at the next pool upstream, i saw a fish feeding not two feet in front of a big boulder. it was a tough lie to cast into as the current would go hard to one side of the rock or the other, but the fish was stationed right in front of the rock. time and time again i tried to put a fly right down the middle of the run but it would float to another side. finally i got one to go right down the middle. i watched as my indicator went right over the boulder and then instinctively i raised my rod as if i watched the fish take the fly. maybe it was because i knew the fly had finally got right in front of the fish's face, or maybe it was some other feeling i dont know about, but sure enough i had stung that fish. i think it was as surprised as i was. another lengthy battle and i got a hold of that one's tail too. some quick work with the tripod and this beautiful fish is for you, Mum:
so that one felt good. two in a row. i continued on fishing that day, seeing a number of other fish. later in the day, the river forked hard and i continued up, following the main stem. past another bridge and then i started seeing more fish. i hooked one and it took me about 500 yards downstream, almost into a small gorge before the hook pulled. i was bummed i lost that one, but it was quite a ride anyway. next hole, another fish. spooked that one. next hole, another fish spooked. these fish were holding in tough spots. in small eddies, moving around, almost hovering in the currents, so that it was tough to get behind them to make a cast. but, literally every single pool on this stretch of the river had fish in it. it was wild. it was getting late but i couldn't stop going to the next pool. i got to the next, next pool and saw a fish in the small eddy. i put a few casts over it, then one good one and the indicator shimmied. i hooked him good and saw him do that woo-woo-woo head shake in the river. and we danced.

this fish would take me across the river and back three or four times. i slipped on the bank, nearly fell in several times and just could not get this fish into calmer water. we fought for a good 20 minutes. finally he tired and i was able to bring him into a side channel where i knew i had won the battle. it was then, as i brought him to the beach and grabbed his tail that i realized just how large he was. this fish is for you, Dad:
a long hike back and plenty of time to think of the day's great fishing. i was pleasantly surprised to find a few other trampers at the hut when i got there. Murray, Cliff and I had some nice conversation that night and this morning as we prepared for our respective journeys. it was nice to share the hut with them. a nice walk out in the sun and the breeze and a final picture from the adventure:
so now i'm off to the hot springs, then to the pub. after the net arrives tomorrow i think i'll check out a high country lake.

i hope everyone's well. fishing and hiking alone leaves me with a lot of time to think to myself and there are more than a few times every day when i laugh outloud thinking of some of our recent antics. talk to ya soon!

ROLLOUT 2.0

van fixed, van packed, etc, etc, heading north again, right... MEOW

some things that happened in the last few days:

so i rolled northwest out of Christchurch, through Hanmer Springs, over jacks pass into molesworth station. camped out there for the night here:

apparently i left the lights on because when i went to start the baby up the next day nothing happened. oops. after fishing, i flagged the next person i saw down as i had seen 5 vehicles in a day and a half, he jumped me, i made it back to Hanmer Springs, slept in the parking lot of a garage, had a man look at the van and inform me that the alternator blew when it was jumped. nice. so we charged the battery and i made it back to Christchurch. that was friday. now it's monday evening, monday was labor day, a holiday. the ultra-generous Vanderties let me borrow their van to take off for the weekend, so saturday late morning i headed south west through Geraldine. i camped for two nights south of Geraldine, and put in 3 days of fishing. now i'm back in Christchurch, at Chez Vandertie, and will check in with a garage tomorrow morn.

while in Molesworth, i fished one day on the river you named, Wilkie. i put in a solid 8 hours on this river and hooked two fish, in the same pool, in the course of about 20 minutes. both fish took me about halfway into my backing. i landed the first, it would go 5ish pounds (?) and i lost the second. the second was considerably bigger. the one i did land:
on saturday, i fished a pretty small river. i read about it in John Kent's book and he didn't say much about it, but as i was nearby and the other river i intended to fish was already being fished, i decided to give it a go, then camp at the first river and fish that the next day. i had walked through several good looking pools and not seen any fish, was questioning my fish spotting skills and fish populations when i spooked one. at another pool i thought i saw a fish, so i cast to it and spooked it. at least i was seeing them now.

at another pool, i spotted a fish. i approached carefully, and put maybe two good drifts over him and he took. as i said, this was a small river, so quarters were tight, lots of snags and undercut banks with bushes, etc. this fish took me upstream, into the bushes, below a bank and held. i thought he snagged me off. i waded into the middle of the stream, felt my way down the leader as far as i could and he was still there. i pulled him out of there, he went downstream and into another bank, under some roots. i tried to bully him out of that one but he would not and he broke me off. i'll take the loss on that one, but it sure felt good to find one, cast to it, hook it and do battle.

i walked back to the van, drove to another bridge on the same river and walked upstream. i went through several pools and found a very nice one. i stared at it for a long while, was about to move on when i spotted a nice fish. i backed off slowly, and prepared to cast. first fly i put several good drifts over him with no luck. changed flies, made some more decent casts, no luck. one more fly change and this time he took. and we danced. i kept this fish in the pool and we battled for a good ten minutes until finally he tired and i got him to the net. pete, this fish was for you. he would go at least 5 pounds. i tried to get the camera out for a photo but the fish would have none of that and slipped away. a great end to the day. here is the pool he came from:

next day i fished a much bigger river that ran through a gorgey-canyoney-valley. i had intended to fish this river the day before but i found a couple anglers finishing up their day when i got there. they were using spinning rods and fishing downstream. they said they had caught a few small fish, had a follow from a big fish, but they thought the water was a bit high. i figured giving this river a good afternoon/night rest would let the fish settle and the water to come down a bit. i was right.
i stung two small fish right off the bat. small as in a couple pounds. i was very happy with this and my day so far seemed in agreement with the mens' report yesterday. then i saw a very large fish. i fished to this one fish for close to an hour. i would scamper up a small cliff, spot the fish, cast to it 4 or 5 times with a fly, scamper up the bank to find it again, change flies, and repeat. i think i tried at least 8 flies to this fish and finally spooked it. this was frustrating. i saw another 5 large fish in this river and spooked every single one of them. i got one take on an adams but again pulled the fly right out of the fish's mouth. it was a somewhat frustrating day, but the scenery was amazing and watching these fish was pretty amazing as well. a very long walk back with a couple unsuccessful bushwacks, then a walk through a cow pasture with some testy cows made the day even longer. some cold Speights in the river awaited my return to the van.

this morning i drove to a branch of a river to find it high and off color. i found another smaller stream, rigged up and set off upstream. while the stream itself was small, the water was high and there was not much trout habitat. i walked a good ways upstream, seeing only a few pools and no fish, so reluctantly turned around to head back to the van and try another river.

i was at the exit point of the stream when i spotted a pool downstream. i eyed it for a moment and decided i would check it out before i left. i couldn't see any fish in it, but i decided to nymph it blind. to this point, i had yet to cast in this stream. no more than 8 casts into this pool, the indicator went down and the woo-woo-woo of a fish on the line came. i had to chase this fish downstream about 500 yards and finally got it to the net. a nice specimen. for reference, this net's opening is as almost as long as the distance from the tip of my middle finger to the back of my elbow. and that was my last cast on that stream. that fish:

i made one more stop before returning to christchurch:
fishing here felt like steelheading. the weather had turned and i decided to trek home. some other pics from the past few days:

in Molesworth:

i could throw a football over them mountains:

i applied for an analyst job at this bank, but they didn't have any openings:

ROLLOUT

van is packed. maps are marked. ipod is charged. sun is out. i'm headed north to hanmer springs area. and i'm going fishing.