The hang
over from Wildfoods Festival was not too bad due to the beer restrictions.
Before leaving the camp for fishing, I remembered that I had a white/yellow
courier parcel in the car. I totally forgot to mention that I picked that
parcel at the Post-Shop in Ross as we were there a few days ago. At the
Post-Shop, actually the ‘supermarket’ (as on many rural supermarkets there was
a sing on that ‘for sale’) of the village. The lady was a little bit irritated
by this ‘general delivery parcel’ that she did receive. It would have been
better to call them in advance and prepare them. With happy expectations to
unpack that parcel I was sitting in the grass (or what was left over from the
dry summer). Inside the parcel was the long awaited second lens that had some
technical issues. The beloved Canon 17-55 / 2,8 unfortunately it is not of the
sturdy L-series, though being close to that price range. Yea - the set of
lenses was complete again! The two lenses that had to be replace up to now (I hope no more follow!) were ordered via Smifu I can just say: one of the best mail order services I had in the last years. Very competitive price, fast and reliable shipping to wired addresses and friendly conversation - just perfect!
We went to
fish a spring creek close by. Just by luck it seemed I did choose the best of
three alternatives, best suited to fish together. The old farmer we asked for
permission and access was a real character, the years of hard work had left
clear signs. Thanks to him were soon at the creeks mouth. As it turned out a
real beauty of a creek. After a while we came to some stretch of many spooky
fish. This was again a good place to study trout’s reaction on the ESPT nymph
and again it was very interesting as most of the trout did pretty much charge
for the fly on the first cast in the hot point of the trout’s vision. Even
semi-spooked fish could be attracted and hooked. Most of the fish were taken by
this or the other magic nymph, the wee black one. All fish were around 4lbs.
In some
places the going was tough due to long lines of thick blackberries. Too bad
that they were not yet ripe. Ines tried a few casts but the fish where not
cooperative and Tobias did pretty much hate the kraxe on that day. After some
hours we split and Ines and Tobias went back to a pool from the start, I fished
some more meters upstream. Nice structure, very good water but tough fishing. I
did not fish precisely and patently enough for that creek. Going back to the
lower pool we realized that pretty much all fish were totally spooked being
fished over by me before. No surprise though.
The next
day all of us had a bad hangover, it was less the bottle of red and the very
long writing session till early in the next day, but the very bad sleep Tobias
had. He was pretty much crying all over the campground and more or less
constantly every hour. His chewing devices are currently installed and that
causes him some pain. At least after that night pretty much the whole
campground new us.
Ines
preferred a relaxed day at the campground and I headed off to two other creeks.
The first was pretty much floating cow poo. Still there were catchable fish in,
but it was not nice. Caught some and missed some. In some parts the creek was
close to standing in others with nice structure and flow. I finished it after
around two hours to give the other creek a try. Access was granted from a
retired farmer that had an awful beautiful house, garden and a daughter of the
same kind. His argument to keep everything pretty: then my children come often
and visit. I went to the creek, all the way down to the mouth at the main river
of that area. The lowest kilometer without any sign of life, but after less
than two hundred meters of stable creek structure I saw the first decent trout.
It gave a good fight tucking hard for the undercut banks, fit and healthy, but
I was lucky as it came to the net. A real 5,75 lbs. beauty of brown trout. And what
happens if you use the watertight Patagonia back pack as a floating tripod (!) with
the 10-22 lens and do not set the lens to 10mm due to the excitement of the moment can be seen on the picture: only
the fish is on the picture and the fisherman is not. Luckily the unstable floating tripod did not capsize...
The interesting fact was
that this was the single relevant fish of the whole stretch of around 2 kilometers
I walked or fished. It is so overwhelming rewarding to accomplish the catch of
the only fish in such a creek! (The last sentence is ironical and just mimics
what sometimes could be read in the net) Back out I gave the friendly farmer a
feedback, as his brother used to fish that creek (no, the intention was just that
not to see the daughter again).
West Coast
spring creek fishing can be quiet good and challenging. A nice change from the
medium sized rainforest rivers that are the essence of NZ fishing. More compact backyard stile fishing. Sometimes
matching the hatch, sometimes attracting fish by various different flies.
Stealth, precise fishing, a good first cast are the keys. The selection of
creeks of that trip was oriented more or less on the main stream creeks that
are pretty much well known and on accessibility for us three. No real exploration
was done based on maps, only one less known creek was identified by reading the
landscape and the map. I did experience the difference between fishing behind
somebody (as mentioned this was by intention) and fishing fresh water for
cooperative fish. This trip provided the first spring creeks I ever fished in
NZ (one exception a pretty hammered creek close to QT).
This night
we had some salmon with a nice white, to give us power for the next days leg
towards Greymouth. Greymouth: too hot Café that made Tobias cry, some totally over-cooked
pasta lunch, a parking ticket of 21$ that I paid right after that at the
council, groceries and the village sign leaving Greymouth. We drove up the Grey
Valley towards Reefton. Still in Greymouth I fixed a cottage that I found in
the net and that was available.
Arriving in
Reefton we were pretty much overwhelmed by the cottage: large dining/living
are, real fully equipped kitchen, two bedrooms and perfectly situated just
steps away from the village center. At that point we did not yet know how long
we would be bound to Reefton. Reefton the village of light!
