Here is a cool shot of Marty and Little Josh standing around our campfire.. it is about 8pm we are drying off and eating some dinner... it is pretty amazing to be standing around a campfire on Xmas eve... More pics to come from Marty and Josh's camera
Friday, December 25, 2009
Camp Life
Here is a cool shot of Marty and Little Josh standing around our campfire.. it is about 8pm we are drying off and eating some dinner... it is pretty amazing to be standing around a campfire on Xmas eve... More pics to come from Marty and Josh's camera
Ninja Fishing
A lot of our pictures we take our buffs off but sometimes the bugs are so bad we just leave them on... we wear buffs on our face mostly just to keep the bugs off but also sun protection and to keep camoflauged when spotting trout... I could not imagine fishing in New Zealand without a couple of buffs and some sun gloves!
Random Shots
Josh and Marty landing a fish in some faster water... Marty Kayaking his gear back and forth... Little Josh putting the wood to a fish....
Crazy Fish
Here is a sequence of Marty fishing to a fish you can see next to the log... after a few casts he hooked the fish and was able to land the 4.5 lb fish in a few really hard strips... Little Josh jumped on it and scopped it up... this all happened in about 30 seconds... 
Chopper trip
T
he boys and I have just returned from a 5 day trip into one of the most remote rivers in New Zealand... We had to helicopter into this river... It is nearly impossible to walk to... I have read in a hut book that numerous people have attempted to walk to this river and have gotten lost... nearly drowned... and were forced to return... it requires crossing a big river and climbing through gorges on either side... Wayne the helicopter pilot told us that he has only met one person that was able to walk in there.... Anyways we took a chopper in and dropped off some kayaks to get across the river....
We hiked an hour from the drop off point took our kayaks across and away we went... the first pool we came upon had 6 trout swinging around eating nymphs.. we hurried to get a camp set up and get fishing.... it was evening time so we made our camp and fished for a couple of hours... The next day we started early and fished long and hard... we ate out normal oatmeal and raisins and took off... Right from the get go we started landing fish... this river is so remote it sees maybe 10 parties a year... the fish were obviously not educated... I have never caught so many fish in New Zealand... we landed fish after fish.. working our way up from each pool... we kept trying to skip the faster water but every time you looked in front of a rock or on a seam there was a 4 pound brown swinging in the current... it got ridiculous... it is easy to get spoiled by this kind of fishing... we landed 18 trout that day... we made a big fire and slept hard...
The following day we moved camp up about 4 miles and fished the afternoon... we got stuck on a couple of bigger pools within the first mile of camp... there were so many fish that we would be fishing to a fish we spotted and you would get intercepted by some other fish that swung over and ate your fly... I would be spotting... staring at the fish... watching the dry fly coming down... then out of no where a fish would rocket up from the bottom and eat the fly 4 feet in front of the intended fish... After a 3 hour bush bash and 6 hours of fishing we were beat and passed out...
Our last full day of fishing we started early... after breakfast we started up the river around 9am... we fished our way up through a couple of gorges trying not to stop on every fish... .we really wanted to explore this river and see if we could find some bigger fish... at this point we had landed around 30 fish and they all were in a slot of 3.5 to 5.75 pounds... we covered more water this day and did not fish as well... we landed plenty of fish but all three of us went through some rough patches... I think i hooked 4 fish in a row without landing one of them... Little josh went through a streak like i have never seen... he seriously broke off 6 fish in a row.. ON 3x tippet! Josh was not laughing but he was all smiles when he finally landed a few after that... We fished until about 7:30 and then realized we better head back to camp before it gets dark... It is nice here in NZ... it does not get dark until about 9:30 but there are no trails on this river... we bush bashed our was back to our camp... because of the weather forecast we decided that we better be cautious and come out a little early...
The next day we banged and crashed our way back to the botttom of the river... we were able to find a better route back to the confluence so we made pretty good time...when you are bush wacking with no trail it is hard to see where you are stepping sometimes.. this causes you to lead with your foot and as a result your shin seems to lead the way... It is amazing how bloody your shins will get when you crack them on 1038402844 logs and rocks in 5 days... anyways we fished the bottom section of the river for the afternoon... kayaked across the river and made our way down to the edge of the wilderness area where our helicopter was coming to pick us up... It is Christmas day.... Wayne came ripping in on his helicopter wearing shorts and sandals... told us to jump in and away we went... in a flash we were back in civilization... It is strange how you can be in one of the most remote areas in the whole country and be back to your car in under 20 minutes... I think I need to buy a helicopter! We spent our Christmas evening at the Rongo in Karamea... they had a big feast with about 20 people... Roasted Lamb... Lasagna... all kinds of food... this is really what we needed... It was kind of strange eating Xmas dinner in shorts and T shirts outside in the sun.... There was a great sunset tonight and summer is finally in full swing... All three of us are a little sun burned from the last couple of days..
