March 11: It was Dan's first time out this season and it was autumn. Yes, it has been a tough season with nothing but rain. It had been dryish for a few weeks I think, so we went for a look. Actually I had a client the next day so needed to test the waters anyway. We put in at the bridge upriver from Matahina. The river was high and still dirty but fishable. From the bridge I could see a few fish feeding so put on a rubber-legged stimulator for Dan and he had a go. It was difficult to hold the canoe against the current but Dan got some casts in and, long story short, lost two fish. I thought that was a pretty good start considering...
We made our way down towards the lake. In these conditions, a woolly bugger is the best option. (hint, it always is!). There are some patterns we have not knocked off the bastard list so I put on a bead head yellow and black bugger. Being a new pattern we stock, it seemed fitting. To me, it is the wasp pattern I always want to use this time of year. Dan hooked and landed a nice brown in a slow backwater. It was the kind that had lots of stuff floating around on the surface (another hint, especially this time of year).
So yeah, it was challenging. I let Dan fish until he got two penalties in a row. I took his rod and cast a couple of times then spotted the cruising rainbow. The difference between Dan and I is that I can place a fly where I want to very quickly. That is 90% or so of the battle when sight fishing I reckon. He saw the fish too and my black woolly bugger with a chartreuse bead was already en route. It did the trick and Dan had his turn back.
Dan caught the next rock with a bead head krystal olive woolly bugger. It is the go to fly and yes, it is like cheating. But considering the water clarity, I let him use it. In the sin bin, I took the rod from him. We were now down at the start of the lake. Being high, there was margin between the weed beds and shore. This area was quite clear. I saw the brown, put the fly in front of him and boom.
We had not even moved when the next brown cruised by. Dan failed to have the finesse to get the strike. That's when I decided it was dry fly time. We could see the cruising trout were eating damsel nymphs but I wanted a challenge for Dan. I put on the wasp dry fly pattern we designed last year after watching so many trout eat them. They congregate in huge numbers in willow trees to eat the sap that comes off the leaves. Aphids feeding causes the leaves to weep sap and the wasps love it. Willow trees are on the water's edge, wasps eat the sap, they fall in the water then the trout eat them. It must make them drunk or something. Anyway, I have not seen or heard any evidence of this happening yet this season. You will know the eerie sound of swarming wasps when you hear it.
So Dan had takes from four different fish before he finally hooked up You can see it in the short video to the left. Then we both tried a royal humpy and were rejected every time. We could see the trout were feeding on damsel nymphs but we persisted with dry flies. There were still a few cicadas singing so I put a deer hair cicada on and the trout were not interested until a rainbow attacked it.
It was time to prove what I thought they were eating. I put on a bead head olive bugger and Dan was in first cast. Then I put on a soft hackle wee wet fly. Hey, it looks close enough to a swimming damsel nymph. My knot came undone when I struck too hard. Then the second battery in the Go Pro ran out. Then I caught one on a March brown wee wet so anything small swimming around was being targeted.
Then it was time to head home. Dan picked up one more really nice brown on a bead head krystal olive woolly bugger in the dirty water on the paddle back.
I called Andrew when I got home and told him about the condition of the river. We chatted and decided to flag the guiding for another day when the river clears.
I did a short video with the wasp dry fly and will make a longer video when I get a chance. Some of the footage of cruising trout looks pretty cool. Check out the right hand column for the full video.
