The Take

One of the best things about fly fishing, the thing that keeps me coming back every time, is 'the take.'  It is the moment when you know the fish - in New Zealand, most often a big fish - is going to take your fly.  He's seen it, and he's coming after the presentation, and you know that something interesting is about to happen.  Sometimes the fish will take the fly and I'll mess up, sometimes the hook doesn't connect, occasionally he takes the fly and spits it, and sometimes I'll be lucky enough to do it all right and catch one here and there.


In search of the next take, I left Queenstown last week and spent a week on a backcountry river in search of good fishing.  I had decided to hitch hike to the trailhead, and went out to the road at 8:20am last Thursday.  I got a ride with a guy from Alaska part of the way, then a short ride with a couple guys running a boat shuttle vehicle, and the last leg of the ride with a Kiwi fly fishing guide and his American client.  The trailhead sees a bit less traffic than I expected, and I'm grateful to all of them  for their help, as it could have taken quite a while on the rural roads.

Queenstown the last night before leaving

Waiting for a ride

After hopping out at the river where the road ends, I spent my first day fishing in the lake and near the river mouth, and saw quite a few fish.  In 2 months in New Zealand I had only broken off one trout prior to this trip, and the first fish I hooked at the river mouth snapped my 2x line without a problem.  Shortly thereafter I snapped my fly line while double hauling in  the wind (line wrapped on the reel seat, I think), and I was 'gutted,' as they say here.  I ended up being able to strip some of the line coating off, splicing the lines and coating with some UV Sealant for an adequate solution that has held up perfectly since.

The mouth of the river

After camping at the trailhead the first night, I hiked upstream a few hours to my first site and set up a basecamp for 2 nights.  This river is managed on a Beat System in which anglers must reserve the river sections they wish to fish prior to their arrivals, and I had been given the lowest section for my first 2 days (it prevents helicopters and other anglers from dropping in on each other and the possibility of bloodshed).  I found that the fish in this river are smaller on average than elsewhere in New Zealand, but that numbers were much higher than anywhere I'd visited here; much more akin to the way we fish rivers in the States.  Blind fishing, or casting to likely looking water without spotting fish, was possible in some places, but I still fished mostly to sighted fish.

Some German girls happened by when I was landing this one for a photo opportunity

Guess what kind of flies I was using

I moved camp further upstream for my 4th and 5th nights in order to fish the upper 2 Beats.  Camping is allowed off of the trails and the valley bottoms, which are private lands that allow public access for hunting and fishing purposes.  This ended up being a good thing, as I explored a spot I had selected on my topo maps and found a secret waterfall recessed into the hillside.  The waterfall is not visible from the trails and is only accessible by crossing the river and a big field, so it was a neat place to have my tent for a few nights, and also provided a steady supply of water for cooking. 

Typical rainbow in this stream

The river is an  interesting mix of bouldery gorges and large meadows

Boulder section

Meadow section

Overall, the fishing was quite good.  On other rivers we've been landing 2 or 3 trout on a really good day, and I got 21 fish in 4 days fishing on this river, so I was pretty happy with that.

4-5 pound rainbows in this tiny water!

Some of the strangest trout water I've ever seen

On my last day I walked all the way out about 4.5 hours to the trailhead, waited 2 hours for a ride from other hikers, and spent my 6th night on the shores of a lake on the way back to Queenstown.  On the hike out I met 2 Brits named Lewis and Steve who are doing working on a cool filming project fishing around the South Island, and I may meet up with them later in March for some fishing on the North Island (check out their site  at http://trouttrackersproject.blogspot.co.nz) From there I got a ride from a very nice American couple that was traveling through Queenstown, and I rode all the way back with them.

I'll be headed north towards Mount Cook tomorrow morning via some fishing spots I learned about while stateside this past fall.  Until then, tight lines.