We are now headed down to Queenstown... We will be stopping on our way to fish a little bit but we are mostly going to take our time.. relax a little bit and spend some time on the beach... We are going to spend New Years in Queenstown and then get back after it.... I will be meeting up with my dad and step mother in Queenstown and will spend 8 days with them... Little Josh and Marty will go fish a few rivers in the area and then we will join up again on Jan 10 to spend our last few weeks explore some more rivers...
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a great New Year... See you all in February!
he boys and I have just returned from a 5 day trip into one of the most remote rivers in New Zealand... We had to helicopter into this river... It is nearly impossible to walk to... I have read in a hut book that numerous people have attempted to walk to this river and have gotten lost... nearly drowned... and were forced to return... it requires crossing a big river and climbing through gorges on either side... Wayne the helicopter pilot told us that he has only met one person that was able to walk in there.... Anyways we took a chopper in and dropped off some kayaks to get across the river....We hiked an hour from the drop off point took our kayaks across and away we went... the first pool we came upon had 6 trout swinging around eating nymphs.. we hurried to get a camp set up and get fishing.... it was evening time so we made our camp and fished for a couple of hours... The next day we started early and fished long and hard... we ate out normal oatmeal and raisins and took off... Right from the get go we started landing fish... this river is so remote it sees maybe 10 parties a year... the fish were obviously not educated... I have never caught so many fish in New Zealand... we landed fish after fish.. working our way up from each pool... we kept trying to skip the faster water but every time you looked in front of a rock or on a seam there was a 4 pound brown swinging in the current... it got ridiculous... it is easy to get spoiled by this kind of fishing... we landed 18 trout that day... we made a big fire and slept hard...
The following day we moved camp up about 4 miles and fished the afternoon... we got stuck on a couple of bigger pools within the first mile of camp... there were so many fish that we would be fishing to a fish we spotted and you would get intercepted by some other fish that swung over and ate your fly... I would be spotting... staring at the fish... watching the dry fly coming down... then out of no where a fish would rocket up from the bottom and eat the fly 4 feet in front of the intended fish... After a 3 hour bush bash and 6 hours of fishing we were beat and passed out...
Our last full day of fishing we started early... after breakfast we started up the river around 9am... we fished our way up through a couple of gorges trying not to stop on every fish... .we really wanted to explore this river and see if we could find some bigger fish... at this point we had landed around 30 fish and they all were in a slot of 3.5 to 5.75 pounds... we covered more water this day and did not fish as well... we landed plenty of fish but all three of us went through some rough patches... I think i hooked 4 fish in a row without landing one of them... Little josh went through a streak like i have never seen... he seriously broke off 6 fish in a row.. ON 3x tippet! Josh was not laughing but he was all smiles when he finally landed a few after that... We fished until about 7:30 and then realized we better head back to camp before it gets dark... It is nice here in NZ... it does not get dark until about 9:30 but there are no trails on this river... we bush bashed our was back to our camp... because of the weather forecast we decided that we better be cautious and come out a little early...
The next day we banged and crashed our way back to the botttom of the river... we were able to find a better route back to the confluence so we made pretty good time...when you are bush wacking with no trail it is hard to see where you are stepping sometimes.. this causes you to lead with your foot and as a result your shin seems to lead the way... It is amazing how bloody your shins will get when you crack them on 1038402844 logs and rocks in 5 days... anyways we fished the bottom section of the river for the afternoon... kayaked across the river and made our way down to the edge of the wilderness area where our helicopter was coming to pick us up... It is Christmas day.... Wayne came ripping in on his helicopter wearing shorts and sandals... told us to jump in and away we went... in a flash we were back in civilization... It is strange how you can be in one of the most remote areas in the whole country and be back to your car in under 20 minutes... I think I need to buy a helicopter! We spent our Christmas evening at the Rongo in Karamea... they had a big feast with about 20 people... Roasted Lamb... Lasagna... all kinds of food... this is really what we needed... It was kind of strange eating Xmas dinner in shorts and T shirts outside in the sun.... There was a great sunset tonight and summer is finally in full swing... All three of us are a little sun burned from the last couple of days..
