NZ Trip -- Day 4

This day was devoted to boat fishing on lake Rotoehu.

Got to the lodge at about 8:30. The lodge was right on the lake, and we got into the guides dinghy to troll around the lake. The weather was breezy and cold, but not absolutely freezing as it could have been. The equipment was sinking fly lines trolled behind a slow moving dinghy, with a Tassy Devil as a lure and a fly dropper. The fast sinking fly line got the lure down to about 5 meters deep. The technique was to troll around at the 5 to 6 meter depth mark -- the fish were down deep. There is no spawning stream on Rotoehu, so the fish are all in good condition. The fishing started slow, but got progressivly better and soon we were catching plenty of fish!

Dad kept one for dinner. The guide filletted it, and removed the bones. But, when all was said and done the mess that it made in the camper when we cooked it required a stop at a supermarket to buy cleaning supplies, so it cost more than eating out!

In the end, not my sort of fishing. The guide caught a lot, and I just reeled them in. The skill was in the guides trolling.

Day 4, and still only 2 hours of real fishing. I was starting to get REALLY anxious.

NZ Trip -- Day 3

After a restless night sleeping in the van in gale force winds, we woke up to a grey, windy, rainy day. Dad wanted to go to the hot springs at Rotorua, so we packed up and headed out.

On the way we stopped at the 'Outdoorsman', a small looking fishing store. But each room openned onto another, and another, and another. This place had fishing, skiing, climbing, camping, etc. etc. There was a good selection for each range. A marveleous place! The sales staff were helpful too, selling us fishing licences, suggesting flies, and giving us locations to try. In particular they suggested lake Tarawera, and gave us detailed directions as to where to fish and how.

We headed into Rotorua and found the hot springs. We soaked for a while. Dad wanted to soak longer, but I was anxious to fish -- we were well into day 3 of 9 and I still hadn't even wetted a line.

Leaving the hot springs we went to another fishing store -- they again suggested Tarawera. We shopped for a bit and got souveniers, and then had lunch at McDonalds.

The clouds lifted and the sun came out, so I convinced Dad to drive up to Tarawera and have a look.

We drove down and there were a couple of people fishing from the shore. I decided to have a fish and got rigged up. Dad hadnt bought his licence yet, so he watched, but finally decided to go and phone in and get a licence. While he was arranging this a guy on the shore got a nice size rainbow -- though it was beatten up from spawning. I was watching his approach -- cast out, let the line sink, and retreive incredibly slowly. I emulated his technique, and got a couple of hits, but no hookup. After moving around a while I found a tiny creek running in to the lake, and tried casting into the current. I had no luck, but moving away from the creek I noticed a swirl right where the creek enterred. Another couple of casts and I was in on a white egg sucking leech. My first NZ trout!

A local came to help me net the fish. Turned out he was a guide and casting instructor. He pointed out some other spots, and also indicated that we were a month late for the best Rotorua fishing, but spot on for the best Taupo fishing!

NZ Trip -- Day 2

Got up bright and early and headed off to get our camper van. The shuttle bus to the camper van service left at 9:00 am, so that was the earliest we could leave.

Got to Britz and picked up the van. The bastards required a $5,000 bond or charged an extra $20 per day -- so we had to cough up another $160 (as I didnt have $5K free on the credit card). They did offer us a chance to upgrade to a 4 berth camper van for another $9 a day. As it turned out I was so glad I didn't upgrade -- the van we had was a bastard to drive as it was.

Drove out of Britz to a supermarket and stocked up for the trip. Got fruit, ham, bread, mustard, salad stuff, chocolate, cereal, etc. And, in a tribute to Hitch Hickers Guide to the Galaxy, a towel.

We needed to head south on highway one. It should have been a simple drive from the supermarket to the highway. It wasnt -- the van had no visibility out the rear, swayed like a drunk every time we got near a corner, felt like it took up two lanes, and was, in general, a bastard to drive. We got totally lost because we saw the turnoff sign too late, and the van wasnt going to change lanes in anything less than 1km. Ended up weaving through the southern suburbs of Auckland, navigating by feel. (Thats a big road going in the right direction -- maybe if we take that we will hit the highway ....)

