Stephen's partner, Fiona, shouted him a day of guiding for Christmas. I picked him up from the Black Road Campground at Lake Aniwhenua at 7 AM, 27 February 2021. I saw that he had thrown in his spinning rod. I thought that was a good move as he had only talked about learning more about his fly rod.
We dropped the canoe into the Rangitaiki and I suggested he start with the spinner. On his second cast, he landed his first-ever brown trout. Then it was fish after fish no matter where he cast. After an hour he confessed that this was the most productive day of spin fishing in his life.
I suggested maybe we should try some nymphing and Stephen was very keen. We stopped at a spot and rigged up his rod. The wool indicator was attached at the end of the fly line and I tied about two metres of eight pound fluorocarbon onto it. He had a BH soft hackle nymph he wanted to try so I tied a size 14 pheasant tail flashback about half a metre below it.
The last time Stephen went fly fishing was somewhere around 15 years before. Yeah, he was rusty and needed a little tuition. We started by letting the line drift downstream until straight. Then in one motion you sling it all back upstream. It works well. Then we worked on how to reduce slack line then add a little mend so the drift could continue down stream.
He hooked and played a really good fish until he lost it. Then he landed a tiddler. He was happy and so was I.
So as we travelled, he used the spinner. Trout just kept coming to the net. I really don't know how many were landed but an equal number were hooked and lost. We did some more nymphing now using a hare's ear nymph and added a false cast to the presentation. Remember 10 to two, ten to two, 10 to two. It was working. He caught a couple more.
So then it was time for a dry fly and Stephen was more than happy to try. So I put on a size six deer hair cicada. I reckoned this big fly with eight pound tippet is perfect for someone new to casting a dry fly. He found it much easier to cast a dry fly than nymphs. We played, targeted sighted fish and failed a bit. I almost even started to think the trout were off cicadas. Then I tied an elk hair caddis below the cicada. These things are everywhere on the Rangitaiki this time of year.
I spotted a riser as we floated down river. We approached from below and Stephen pulled off an almost perfect cast. The large brown came up slowly and sipped the cicada. When I called the strike Stephen was looking the other way and was a little surprised. He struck, hooked up and landed another brown trout. It also happened to be his first trout on a dry fly.
I love firsts and really feel satisfied when I can help someone get better. Stephen finished the day with so much on his mind, hoping he would retain some of it. He'll be back.
