It is a challenge keeping up with our fishing. On 6 March, Dan and I got up early and fished the edge around Lake Matahina. We used the standard bead head krystal olive buggers on floating line. The wind, coming from the south, was in our faces. The lake was grainy with algae and obviously still pretty warm. Normally this time of year the lake really starts firing. We landed eight trout between us and they were all solid fish. Rainbows are definitely showing up in the edge spots where we usually get browns, who are starting to think about procreation. I expect this will improve over the coming weeks if the weather cools down a bit.
Oh and when we paddled and fished back to the dam, with wind turned northerly and in our faces again, hah!
A week before we floated the Whakatane River down from Ruatoki. Dan took out his rod and it turned out to be the one he had broken earlier in the season, dah.
Steve and I had a float down the Rangitaiki on the third of March. He forgot to bring his fly rod so these two dorks have a lot in common. We were going to get a couple of rainbows for deep water bait the next day out at White Island. Luckily, I chucked a spinning rod in the truck with only one spinner tied on. Well, it did the trick and we got some bait. The next day we caught a lot of gemfish and a couple of hapuku. Smoked gemfish is a treat!
I will get around to making a video of the ocean fishing and processing at some point. You can watch it on YouTube, Feathergirl Limited. Tight lines!
