Well, it has been a challenge fishing this season so far. With the last six months of rain, the rivers have been high and dirty here in the Bay of Plenty. It has not rained for about a week so Jack and I went for a float today. Armed with a spinner, we started on the Waimana River near Waimana at Wardlaw Glade. The river was high but clear so off we went.
Jack is my 13-year-old son and is pretty keen on any kind of adventure. We floated down and he cast a Veltic type spinner to likely places. I explained the areas to target like deeper runs and the back of pools where the water shallowed. Always target the riffles at the top of pools... and generally just cast across the current as we were floating along in the canoe.
Conditions were good and the Waimana holds a lot of trout, so I urged Jack to keep casting. He picked up a couple of rainbows but the first one was a crackup. He hooked it and on the first jump, it landed in the canoe.
When we got to where the Waimana enters the Whakatane, there was a big change. The Whakatane was high and dirty still. He casted where the clear and dirty met for a while and nothing happened. This was very surprising as this is generally a hot spot for larger fish.
Oh well, it was sunny and calm and a great place to be today (30 December). We got to where the stream enters above the Pekatahi Bridge. Whatever the name of the stream is, it was dirty too. But Jack swung the spinner through the confluence and bang! He hooked and landed a nice brown. We had some shenanigans by the bridge on some sand banks then pulled out at the rest area on Valley Road.
It was good fun but boy that sun was hot. It is a really easy float to do. If you want any more info, just drop us a line. Bring on the new year!
All the best to you and yours in 2023!
