Huuuurumph. Grumble garble gaaah! Those are some of the adjectives I have heard to describe the weather in the past few weeks...
B*thching aside, I have been blessed with the opportunity to hit the water here in the past few weeks and things have been decent.
The Elk preformed well as expected, small Winter Stones, Midges and larger Stone Fly nymphs all produced healthy fish both on top and underneath. I spent some time turning over stones in the river and geeking out on bugs and I am happy to report that I was seeing good numbers of insects for our Cutts to grub on. Lets pray to Mother Nature for a easy spring fresh so that we can get to fishing as soon as the Elk opens up again in June.
With the Elk closed many of us here in the Valley turn our attention east to Alberta in the hopes that we may score a pre-spawn Rainbow or a gnarly Brown.
I spent two half days on the Crow earlier this week and it was fishing. The water was carrying a bit of color from the day's surface run-off and I expect there will be more color as daytime temps rise and melt the buckets of snow all over the place. I haven't found many trout outside of their over-wintering habitat but as water temps start to rise things will certainly change. I will be heading out to check out some Tail Waters in the next couple of days and I will let you know what I find.
So with the Elk closed and Alberta sure to become a little busy in the next month or so what other angling options are there?
Well a little birdie told me that there are some Lakes in the South Country that are sans ice !!! Dust off yer lake box and get out there!!! Fishing should be hot and heavy!!! Oh!! While the lakes and Alberta are full of Khaki Ninjas you may want to consider heading over Koocanusa way and try to knock off a double digit Bull or Rainbow....
In case you don't want to go fishing you may want to take in the Fort Knox Five show tonight, its sure to be a gooder!!!
If you don't feel like dancing in public then dance in your kitchen...
I know that some of the few that read this blog are looking for some NZ content, well its coming so check back soon...
I'm currently having a car party with full wifi access, only good things can come of this...
I have now been in NZ for just over a week and I have managed to have almost too much fun and met too many funny F'n people. I have to give a big thank you to my almost friend Rohan the whore mongering Sri Lankan. I met him my second morning in Auckland and he is the reason that I found the car I am sitting in right now. So Rohan if you read this, I love you and I hope that you find or buy the woman of your dreams...
Without my car I would not have been able to fish the Wiapa River where I sight fished my first NZ brown, nor would I have been able to catch the Quasimodo Rainbow on the Ongarue. Without my ride I wouldn't have been able to share a morning coffee with Mike and Maxine on the bank of the Whakapapa....
Enough about my ride, lets talk about the color green and blackberry brambles and feral goats and fucking sand flies, rocks that are doing it wrong and about the gods and my thumb.
Everything on the North Island of New Zealand is so GREEN!!! I mean everything! Imagine any shade or hue of green and well its here, and yes its very pretty:)
Whanganui River
Black Berry Brambles....
Holy shit they suck! Take a thorn on a rose bush and make it way more evil and sharp, and then attach it to a vine that it a million feet long and will forever be exactly where you want to go... they hurt... they really hurt...
Feral Goats are super cool...
Their horns raise up slightly and then sweep backwards making them look pretty bad ass... I was walking down the Whanganui river after a nice day fiddling around with some trout when I came across a kid, of the goat variety. At first the little fella was frightened of me but apparently I speak goat and we soon became pals. We bleated back and forth a bit, he asked how the fishing was and I asked where his parents were and so on...
Sand flies... At first they pretend like there not that interested in you....
So last night I got up some time during the night to relieve my self, I unzipped my tent and a fucking blizzard of the bastards flew in. I tried my best to get them out but there is only so much one can do in the wee hours before the sun comes up...
I woke up this morning, made some coffee, and then began to feel rather uncomfortable... I think that I may have over one million sand fly bites, I'm not even joking... They had a nice little feast while I slumbered...Pricks...
Rocks are meant to sink...
Well that's I was sure of until two days ago... There I was plodding up the river when I came to a spot which required me to step down off a boulder onto what appeared to be a pebbly rocky shore... NBD right!? Well shit on a stick! I took the step down and next thing I know there is water pouring into my waders... The guide book didn't mention anything about floating fucking rocks that look like a pebbly rocky shore!!! Pumice... google it... I didn't have to...
They're doing it wrong...
Swollen thumbs are worth it...
There are things that we will remember forever, our first kiss or better yet our first lay, when we got or get married, where you were when the drunk dude in the campsite beside yours just tried to piss on your tent! That just happened!!! Baaahahaha!
Anyways, there are things that we will remember forever and for me it will be the second day I fished the Whakapapa river... I can't even put it into words... I am forever changed as an angler, I think this is how a herion addict feels knowing that they just had there friend "smack their bitch up" for the last time...
There are boulders the size of dinosaur eggs for kilometers, deep runs, old growth trees (I'll get back to you on the species), ferns, black berry brambles, blue ducks, the color green, water that looks a meter deep but is well over your head, and there are trout... big trout...
This one is for Sue & Al at the Crowsnest Cafe & Flyshop!
I walked up the river and scared myself more than once needling crossings with water lapping the top of my waders, I made cast after cast and I caught trout. I saw trout do things that I didn't think possible, I spooked trout that would retire an angler if they managed to catch them...
I sat on the side of the Whakapapa having just released a trophy trout and I thought to myself, it can't be this good because it can't really get any better... It is was at that point that I decided that I had better quit before the gods took their pound off me... They just about did...
The Whakapapa is incredibly hard to get around on, dinosaur eggs and what not, and well I slipped and watched my thumb dislocate... It hurt... but a little riverside doctoring and a few motrins will fix anything. I taped up this morning and I am happy to report that I can cast, although Joan Wulff is going to poo poo my index up steeze...
There is a low moving in tonight and its supposed blow through by mid afternoon at which point I will be headed Rangatikei way...
