Fat old fish

One last fish to post... my biggest of the trip so far.. about 7lb.... so thats it from our last 2 weeks.. we are showering up.. eating good food... resting and getting ready to head back in the bush for another 8 day trip... we have a travel day tomorrow.. going to visit with a local legend Peter Carty and then off to another river.. time to start looking for a BIG fish... Things have been great so far hopefully they stay... Will write another update in about 10 days or so... please feel free to shoot me an email if you have time... would love to hear from friends... also check the web album for more pics... more to come

http://picasaweb.google.com/joshxcski/NewZealand2009

A few more

A little blue sky and dry fly fishing... weather has been pretty good so far... some rain here and there but nothing major...

Mouse Plague?

There have been lots of rumors of a mouse plague... the true sign of fish eating lots of mice is their anus gets swollen from passing vertebrates! take a look at the fish john is holding... bet there are a few mice in there!

Grip and Grin

Here they come fast and furious... caught these 4 fish all in the same day.. 3 of them actually came from the same pool! Two of them ate dry flies... two of them ate nymphs suspended about a foot under a dry...

Worth the walk

We have hiked around 120 miles so far on this trip... some of the rivers that have a track along it actually have some pretty cool swing bridges... as you can see when we fish we are dressed in beautiful olive and camo... the water is so clear and the fish can be very spooky... On my last trip to New Zealand I didnt think it would make a difference... I am now a believer... the more camo you are the less the fish see you... I think it has made a huge difference in our success... the last pic is on top of the pass we came over on the last day... it was such a beautiful morning... 9 am climb then hike to the ocean 9 miles away...

Sandflies

Just wanted to let you all know about a fun little bug called a sand fly... these little guys LOVE fisherman... they can smell you... this is what i woke up to one morning... it took me 20 min to get up enough courage to make a run for it out of my tent... they were waiting so patiently!

Smile Mr. Brown Trout

Here are a few of just the fish... check out the red spots on one of those guys... more pics of this fish in the photo album

13 Days in the Bush

Here are a few scenery shots... The first picture is looking down at a big deep pool... spotting a fish and getting ready to climb down to him... I did manage to get down... water was waste deep... waiting 30 min for him to drop back enough in the pool that i could reach him... cast about 60 feet... he ate the fly.. I hooked him... he ran straight at me... then turned and bolted back the other way... snapped my 4x like it was tinsel... should have used 3x...

Chopper Ride

So for many anglers who come to New Zealand a helicopter is a must... since we cant afford much helicopter time we decided to hire one to take us one way about 2-3 days walk deep into a national park... of course in a helicopter you cover this same ground in about 20 minutes... We would then walk and fish our way out... 45 miles some on trails some bush wacking... We met wayne and the helicopter pad... he literally flew in from who knows where... never stopped the chopper... jumped out... grabbed our bags... through them in the helicopter... told us to get in and put on our seatbelts... no safety instructions... he literally said... get the hell in we have to get going... we jumped in... found our seatbelts... put on our head phones and away we went... 25 miles up a gorge... we flew along the river it looked so small beneath us... he explained the area a little bit.. we flew around a no fly zone and landed at our hut we were going to spend a few days at... the rain and wind were pretty bad making for a pretty wild ride... gusts of wind would come through the gorge and it felt like we were flying almost sideways... he dropped us literally 15 feet from the door... never shut off the propellers... had us jump out grab our gear and said "See ya in a couple of weeks mate!" it was pretty amazing to be sitting a town eating breakfast one morning and then be 3 days from any road in less than 30 min... well this was day one of our 13 day adventure....

Big Brown Trout

Well here is John's 7.5 pound brown from our first backcountry trip... this is John's biggest brown ever... this fish was awesome and took john down that rapid right behind him... more updates to come... we are heading to the helicopter pad to fly out this morning... we will be deep in a national park and be fishing our way out... should fish 4 rivers in about 13 days... will be back with more update... to see more pics check out my webalbum
http://picasaweb.google.com/joshxcski/NewZealand2009

Fish porn

Here are a few fish from the last trip... a few nice ones :)

Scenery shots

A few more scenery shots from the gorge and up on the smaller stream... drying out some wet clothes from the rain and deep river crossings...

Camp life

These are a few shots from backpacking life... food is pretty basic... oatmeal in the morning... peanut butter and something for lunch... rice beans veggies for dinner... try to pack light but bring enough... not very gormet

Notes from New Zealand

Well it has been a while since I have posted but from here out I should post about every ten days... I am writing from the town of Karamea on the South Island of New Zealand.... After the guiding wound down in mid October I tied some flies, packed my stuff and headed to NZ... We flew into Christchurch on Nov. 3rd secured a car and off we went... We headed to the West Coast of the island.... The west coast can be very wet at times but has tons of rivers to explore... We chose a rive that had a couple of branches to explore as well as some nice tributaries... we hiked 12 miles to reach the junction where there was a hut... what seemed like an easy hike with a full load turned into a grueling march.... at about mile 7 you start to cross earthquake slides called "slips" .... These took quite a bit of time to move through but we eventually made it to our hut... We fished our first few days up the northern branch... we slowly moved our camp up the river until we hit a pretty serious gorge... Fishing was good right up through the gorge... we spotted a decent number of fish... most of the fish we were catching were averaging 5 pounds or so... after fishing up in the gorge we decided to head back down to the hut for the last 2 days and fish one of the many tributaries..... Fishing on the tribs was great... we spotted more fish but they were a little smaller... the fish in the smaller streams were easier... we were probably the first people this year to fish the smaller river... Almost all the fish we sighted ate the fly... Most of the fish were were seeing were nymphing or eating emergers... Most of the fish ate nymphs dropped behind a dry fly anywhere from 1 to 3 feet deep... It is pretty amazing to watch a 6 pound brown trout swing over 2 feet and eat you nymph a foot under the surface... I am definitely a dry fly fisherman at heart but sight nymphing a trout is just as rewarding for me... after 5 days of fishing and 7 nights in the bush we decided to hike the 12 miles back out and head for town... we will spend today showering, eating good food, and reorganzing for our next trip that starts tomorrow... I will post some more pictures and details this evening... Here are the first fish that both of us caught here in NZ... more to come