Hi,
It’s been a long time since I’ve made it out to wet a line. My last outing, in fact, was way back when with Mike when we fished a small stream a few hours south of Auckland. This weekend, however, Vanessa and I decided to head out on Sunday with Genesta to the farmer’s market in Clevedon. It’s only about 40 minutes or so from home (if the traffic is good) and the weather appeared to be ok on Sunday. I packed up the 3 weight and my waders, just in case the Wairoa was fishable. I wanted to test out the new soles on my boots (had the felt removed and rubber put on; still need studs at some point I think).
Anyway, I had expected the water to be quite muddy, as the Wairoa never really runs clear, and we had just had some heavy rain the day before. But, to my surprise, it wasn’t too too bad. Mind you, a mud puddle on the road wouldn’t look too too bad to me since it’s been so long! 
I set up the rod with a minature Mickey Finn on the point (size 14, wing tied with hackle fibres) and a starling hackled peacock herl spider (with red head and tag; have no idea what it’s called) on the dropper (size 14 as well). Vanessa and Genesta came down to watch. Vanessa didn’t feel much like fishing, but Genesta was all set to get in the river to join daddy! Although the Wairoa is just a small stream, there are some pretty deep holes if you’re not careful, so Vanessa decided to just leave me in the water and take Genesta to the market. Just before they got back to the car I hooked a small rainbow on the spider. Vanessa brought Genesta back down the path and Genesta held the rod while I brought the fish in to release a small rainbow of about 15 cm (6 inches). That’s pretty typical for the Wairoa.
After that I worked my way up the stream. Not a lot of action. The water level was up to what I think is a good level. In the summer months it gets pretty low, and slim and weeds grow over a lot of the rocks. Anyway, in the few hours I had I hooked 2 more (one on the mini Mikey Finn, and another on a size 12 Parmachene Belle.
It was reallly nice to get out for a change. I’ve been really busy at work lately, and things don’t look like they’ll lighten up any time soon so it’s hard to say when I’ll be able to sneak off to some river again.
- Jeff