Today Blair and I had a guest star named Mike, representing Hamills in Tauranga, NZ. He was known to be a serious fly fisher so that was a good excuse for me to experiment. Last time I talked about wanting to probe the deep holes on this stretch of river below Aniwhenua Falls. So I brought my spinning rod and rigged it with a ball sinker above a snap swivel with an eight pound fluoro tippet. I had a variety of streamer flies to try down deep. Blair, of course, brought his spinner but he also took his fly rod along for the ride. Mike was armed with a nymphing rig.
The first fly I put on was a krystal brown woolly bugger. That was also the first rig I broke off on a very strong fish. I reckon the hole through the ball sinker caused abrasion where the braid was tied to the snap swivel. With the next rig I put a bead between the sinker and the swivel. It was the kind you make ledger rigs with for ocean fishing.
The next selection was a muddler minnow. It is not a popular fly in NZ but I have had some success with it. Best guess is that it looks like a bully. I was probing a deep pool of 5 m or more when I got the take. It just ran out drag until it found some rocks and broke off. This time it was the eight pound fluorocarbon that broke.
Blair chose my next fly, a krystal olive booby. It did not have any luck down deep but had several takes in fast water- go figure.
A black ghost was next in line. My biggest ever trout was caught in Flaxy Lake stripping a large one. An American smelt imitation, I grew up very successful catching landlocked with this pattern. Again I was fishing the fast water and hooked a large rainbow on the second try. I lost him just before landing. At least the hook pulled and nothing broke. I counted that as a catch and changed flies.
The I put on the very humble, olive woolly bugger. It is a pattern that catches fish worldwide. Fishing a fast water edge, I finally landed a fish! I changed to a red setter and caught another on my very next cast. My luck was changing and I was happy the red setter produced this time. A few weeks ago on Matahina it did not.
The day was getting on and Mike had hooked quite a few fish on the nymphs but was not landing many. Blair caught some on the spinner but had been casting nymphs for hours without luck. It was mostly because he was doing it wrong.
So as Mike was landing a fish, I gave Blair tuition for a couple of minutes. I hooked a fish and lost it while demonstrating. Blair went off to fish a run down stream. Low and behold, he actually hooked and landed his first trout nymphing!
Near the end I was using a Hamills killer. This is a still water fly used to imitate things like dragonfly larva. I was using it in very much moving water when I got my last fish of the day.
I must say if you ever go here or even come down with Blair and me, be warned. It is very difficult wading so a staff and your best wading boots are required. Mike got his foot stuck between two rocks and later Blair told us to avoid wading downstream if you can. He said you would be surprised how little water it takes to drown in when your foot is stuck upstream of you. I guess that's why they tell you to put your feet up while floating down a river.
