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SWEET GREEN LAND Ⅱ

A purist for fly fishing in the South Island, New Zealand

Farewell to 2016, Christmas Holiday Fishing Trip ③

As a matter of fact, I was not sure when I finish this fishing trip because I was on a long holiday.

The problem was I was nearly out of food but there was no supermarket in Mossburn, used to be one  but had been shut down. So on the Day 5, I talked to the manager of the motor camp and he told me that there was one in Lumsden, another town 20km down Mossburn. Therefore, I decided to stretch this fishing trip two more days and drove down to the town to buy some food before I got to the river.


Day6

In this morning, I tried the Oreti again fishing upstream the same beat where I caught a nice one in the Day2 morning.


I kept casting about 4hours covering distance of 1.5-2km with higher concentration.
I only saw a wounded very skinny fish on the edge and that was all, caught absolutely nothing, didn't have any chance.

River flow was getting very low, and I came to the conclusion that fishing the Oreti was not productive at all at the moment.


"Now, I have to decide where to fish, what to do."


There was a river which I fished at the end of last year's Christmas fishing trip and I caught a nice rainbow. I did not spend much time for fishing the river then. Maybe I just try the river again from another access spot, and if not good, lake fishing could be an option.



I found and took this access, one down from the access where I took to fish last year.



I had to cross this wide green. That's all right, I don't mind. Better than the Oreti's walk only zone.



Just at my second or third cast, a big rainbow smashed my Green Caddis Larva in this run!



A beautiful 4lb. hen. I chased this very strong fish further downstream to land.

A manuka beatle and a lady bug came out from her stomach. She seemed to be feeding terrestrials even though she bit my caddis larva.



Manuka beatles were here, there.



I changed my fly to dry #14Royal Wulff, one of the most typical NZ's summer flis that can gererally imitate any terrestrials.

I was expecting the next rainbow soon take this dry but not.




This is quite a big river, lots of water volume, mostly riffly fast runs like this in this section, not many pool exists.



And also, one of the worst didymo affected rivers, unfortunately.



When I came across this big spot, I felt something good because this was the only good curve in this section. Nice slower flow inside the bend and nice depth in the run. What I felt was like If I had been fishing the Oreti, fish must have been here, no doubt.

Although I made my Royal Wulff drift down in the slower water closer to myself, along the riffle and then on the riffle over and over again, no fish rose up.

But I still believed that there must have been fish in this spot definitely, didn't feel feel like walking away. So I changed my fly back to dry&nymph again, to my go-to set up #10Stimulator&#12Green Caddis Larva.



And it happend at my second cast after changing fly as I dropped the rig in the slow moving water next to the riffle.

I first thought I hooked up a big rainbow again, but in the middle of fighting, I could tell this was not a rainbow, a big brown because of its slower but stronger run and its characteristic head shaking action.


 
It was an unexpected encounter with this big brown.



Over 6.5, nearly 7lb. Jack, 25 inchs in the length.


 
A stunning brown lies on didymo river bed.



This is my best fish of this season so far. He took my #12 Caddis Larva.



I kind of struggled to fish in the first 5 days in this trip, but my efforts finally paid off holding this beauty in my hands. Yes!!!

After 90 mins fishing another spot, I came back to the same spot again because of my hunch that the spot was still holding another fish.



And I proved it by myself! Another one put a good bend in my rod.




4.5lb. hen on the same caddis fly.


 
Having a good and sharp hunch is always important to be a good fisherman I think.


 
The end of Day6.



All right. Tomorrow will be the last day. Maybe I just explore this river half a day again, and then  on my way back to Dunedin, stop around Gore to have some evening rise fishing to finish this trip.



Day7


Weatherwise, the last day was the best. According to the forecast, it was gonna be a long fine spell today. Although it had always been windy during this trip, I finally had a nice and calm morning.
So I drove straight to the same river.



Got a first fish on!




Nice 3lb. jack.





The second fish was another jack of the same size.
Quite good average size rainbows in this river.


 

And then, the third fish was a brown, 3.5lb. hen.



Lovely fish!



Fun to tour the new water.



I'm in again with the 4th fish!



18 inches rainbow on dry.



After 1PM, I felt fish stopped feeding.


 
My Loop Evotec is always a perfect all-rounder when fishing large rivers like this as well as still waters.


.
Well, Good time to stop fishing here. I just walked back to my car, had some break and got on my way back to Gore.


In the evening, I fished the same beat as I did on the Day1 in this trip out of the lower Mataura.



My Scott G2 905/4 was chosen to end this fishing trip because I hadn't fished any on this rod in this season yet somehow. So why not give it a go to come into play.



And did a good job for me!



I caught three fish on dry all in good size range of 18-20inches. 

Just lost one fish getting 5x tippet broken.

I think my matching the hatch for the Mataura has now been improved. There're still a lot more to refine but way better than before.



Caught seven fish all together today. I was pleased at having the best day for the last day of this long trip.


Thought after the trip

I was expecting Oreti River to be the highlight of this trip, but at the same time, I knew it was not a easy river so fishing was gonna be harder.

This time, I tried to explore new parts out of each river where I had fished at least once before searching for a better spot. If I hadn't done it, the successes on the Day6 and 7 woudn't have happend. And in that way, I thought I had a reasonably good fishing. It always takes time to bring everything into play to be able to fish when fishing on the waters where you don't know about very well.


Now that we are already in new year 2017, I have to catch my new year fish during the rest of my holiday.

What's gonna be my first fish for 2017?

Happy New Year and Tight Lines!!
PR