Well, last year was a wash, literally. Everything was flooded all summer so I had to cancel. What's the point in going when you know your chances are greatly reduced?
So Andrew opted for something different as the last couple of times we fished together was in the same stretch of river. So we decided on the top of Aniwhenua as a good option to start the day with a backup plan, just in case.
It was calm and sunny; conditions were perfect for fishing the flats. The forecast was for northerlies later, hence the backup plan. We made our way down to where river meets lake. There was not much surface action but we kept on spooking fish. It was the same with the flats. The odd fish was rising but as we moved the canoe along, we kept spooking fish in the shallows. It was like they were all sleeping until we moved them out of the way.
Casting a may fly imitation should have done the trick but it was just not happening. Andrew was casting well enough and quickly targeting risers. There were a couple of missed opportunities but we decided to go with plan B after half a day.
As we made our way back up one of the many channels, we started to see more rises. Then we had a very active rainbow look at our deer hair cicada several times, but refused. So I tied a willow grub below and the rainbow took the cicada! Andrew was so shocked and stunned that he struck way too quick! I guess he had forgotten the lessons learned two plus years ago. Most people cannot wait to strike on those slow risers. Watching the footage, he started a slow strike as soon as the trout nosed the cicada. It's funny how I speed up my count when people strike too soon. It's all good and it was fun having the action.
We got back to the truck, loaded up, then drove to where the Horomonga meets the Rangitaiki River. This would be a no brainer; we float down casting a big cicada pattern under the mid afternoon sun and catch a bunch of hungry trout.
Well, it was not exactly like that. The only action we had was sight fishing a couple of trout up side creeks. One, in particular, was a hoot. We got in position and the rainbow bolted for no reason. A minute later it was back in its feeding line. The black deer hair cicada did the trick but Andrew struck too quickly again. The trout bolted. We moved the canoe further up the creek as walking was impossible due to soft mud banks and walls of blackberry. We got to the end of the line and turned around. Our rainbow was back up feeding again. So Andrew dropped a deer hair cicada olive back down and hooked him, briefly. It actually jumped and spit the hook. The silly trout started feeding again so he dropped the cicada back and he took again. This time Andrew waited before the strike.
Then it was chaos. We had no room to maneuver with willows above and blackberries all around. It was pretty crazy but we landed the rainbow, took a photo then set it free. That stupid trout made our day!
We had some more action on side streams but the main river produced not a strike. Oh well, some days are like that. It was a heck of a lot of fun anyway.
