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...

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