We are now headed down to Queenstown... We will be stopping on our way to fish a little bit but we are mostly going to take our time.. relax a little bit and spend some time on the beach... We are going to spend New Years in Queenstown and then get back after it.... I will be meeting up with my dad and step mother in Queenstown and will spend 8 days with them... Little Josh and Marty will go fish a few rivers in the area and then we will join up again on Jan 10 to spend our last few weeks explore some more rivers...
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a great New Year... See you all in February!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Loops
Little Josh took this picture of me casting to a fish in front of a big rock.. we spotted this fish two different days but were unable to get him to eat... Need more practice!
Stalking
Marty and Josh stalking some fish in pocket water... the fish Marty is looking at is literally 6 feet on the other side of that rock!
Waterfall
Here is a pretty cool shot of a small waterfall... there is just so much water in New Zealand it seems to come seeping out of everything...
Pre Flood
I landed this 6lb fish on the last day before the rain... Josh's fish was the one that took him down the rapid... Photo Credits go to Peter Carty on the last one... We met up with him last night and he bet us we could not eat 2 burgers each from the pub... Peter lost... he underestimated how much oatmeal we had been eating... 
Monsoon Season
Well I think it is monsoon season here in New Zealand... Marty, Josh and I headed out 5 days ago up a west coast river to try and explore a new river... We packed up all our gear... food for 7 days and started up the river... We hiked straight for 2 hours until we found a suitable camp site up river... Set up camp and got an afternoon of fishing in.... Marty landed his first trout in NZ and we had a few other hook ups... the next morning we packed up fished our way up in search of a higher camp site... We fished our way up and made it up another 4 or so miles.. Set up camp, landed a few nice fish above camp and got ourselves in position to have a few good days on the upper stretch of river... The next morning we started early and covered lots of water... we landed 6 fish between us included a few 5-6lb fish... marty and josh both hooked fish that took them swimming down some rapids... this was pretty funny to watch them chasing these fish down rapids swimming around and behind boulders trying to get ahold of these fish... Josh managed to land his and marty's pulled out... we worked our way up high on the river spotting some big fish... spooking some and landing a few... the water was not perfectly clear it was slightly high and tea colored... that night we got back to camp with plans of making it to the top section the next day...Just as we got into bed it started to shower... then it all CHANGED... I woke up that morning to marty yelling my name... it was 6:15 in the morning and I couldn't figure out what he wanted... i yelled back and he said "You better come out here".... It was still raining and I did not want to get out of my sleeping bag... I could hear the river behind us but it didnt sound any different than the night before... Boy was I wrong... I got out of my tent out in the rain and looked at the river... i almost fell over... the river had come up 6 to 8 feet!!!! the river was 2 feet from martys tent and coming up... It really didn't seem to rain that hard but it is a big drainage and we were in trouble... of course we were camped on an island... the creek behind us was raging! We scrambled... packed all of our wet crap into our bags and made a mad dash for it... we got to the creek and debated a few times the best way to get across... we decided to link arms and make it into the middle behind a rock... this worked ok for a while but with 50lb packs on your back it was pretty crazy... the last part was a 15 foot swim in some pretty fast water... we put the packs around one arm and floated/swam down the river... marty made it to the other side safely... then me... then little josh... it was pretty intense... we were pretty pumped up once we got across the river but then we realized we had a LONG walk out... we had walked up the river bottom most of the way and now there was no chance of that... there was no trail on this river and we are on the west coast... this turned into an 8 hour bushwhack! it was really rough... because the river is gorgy there was a lot of up and down... because there was no trail you couldnt tell which was better.. .you would go up for a bit... then climb down... to turn back around and go back up... we covered about 6 miles in 8 hours... it took FOREVER! we finally reached the car bruised and battered... Of course we arrive to a dead battery and a nice rock someone decided to throw through our rear window... that was real nice.. we got a jumped... cleaned the glass out and headed back to town... luckily we had been warned about this river and left all of our gear and valuables at a hostel... so we are showered and well fed now and are trying to get on a helicopter to fly into a remote river in a couple of days... We will be around for 2 more days then fly out on the 23rd into a very remote part of NZ...
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Josh and Blaine
Here are a couple of shots of Josh's fishing a few weeks ago... Josh had been traveling around with his brother Blaine and friend Dan.. they did some fishing while traveling from the North to the South island... Marty and I just picked up Josh and inherited Blaine and Dan's car... more fish to come... headed into the backcountry tomorrow... be back in a week
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