Not much was to be had this weekend, between a hot north-west gale on Saturday, and a wet serving of the same on Sunday. I managed a quick look at the Fraser River on Sunday morning before breakfast, a few km upstream of the Twizel township. 2 two trout were spotted. The first one saw me before I saw him - the old 'sitting in the tail of the pool' trick. The other fish was cast to, and finally got put down after I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory - by way of twice mis-timing the trouts take of my hare & copper nymph.
Sunday afternoon called for a high wind-speed wander down the Twizel River walk with the kids. As always, the weekends biggest fish was spotted when I did not have a rod handy. A large rainbow sitting in a bouldery run. Later on in the evening I was given a leave pass by Sarah to go-get-em, however I was beaten back by more high winds and driving rain. I still derive a lot of pleasure from going for a wander across the Mackenzie basin in all of its moods, so all was not lost!
This weeks forecast (excuse the pun) is for more bad weather, however wind velocity tends to be a lot lower very early in the morning, so hopefully we'll get a few quick looks in before work.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Early Morning Success
This morning’s trip was typical of my regular, 'get out of bed for a fish before work' style trip. The local Fraser River was my first stop, spotting a 2-3 lb brown feeding on nymphs in the back section of the first pool that I got to. The morning was warmer had been the norm over the previous two weeks, and a low covering of cloud was hopefully making for good spotting conditions, with out the usual brightening and frightening of fish at sunrise. This pool in particular has caused me plenty of trouble in the past, without much success as it is relatively shallow, and trout tend to spook very easily in shallow, narrow section of the stream. Wading gingerly into position, approx 5 meters downstream of the fish, I quickly ready my rod for it's first cast. Today was no exception, with my first false cast seeing the trout sinking into deeper water and moving off upstream. So much for the dull warm conditions helping me out!
With the limited time available, I had reached a pre-made decision earlier to inspect a pool that has been consistently holding good sized rainbows on the Twizel River, a few hundred meters away. There is nothing so pleasant as wandering across a grassy field early in the morning, alone with ones thoughts and a few rabbits, with the prospect of some clear water action while the rest of the world is still sleeping.
Upon arriving at this rather long pool, I worked my way from the lower section upstream, carefully inspecting every shadow and long boulder on the river bed. More often than not the trout seem to hold in the narrow head of this pool, close to a lot of overhanging willow for safety, however it would not be the first time if I spooked a fish in the lower section, sending him tearing upstream to it's neighbours and putting them all down for the morning. This time none were disturbed, and a likely candidate was spotted sheltering behind a boulder on the deep-edge of the channel, swaying in and out of the current as food was brought to its very doorstep. A size 14 bead-headed Pheasant Tail nymph had been getting most of my results recently, so I kept with convention, although this one was a much darker colour than my usual. I always get a buzz when the first cast on a trout results in a take, especially when the first cast on the last fish elicited nothing more than a walk to another pool! The heavy beaded nymph plopped into the river 1 1/2 meters upstream of the actively feeding rainbow, and about 1/2 a meter further into the main flow. Almost immediately he swung out from the shelter of his rock, and intercepted the fly that was rapidly exiting his area of engagement. As the fish turned to face up stream I assumed the take had been successful, and tightened the line. A solid hook up was established. The trout was landed following a series of three runs downstream, where I finally managed to keep a fish in the same pool that I hooked it in. On one occasion he came close to the rapids at the bottom of the pool, but thankfully choose to charge upstream again as things got marginal. As trout in our area go he wasn't in great condition, so quickly returned him to the water after removing the fly with one of those fandangled hook remover things. With a smug grin I hightailed home before the kids got up, reflecting on how lucky we are to live in a place where great fishing can be had without having to travel more than a couple of kilometres from town.
With the limited time available, I had reached a pre-made decision earlier to inspect a pool that has been consistently holding good sized rainbows on the Twizel River, a few hundred meters away. There is nothing so pleasant as wandering across a grassy field early in the morning, alone with ones thoughts and a few rabbits, with the prospect of some clear water action while the rest of the world is still sleeping.
Upon arriving at this rather long pool, I worked my way from the lower section upstream, carefully inspecting every shadow and long boulder on the river bed. More often than not the trout seem to hold in the narrow head of this pool, close to a lot of overhanging willow for safety, however it would not be the first time if I spooked a fish in the lower section, sending him tearing upstream to it's neighbours and putting them all down for the morning. This time none were disturbed, and a likely candidate was spotted sheltering behind a boulder on the deep-edge of the channel, swaying in and out of the current as food was brought to its very doorstep. A size 14 bead-headed Pheasant Tail nymph had been getting most of my results recently, so I kept with convention, although this one was a much darker colour than my usual. I always get a buzz when the first cast on a trout results in a take, especially when the first cast on the last fish elicited nothing more than a walk to another pool! The heavy beaded nymph plopped into the river 1 1/2 meters upstream of the actively feeding rainbow, and about 1/2 a meter further into the main flow. Almost immediately he swung out from the shelter of his rock, and intercepted the fly that was rapidly exiting his area of engagement. As the fish turned to face up stream I assumed the take had been successful, and tightened the line. A solid hook up was established. The trout was landed following a series of three runs downstream, where I finally managed to keep a fish in the same pool that I hooked it in. On one occasion he came close to the rapids at the bottom of the pool, but thankfully choose to charge upstream again as things got marginal. As trout in our area go he wasn't in great condition, so quickly returned him to the water after removing the fly with one of those fandangled hook remover things. With a smug grin I hightailed home before the kids got up, reflecting on how lucky we are to live in a place where great fishing can be had without having to travel more than a couple of kilometres from town.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Early Season Experiences in the Mackenzie Basin
Family life being what it is (4 little boys aged 3, 6,7 and 9) the beginning of the 2008 season has mostly consisted of short excursions to a few rivers on our front doorstep. Most trips have been very early in the morning, snatching an hours fishing before breakfast, or a cunningly manipulated 'father-son bonding session', where I employ my keen 6 year old as a net-bearer and chief spin-snagger.
