The forecast was for wind and showers so it was not an ideal day to go to sea. So we floated down the river and Steve got to try out the new seat he had made for the canoe. I rigged up a big orange epoxy bomb with a big, black stonefly below to do a little nymphing with his old fly rod.
It was a pretty slow start. Even with a spinner, not much was happening. It definitely was not going to be a dry fly day. There were heaps of caddis as always but absolutely nothing rising.
I put Steve at the shallow head of a rapid to use the bomb rig. I love pulling trout out of those challenging places. Steve was wearing crocs and soon fell on his ass and got soaked. It was pretty funny. Fishless, he handed me his rod as a challenge. I took one cast and got a good rainbow on the black stonefly nymph. It was pure luck and Steve could not believe it. Then I got another...
After a few hours the action did pick up. We could see a lot more fish chasing the spinner which is a really good indicator. It also helps to locate concentrations of fish as you float along. It is simply scouting for guiding. You find a stretch with at least a follow every cast and that is what you target with the fly rod next time.
We had a couple of likely stretches for nymphing and they did not disappoint. I got a really good rainbow on the orange epoxy bomb which was a bit of a surprise. We had a San Juan Worm below and it did not produce. But the orange bomb did a couple more times. So I put on a Zug Bug and Steve got a good rainbow.
Then I set up the bead head mop fly with something else below. We did not even use it as Steve was having fun floating and casting the spinner. We had some venison/peacock bier sticks, smoked kingfish and a couple of Waikatos. It was such a perfect day.
The next day we went to sea early to try and catch a yellowfin tuna. We trolled for a few hours around lots of bait and birds but no joy. So we shot out towards White to get a few tarakihi for a feed. The wind had come up and it was hard work at 160 m. We got a few tarakihi, ruby fish, sea perch, blue cod, Japanese gurnard and a strange looking fish I needed help to ID.
It is called a flagfin. Flaming or duckbill flagfine. I am pretty sure that is new to me. Now, have you ever seen a pink mao mao wit this coloration?
It was a mixed bag and we soon could not cope with the sea. It was a slow, hard slog back directly into a southerly.
