NZ WITH THE ORRS

We had a great time in NZ but found that most of the bigger south island browns had multiple line-burns across the top of their heads from the amount of angling attention all Summer.

The weather was a challenge anywhere near the Southern Alps. If the sun was out, it was blowing forty knots straight in your face. If the sun wasn't out, it was raining. And bloody cold either way!

Two days fishing the Mataura was a bust. Saw several hundred good fish but could only fool the pan-sized examples. The upper Oreti was very low with bugger-all flow so we left it alone.

Landed a Chinook salmon in Lake Wakitipu, my first on the fly. Dropped another after a fair fight with lots of jumps. Little EP-synthetic smelt fly I tied myself, nice!

Sadly the wild sea-run salmon were not running in the lower Rakaia but I was still happy to spend (waste) the first two days trying for one.

It has been a dry summer apparently. They were getting a few in the Waiau but we wanted to head south from Christchurch, not north.

Next trip will revert back to December, hopefully there will still be a few uneducated (or forgetful!) trout kicking around early in the season.

Meanwhile, back to the Barra...Ho-hum.....

Cheers
Tony

PS. Rebecca may still be away next weekend, she is trekking in the Kosciusko National Park with her sister this week.