Living the life.

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Time marches on and I need to get a couple of items on this so I don't forget what happened. As I said I had a lot of time to look at a number of rivers in the Bay while I was there looking after Holly. There is so much on offer and you can be fishing inside 30 minutes or you can drive for an hour to a spot, you can fish a big braided river or a number of quite tributaries. My first venture was to the head waters of the Tutaekuri, an hours drive but beautiful water. I saw a couple of fish but didn't hook up. The wind was so strong it was blowing my line across the water. A place to go back to as there is heaps of water to explore. Warwick and I went to a small tributory of the Ngaruroro, called the O'Hara Stream. Magic waters and we saw a number of fish but didn't suceed in tempting them. Wind a problem again. I fished the Ngaruroro River were it is very braided and succeeded in catching my first Bay fish. It was only about 25cm but loads of fun. I found it quite hard to decide were to fish in this braided river as there was about 3 braids that carried good flows. One day I went down to Waipukurau to fish the Tukituki but found it quite coloured so went to a tributory of the Waipawa river called the Mangaonuku Stream. If I was living in the Bay, I would probably visit this stream early season, quite a lot. Saw lots of fish and had 3 break offs and 1 fish, from 2 visits. Easy access, easy wading and walking and a nice place to be. I have a hell of a lot to learn in how to fish these rivers as it was frustrating to fish to fish you could see and have no takers. The first fish that I hooked was fantastic and jumped and ran for a few minutes while I had the feeling that I was never in control, and finally broke me. The adrenilin rush was still going after the 40 minute drive home. Next visit I had another one like this that I had on for aleast 8 to 10 minutes, as I was being very careful. It took me down the pool for about 100 mts and I actually had it on the edge once when he took of again and then broke me. Took a little time to come back down from that but thats the breaks. These 2 fish were not huge, but just seemed to be extra powerful and looked to be very deep in body and carrying great condition. I am also using my weight 6 rod and line with 5lb fluro leader, so the lighter tackle may make the differance. I also experienced a very good rise in a pool late in the evening, and once I changed to a small Royal Wuff, I got 3 fish to take but stuffed up the strike, forgetting the pause through to much excitement. Another visit to the O'Hara stream saw me frustrated once again in seeing, but not suceeding as much as I would like. I got one nice fish but I lost another really nice fish through breaking off. As I said, I have a lot to learn in the Bay, but look forward to continuing to discover and learn. Some photo's below.

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Photos

Small rainbow
My first Bay trout. Not big but heaps of fun. From the Ngaruroro.

O'Hara Stream
A typical pool. There were about 6 trout in this pool but they didn't like me.

Nice fish
From the O'Hara and it didn't get away.

From the Mangaonuku
This fish went ballistic with jumps and runs.

Beautiful pool.
The fish in the last photo took at the very top of this pool and this is were I landed it.

Another beautiful pool
A fish took me at the top of this pool and after 100 mts broke me. Them's the breaks.