A week out, the forecast for my trip to Queenstown was looking like rubbish – rain every day. I called a mate who fishes NZ regularly for some backup options should floods and high water hit. He made some suggestions, but then added that New Zealand forecasts are notoriously unreliable, and more than 5 days out, you might as well throw darts at a board! His advice was to wait a bit before panicking.
On the way in.Well, my friend couldn’t have picked it better. As my departure date approached, any rain in the forecast slowly dissolved day by day until there was none left! As I parked my car at the trailhead midway through the trip, shouldered my day pack and began walking up the track, the rain and inclement weather had vanished like a bad dream. The river was flowing at a comfortable height and with that stunning blue-tinged clarity that only New Zealand streams have. The air was mild, the bugs were busy and the partly cloudy sky held no threat.
Perfect water.The next several hours were fantastic. There were plenty of good browns about and it was incredible to watch these big fish saunter up and take my Blowfly Humpy (green & black). I missed a few on the strike, but with all that practice I ended up hooking and landing three beauties between 4 and 5½ pounds. As a bonus, several smaller rainbows grabbed the trailing black nymph.
A typical brown.Besides one little tumble off a rock face into a deep pool (thank goodness for camera dry bags!) it was a perfect day. By the time I reluctantly reeled in for the last time, it was later in the day than it should have been, but finishing the walk out in the dark seemed a small price to pay.
