Waihou, Tirau
Hi,
Last weekend was a nice sunny one, which has been quite rare these past few months. So, Vanessa suggested we skip town after Genesta's Saturday morning swim lesson and go fishing. We stayed a a farm stay in Tirau, which allows one to walk out the back door and down to the Waihou river. The first Rainbow trout introduced to New Zealand were ova shipped from the Russian River in California. They were hatched in ponds in Auckland, but when the summer arrived the ponds heated up too much and the small trout started to die off. They netted the ponds and moved them to a location on the Waihou river. Apparently, that was the only import of Rainbows to New Zealand according to one book I've been reading, but that may not be accurate so don't hold me to it.
Anyway, the Waihou is filled with lots of relatively small fish. Most are well under 30 cm (12 inches). The section in behind the farmstay is marked off in the beats used for the national tournaments, and the world's were held here (in part) a few years ago as well. Further up stream there is some amazingly clear water, but for this quick overnighter we just stayed near the farm.
We arrived in time for lunch, and the sun was out. We all headed down to the stream and Vanessa fished for awhile but no luck. After an hour or so, Genesta had enough and wanted to go back up to the cabin. I stayed down by the water, still not even a touch. This is rare, actually, as the Waihou usually fishes really well to soft hackles during a warm sunny mid-day. I switched to a gold bead Hare and Copper nymph, and pulled one of about 14 inches out of a nice run. That was around 4 pm. After that, things started to pick up and I got another on the nymph, 2 on a winged wee wet, one on a double hackle NZ type lure (tail: fox squirrel tail, onion dyed wool body, yellow hackle mid body and in front, iwth the front hackle including a guinnea fowl feather as well; here's a link to an image for those who like to check out flies: http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...ZHackleFly.jpg), and the last on a Mickie Finn. I had tied the latter that morning to take with me and shortly after tying it on I had a fish with it.
The last one was probably around 12-13 inches, so about 1/2 lbs. I decided I would keep that one for breakfast as it had been a while since I've kept a trout and the Waihou is a fishery that can easily handle a harvest. After landing that one, which was now around 6:20, things were starting to pick up. I had 3 strikes on the next 3 casts, and within 5 minutes counted 10 hits (no hook ups though).
I got back to the cabin in time to show Genesta the fish, and she was very pleased with that. I cleaned it, and then put it in a small dish and covered it with water, and added a lot of salt. This went in the fridge, and it sat in the brine overnight. The next morning, I took the head, tail, and front fins off, seasoned it with some salt and pepper, tossed on a sprinkle of mixed herbs, and fried it up in a pan. It was probably one of the best trout I've eaten in a long time. Genesta ate most of it, and kept saying "Yummy!", which was great.
After breakfast we headed back down to the river and Vanessa was quickly into a trout in the same location where I was getting all the action the evening before. Since Vanessa had the camera, she handed the rod to Genesta and I so that Genesta could reel in the fish while she snapped a few photos. This one was on a size 14 winged wee wet, which was easily released and put back. Genesta calls it the "wiggly fish" as it was still quite active when I got it out to remove the hook.
Anyway, it was a great weekend. Not long enough, but longer than I've been expecting to get out. Work has been very busy lately and I've been thinking it would be a few months yet before I could get out to do some fishing. Fortunately, though, I had picked up the family license for the new season as it had started on Oct 1st, and we were on the river on the 2nd. Nice how it all comes together sometimes.
- Jeff
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