The wait was over. I justified to my wife and my parents that another New Zealand trip was warranted as a present for my up coming 30th birthday. Presto myself and dad were in Southland New Zealand for another memorable trip.
After a grilling by customs, picking up the hire car and buying supplies we were off to the Mataura River near Nokomai.
We arrived later than desired but were soon greeted with feeding fish. I opened my account for the trip with a 1lb'er on a bling cast and sight fished a lovely conditioned 3lb which fort like a demon. Dad was a little unlucky with none to the bank.
27 February 2014
With success of the Mataura on our minds it was an obvious choice of where to fish and after an early start 11am.... (yes we slept in) we were back on the Mataura and it did not disappoint.
We decided to fish a section that had been fruitful on previous trips and walked over an hour down the valley. We arrived to be greeted with a guide and his clients (Damn!). The guide was nice enough to suggest another section a little further down which proved to be the best spot of the trip!.
I caught 1lb & 2lb'er from the section that the guide and his clients had fished and we headed down to the pool below (as suggested by the guide) "The Number 1 Pool". Dad hooked a couple of fish and both were lost. His account for the trip was only opened when he lightly played a 1lb'er into a snag down stream for which I had a nice dip in the icey water to retreieve. Relief!! On the scoreboard.
We then proceeded to land 4 more fish from the pool with Dad landing two more fish of 4lb & 3lb. I landed 2 more 3lb'ers. All lovely looking fish!
28 February 2014
We decided with a few fish under the belt that we would try a new river. We headed to the Upuk and hiked into the gorge. The gorge was pretty and we saw plenty of fish however there seemed to be evidence that the water had been fished over recently. Dad hooked three good fish with all three busting him off and I ended up landing a very skinny 2lb brown. We saw plenty of large fish but were unsuccessful hooking them.
1 March 2014
With a pretty lean previous day it was decided we would fish our favourite river the mighty Mataura again. We accessed it near Balfour and fish up. The day was cold as there was snow fall on the mountains surrounding our cabin in Mossburn. We worked the riffles and soon had a 3lb fish to the net each. We decided to walk further up. We figured that the further away you walk from an access point the better the fish. This proved to be the case. I landed a further 2 fish. Roughly 3lb's each. Dad was a little unlucky with a number of mid stream releases occurring. Lovely piece of river and one we no doubt will visit in future trips.
2 March 2014
With rainy weather and cloudy streams presented nearby we decided to travel to Mavora Lakes in search of clear water. Unfortunately the Didymo was terrible and we decided to carry onto a favourite river of ours. Despite the bad weather dad hooked and landed a spirited 3lb rainbow. Definitely a memorable fish given the poor weather and dads persistence. High fives all round. I managed to hook but fail to land 4 fish on the dry fly. Frustrating but exciting fishing at the same time.
3 March 2014
Poor weather was present yet again and we headed for the Eglinton River near Te Anau.
What a spectacular river. We spotted and stalked half a dozen fish for the day some of which was very large. Unfortunately we were unable to hook any of them. We also stumbled across a nice spring creek on the walk home which we found 3 fish residing in.
We had a quick flick on the Waiau river below the control gates. Dad hooked one but I had no luck. We called it a day.
4 March 2014
We woke to find ourselves looking for clear water we tried Plan A, B, C & settled on D. It was a section I had always wanted to fish and we finally did. Accessing through an unconventional access point we found ourselves casting into a swift but clear flowing river. I hooked an landed my biggest Rainbow (4lbs) to date on a nymph. It jump numerous times and dad finally netted the quarry. Unfortunately we did not hook up for the rest of the afternoon but we did have a great time throwing a few loops on a pristine under fished stretch river.
5 March 2014
With clear water still hard to find we fished the Upper Mataura high up. It was spectacular 30 mins into our fishing I spotted a smudge on the lip of a pool an threw a loop a little upstream of it. This rather large smudge moved and intercepted my nymph and we soon after landed my biggest trout to date at just a little over 5lbs. Great conditioned fish in lovely water!
We spotted half a dozen more fish before retreating to the car. We were greated by a fishing guide on the walk back which we saw earlier driving past us. I have a suspicion we were fishing water he had planned to have his client fish.
Unfortunately we had a little car trouble due to the lights being left on. Luckily Dad fixed the situation and we were back on the road. We hit a middle section of the Mataura and dad landed a nice 1lb'er. We pulled up stumps early and hit Lake Wakatipu at Kingston. Unfortunately our chosen bistro was closed so we had a quick flick of some streamers and I was rewarded with a 2lb Brown and dad hooked and lost a similar size Rainbow. We packed the rods away had a feed at Tavern up the road and return for a flick after dinner. No further fish caught.
6 March 2014
Last day we hit our favourite section of the Mataura. The day turned out to be a fantastic end to our trip. I caught 4 and dad caught 3. ranging from 2lb - 4lb. Highlights for the day included dad hooking and landing a sight fished 4lb Brown in a tricky current with me directing. Magic cast and the fish was on!
Another highlights were dads fish with the extra fin and a very large fish striking my strike indicator!
7 March 2014
Departure at 2pm meant very little opportunity for a flick but we did squeeze in a flick of the thread line at Kingston over breakfast on the way to Queenstown. We left satisfied we had enjoyed our best NZ trip to date. Plans are already a foot for the next trip which will probably take place on the completion of my accounting exams and will almost certainly include the 3 member of the Meredith fishing expeditions clan.
