riverman wrote:
Last day in New Zealand:

Well, as the previous TRs will attest, we had a seriously good time in
NZ. In the 'fishing' scheme of things, we got skunked. We both pulled
out a fair handful of fish; Roger found a stretch of the Mohaka that
yielded a bunch of nice Brownies, two of which were in his all-time
largest fish list, and one of which will become the proverbial 'one
that got away'. I had my own 'one that got away' story, but the ones I
actually got to hand were nothing to brag about.

However, we certainly did figure out a lot about the Island Down Under;
they sure got BIG fish. We saw trout that were literally in the 10-12
pound range, and one lone momma that was probably over 15 pounds. As we
have posted; there's a lot of 'local knowledge' that is little more
than mass convention, and it was fun and refreshing to deliberately
ignore the temptation to take a number on that bus and instead to head
out on our own (with the advice and guidance of some more free-thinking
locals) and see what we could figure out on our own. And we discovered
lots, with enough of an aftertaste that we both desperately want to go
back and try it again. For me, its merely a decision to dedicate
another vacation, as NZ is in my backyard. For Roger, it means he is
seriously considering taking another PM job in Japan just so he can
have the opportunity to fly to NZ again. Talk about getting your
priorities right!

Oh, our last day...right.

We had hired a local guide on Thursday, and met him in the morning with
the charge that we were not interested in catching volumes of fish, but
instead wanted a shot at a trophy trout. We were open to hiking or
driving any distance, and were prepared to get skunked as our quarry
was quality over quantity. He said "then we don't have to go far" and
led us across the street to our local stream, the Waitahanui, and
proceeded to show us dozens of lunkers that we had overlooked earlier
in the week. As previously reported, we did not manage to hook any of
them up; I'm not sure they even noticed our offerings, but at least
they were there to be seen.

On Friday, we decided to restalk the Waitahanui, as it was right there
and we had gotten a good lesson the day before in how to spot the big
ones. Interestingly enough, almost none of the fish we had seen on
Thursday were in the same spots on Friday. Gone was the 15 pound
nuculear submarine we had spotted, gone was the pair of 10 pounders
stalking below the cliff, and gone was the big 5-8 pounder that I had
casted to for an hour. Instead, we spotted about 10 eight-pounders in
new parts of the river, but again, they did not take our offerings. We
dedicated the entire morning to fishing all sorts of bizarre setups,
with the hopes of hitting the right combo by luck or chance. I fished
some of Bruce's #24 nymphs, seatrout flies, emergers, local and foreign
streamers, and the old standbys (weighted wooly buggers and nymphs on
droppers). The closest I had to a good strike was a blue dun drifted
through a deep corner where I got one strike. One solitary rise, then
nothing for the next half hour until I quit.

Despite the desperation of the last day, it was still fun because damn,
nothing this good should be *too* easy.

Anyway, Roger and I packed up in the late afternoon, passed through
Taupo for dinner, and had a nice leisurely drive to Auckland through
the evening. He got to see the incredible southern sky for the first
time (if have never seen the southern constellations, you are really
missing something special) and we got a cheap hotel at about midnight.
At 7am, we booked it to the airport, and in the rush to find our
check-in counters, we got separated at the airport, and I had to dash
for my plane and we did not see each other again.

Anyway, our deepest thanks go to the following folks who made the
entire trip worthwhile:

Shane French at Waitahanui Cottages. This guy is a world-class host,
and went out of his way to make our stay comfortable. He even covered
the cost of our first day of fishing licenses, as he did not have the
weekly ones in stock.

Sean Andrews at the Fly and Gun Shop in Taupo who gave us a ton of free
advice that was worth considerably more than what we paid for it. This
guy got Vaughan Hurry into the biggest fish of his life, so that tells
you something.

Brenden Matthews, our local guide for a day and author of the book
"Volcanic Trout". When we told him we wanted to see Trophy Fish and did
not mind if we got skunked, he took us at our word and came through, on
both counts. :-)

The kind folks at Avis Rent-a-car who did not look too closely.

The forces of nature, who conspired to put the biggest goddam trout I
ever imagined on a tiny island just far away enough to keep the riff
raff out. And made the fish just wiley enough to outsmart a couple of
dedicated guys from the other side of the planet.

--riverman


whooboy, that was right much fun. thanks. reading your stuff makes me
realize i've gotta get with mcintosh and plot another adventure.

jeff