Eventually got on the highway and got the behemoth up to a terrifying 80kph. Traffic was shooting past left and right. But I wasn't going to get into the far left lane incase it had to merge with the middle lane -- given my visibility I would have wiped out three cars if I had attempted merging. And I wasn't going faster -- I was having a hard time controlling the beast as it was! By this time I needed some Chocolate just to keep my blood sugar up. Got dad to crack open a bar and pass me some chunks. I ate tentativly while holding onto the steering wheel with white knuckles. He kept making comments along the line of 'This van is great -- its got all the amenities we will need ...'

Heading down through Hamilton towards Rotorua, we had to negotiate what seemed like 50 roundabouts. Roundabouts are OK in a car. But the van was a trickier proposition. Given the slow acceleration and my propensity to stall, I had to wait until there was a VERY large gap in traffic before attempting to go around the roundabout.

After Hamilton we pulled over at a roadside turnout to eat a sandwich. And I had to have more chocolate.

Continued down to Rotorua. We needed to get fishing licences, so we drove into the town to find a sports store. We got to one at 4:10 -- but it had shut at 4:00. The streets were quiet, so the beast wasnt too terrifying. But Rototrua was also full of roundabouts :( After some searching, Dad picked up some KFC for dinner, and we headed out to find a camp ground. We were going fishing in lake Rotoehu the next day, so we drove towards the lake, looking for a camping site. We found a place on lake Rotoini. The supervisor was happy to see us -- it seems we were the only people there!

The campground had a TV room. We went in to watch the news. It was all about rugby. Apparently, in NZ world war III could break out, but it would get second string to the Rugby. And netball -- everyone was excited about the netball test with Australia being played in Melbourne. But as one reporter noted, the Melbourne Age had 14 pages of sport, and not one mention of netball. To most Australians netball is a game for high school girls, not an international competitive sport.

The guide for the next day's fishing called to delay for one day, as the weather was going to be a gale the next day.

The temperature plumeted, and the wind started to pick up. We hit the sack. So far two days travel and no fishing.

NZ Trip -- Day 1

Got up at 4:00 am to meet Dad at 5:00 am, so we could get the 6:00 am flight to Melbourne. Once there we had a 4 hour wait before flying to Auckland.

Had to pay excess luggage to get on the plane, what with all of my fishing gear. The problem was I took an extra pair of neoprenes, as I wasnt sure Dad would have some, and the water was going to be cold! We were, after all, going for the winter trout runs in NZ.

We got to Auckland at about 5:00 pm (3:00 pm Hobart time -- I didnt realise NZ was two full time zones away). The airport was packed -- there were tons of people coming over for the trinations cup rugby final. It was hard to believe so many people get excited about a leather ball!

We got out of the airport and went to a hotel. Day one spent traveling. Got to a hotel room at 7:00 pm Auckland time -- a good 17 hours of travel :(

Bicheno Bust

Went to Bicheno for a week. Fished morning and evening. The wind was gale force, but in a different direction each day. The swell was massive. And the fish non existant.

Had to go to St Helen's, and the fishing shop there said the coastal fishing was hard. The better fishing was in Georges Bay. I didnt have the time or a boat to let me fish in the bay, so no luck there.

Finally got a 1m couta on the light plastic rig -- that was a good fight! But for 5 days that was a bust!

Kids'n'Squid

We were chatting with Bob H about finances for our new house. After getting through the details, Bob invited us out on his boat for some squid fishing. I t turns out that he needs an excuse to get out too -- Sheila isnt too keen on going, and doesnt like him going alone. Susan was having a kids free weekend, so I took both kids.

Got to Bob's place at around 9.30 am. Drove down to cremorne and launched his boat -- a smallish twin hull boat with a 40 hp engine. We motored about 300 m offshore and started squid jigging. There werent many tentacled monsters around, so we switched to bait for flathead. Then we started getting squid -- they were on the bottom.

