I was very happy to accommodate when Steve asked if we could take his son, Kadin, down the river and catch some trout. There is nothing more rewarding than getting a kid into trout fishing, especially with all of the distractions kids face today. Kadin, 14, is a lucky young man. Both of his parents love the outdoors and they do a lot of hunting and fishing together.
Kadin had caught a trout harling before with his grandfather but he had never caught one spinning or fly fishing. This was all going to change...
We put the canoe in the Rangitaiki River where the Mangamako Stream enters. Steve gave his son some instruction on how to fish with a spinner. I suggested we travel down river then get out and fish from shore. Casting from a moving canoe in fast water can be very challenging.
We skirted the first big rapid and came to a spot where my son, Jack, lost one of the biggest rainbow trout I have seen in this river about this time last year. It is a fast, deep spot at the tail of a large rapid. You can only fish this spot from the canoe. I told him to get a big cast and let it sink before retrieving. On his second cast he hooked and landed a beautiful rainbow trout. He was stoked and there were high fives and photos all around!
He caught a couple more on the spinner then we switched to the fly rod with a deer hair cicada dry fly. The cicada fishing had been incredibly-awesome so he had to give it a go. I set up an old 5 weight rod and had a brand new 8 weight floating line that I forgot I had in the shed. It felt ok with the rod and the heavier fly line lends itself to easier casting for a beginner.
So you can imagine me and Steve giving instructions how, when and where to cast, mend, recast, pull, wait, roll, ten to two, hold the line with your left hand then of course wait to strike when a trout takes slowly. We were very animated about it too so you can imagine Kadin was very confused. Onlookers would think we were like those loud idiots at weekend sport for kids. In our defense, we were both pretty excited to see it all happening.
It did not take long before he landed a nice rainbow on the cicada. Yes he hooked too early almost all the time but who doesn't? He did not want to use the spinning rod anymore.
From there he missed heaps but landed quite a few trout. I think the total was seven landed. The best one of the day was a brown he caught all by himself with no one giving commands. It was an epic battle from the canoe then from shore and we almost had to get back in the canoe to give chase.
What a great day! Steve and Karla must be very proud of what "Rat" accomplished this day. I think it is safe to say we have a new fly fishing convert. Let's hope he remains as passionate about trout fishing as we are. Kadin was so excited that he asked me for my autograph!
The video tells part of the story from the second half of the day. I have no idea what happened but I lost all of the footage from the first half or more of the day. Has anyone had this happen with a Go Pro 10? The memories will not be erased.