The local rivers are predominantly holding rainbow trout, some of which are still spawning, espiecally early in the morning. Condition of most of these trout has not been great, however all of that baby making seems to work up a bit of an appetite, as they tend to be holdiing in fairly open shallow water chomping through as many aquatic insects as they can find.
All of this sounds like the fishing is easy pickings, however due to the relatively low flows and clear water in our smaller local streams, these fish are almost as easily spooked as in mid summer, the difference being that they are holding in more visible locations.
In the Mackenzie Country, the mornings are still producing some light frosts, and with the lions' share of my outings starting and finishing in the wee small hours, I havn't seen much dry fly action yet. Most of the fish caught over the last 2 1/2 weeks have been caught on small weighted pheasant tail or a weighted Hare & Copper nymph pattern.
The local Twizel river has been producing plenty of fish, however due to it's close proximity to town it appears to be getting a bit of a hammering and fish numbers in the middle reaches are dropping rapidly. Another factor which influences this river is the rainbow trouts' tendency to run upstream to spawn, and then drop back down into the lake as spring moves into summer.
One of the joys of fishing these small streams like the Fraser and the Twizel is the close proximity to the trout when casting and also attempting to land the fish. Caleb and I spotted one reasonable brown on our most recentt outing, holding in the lee of a small willow outcrop, making use of the slack flow to move up and down the water column, voraciously taking any sub-surface morsel that happend to drift past. After tying on a size 14 Hare and Copper nymph, we moved to within about 12 feet of the fish, flicked the offering just upstream and watched the trout move into the flow and take the hook. As has been said so many times about New Zealand trout, hooking up is not catching a fish, it just provides the opportunity to open negotiations. This 1-2 kg fish was no exception and after wrestling with the line in one spot for a few seconds, he tore off downstream, narrowly missing my cold legs, and then came charging back up the other side of me. No sooner had I mended all of my line in, and stripped it back out on the way downstream. This was repeated again as he came back up, pass both times within about a meter of the angler. From this point the battle was rather short lived as he wasted no time in ploughing into the overhanging willow outcrop, snared the line on an underwater branch, and pulled free.
Perserverance brings results though, and 10 minutes later a slightly smaller yet similarly fiesty fish made our net.
If all trout were easy to catch, I'm sure that we wouldn't be kept interested for long. We certainly tend to think longer and harder about lifes losses than lifes wins.
The local rivers are predominantly holding rainbow trout, some of which are still spawning, espiecally early in the morning. Condition of most of these trout has not been great, however all of that baby making seems to work up a bit of an appetite, as they tend to be holdiing in fairly open shallow water chomping through as many aquatic insects as they can find.
All of this sounds like the fishing is easy pickings, however due to the relatively low flows and clear water in our smaller local streams, these fish are almost as easily spooked as in mid summer, the difference being that they are holding in more visible locations.
In the Mackenzie Country, the mornings are still producing some light frosts, and with the lions' share of my outings starting and finishing in the wee small hours, I havn't seen much dry fly action yet. Most of the fish caught over the last 2 1/2 weeks have been caught on small weighted pheasant tail or a weighted Hare & Copper nymph pattern.
The local Twizel river has been producing plenty of fish, however due to it's close proximity to town it appears to be getting a bit of a hammering and fish numbers in the middle reaches are dropping rapidly. Another factor which influences this river is the rainbow trouts' tendency to run upstream to spawn, and then drop back down into the lake as spring moves into summer.
One of the joys of fishing these small streams like the Fraser and the Twizel is the close proximity to the trout when casting and also attempting to land the fish. Caleb and I spotted one reasonable brown on our most recentt outing, holding in the lee of a small willow outcrop, making use of the slack flow to move up and down the water column, voraciously taking any sub-surface morsel that happend to drift past. After tying on a size 14 Hare and Copper nymph, we moved to within about 12 feet of the fish, flicked the offering just upstream and watched the trout move into the flow and take the hook. As has been said so many times about New Zealand trout, hooking up is not catching a fish, it just provides the opportunity to open negotiations. This 1-2 kg fish was no exception and after wrestling with the line in one spot for a few seconds, he tore off downstream, narrowly missing my cold legs, and then came charging back up the other side of me. No sooner had I mended all of my line in, and stripped it back out on the way downstream. This was repeated again as he came back up, pass both times within about a meter of the angler. From this point the battle was rather short lived as he wasted no time in ploughing into the overhanging willow outcrop, snared the line on an underwater branch, and pulled free.
Perserverance brings results though, and 10 minutes later a slightly smaller yet similarly fiesty fish made our net.
If all trout were easy to catch, I'm sure that we wouldn't be kept interested for long. We certainly tend to think longer and harder about lifes losses than lifes wins.
Sam Dunn displays one for the dinner table on the upper Ohau River
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