Ended up with a mess of squid and flathead. Susan called right when Alex was bringing in a large squid. She got to hear lots of screaming and laughing on the phone as the squid was squirting and inking all over the place.

Left at 1:00 pm and got home at 3:30 pm after cleaning the catch. We have a mess of squid and flathead in the fridge.

Breaming with a guru

Andrew was a new visitor to the wargames club. Turns out he is a keen bass fisherman too. We got in two early morning hours of bream fishing/ I only had a morning, as I was taking both kids blackberry picking and then overnight at Conningham.

Met at Rosny point at 6:00 am. Andrew showed me a couple of spots -- which was embarrasing, as I grew up on the point! We were tossing soft plastics. We each got 3 or 4 flathead, but no bream. Andrew also showed me a loop knot -- which made the trip more thn worthwhile!

At 8:00 I had to leave. Just as I was about to go a bass boat powered up and started fishing right along the shoreline where we had been fishing. There was a bream tournament, and the pro's knew where the hot spots were. They didnt do better than us, but at least we know we were in the right spot!

An expedition into the wilds...

Cameron and I have been singularly unsuccesful in arranging fishing trips. We finally managed to get away.

Originally, the trip was billed as 'an afternoon on the Tyenna'. But speaking to Cameron the day before, he wanted to try the Weld. Our last trip was a disaster, but armed with a map, we new exactly where to go. So we packed up the pajero and drove down towards the airwalk at Tahune. Cameron's plan was to go via the forestry roads rather than the bitumen, so we got to see a lot of nice country. We were looking for the turn off back up to the other side of the weld river. When we hit Tahune we realised we had missed the turn off! A discussion with a forestry employee revealed that the road was shut for forestry operations, so we had to go the plan B.

The Picton river joins the Huon at Tahune. There is a short walk to a swinging bridge over the Picton, so we decided to walk to the bridge and try the Picton near the bridge. Cameron had a pack with him, but I only had my wader bag, so I stuffed all into the bag and slung it over my shoulder.

The walk up the trail to the swinging bridge was quite pretty. After a short distance we encountered a sign of a parent holding a childs hand and a side trail. A bit further there was another sign with a picture of a ball, and another side trail. But the main trail was easy to see, and we followed it along. There were several more side trails, but then the main trail just pettered out, with no swinging bridge. We kept on, but the trail by now was more of a game track. After a bit we turned back, but when we got to the main trail again, there was no bridge or fishable water. We decided to try the 'game track' for a bit longer, and walked a good 500m further up. With no swinging bridge in sifght, we turned back to just find somewhere to fish. Just then we met two travellers from Denmark, who were also looking for the bridge, and had a map. We were all confused, with no bridge or good trail in sight, so we continued on. Eventually the trail hit the Picton river and ended. Still with no bridge.

We fished for about an hour, but we couldnt get up or down the river. There wasnt as much as a sign of a fish, though I thought I had a strike. It could just have easily been a twig sticking up that my fly nicked. Stymied, we packed up and headed back.

Getting back to the air walk we looked at the swinging bridge on the map and the associated pictures very carefully, only to see they were an 'artists impression'. The Bridge hadn't been built yet!

New years Day part 2

Feeling grumpy, I decided to just blow the coop and go fishing. Went up to the Tyenna, only to find every man and their uncle was fishing their. Found the weir was covered in bait fishers, so I parked and went upstream. In the first pool I dropped a royal coachman in the shade behind a willow and immediately got a nice brown. In the next pool I got no results, but a bit later spotted a bunch of fish and got another immediate rise -- another beautiful (but small) brown. After that I missed a couple, but found the river overgrown, the weather hot, and another horde of fishermen had arrived. Tried a couple of new spots, then went home, grumpy mood removed :)

New years Day part 1

Got up early and drove down the Bellerive Bluff. Was thinking of trying for bream -- but just couldnt get up the motivation. Tried letting soft plastics sink to the bottom. Got 4 flathead in short time, then the tide changed and the fishing suddenly stopped. Decided to go home after an hour.