johnwalkley 24 Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 Well, just got back from my annual New Zealand trip. Had an absolute blast on kingfish, salmon (kahawai or KY) and Trout, i also made some awesome video footage too which ill post up next week.Day1. Saw me in Waiwera north of Auckland for a touch of landbased plastics off the rocks for snapper. I only ended up landing one and some wrass thing, missed a few hits here and there but 30nt winds didn’t help and restriced where i could fish.Day2. I headed down south for the next 3 days to Rotorua, ‘my favorte trout spot’ on the way i stopped at a place near Paeroa on the way to fish a BIG gorge that i know holds a good head of rainbows. What was interesting though was i saw 30-40cm trout schooling! In schools of 10-25 fish, very strange, and they wouldn’t take a lure or fly either. I did manage to hook 3 rainbows in the gorge biggest being 2.5lb one on fly and two on SP, this is a big bouldery gorge so it was though going and didn’t hold the quantity that i expected from my last trip down there. I made the decision to go 5km away and fish a smaller tributary stream that feeds this monster river. This river was more to my liking and a delight to fish. I saw maybe 10-15 fish and managed to hook and land 2 rainbows on a mudler dry fly on my brand spanking ‘nitro innovator 3#’ fly rod “christened!†i also lost 2 fish one of which busted me, he came out of the water about 4foot high and tore off up stream, i was fishing a nymph under the dry so im not sure if the nymph caught, but i think my tippet knot caught between two stones and SNAP, down 2 fly’s he would have gone 3lb. The 2 rainbows i caught here went 1.5 and about 2lb i then made a 1.5hr drive to Rotorua and at 6pm i fished a river i know that feeds the lake there and is known for monster trout. Well the numbers were low, but there were some monsters in there. Several between 5-9lb and a few double figures around, they didn’t want to take a fly thought and were good at acting like logs so they wernt feeding at all. So it was off to the hotel for a few bevvies.The gorge trout schooling trout from the gorge trout from the gorge trout from the gorge the other stream 3wt christened 2nd fish on the 3wt Day 3. Woke up at a gentlemans hour and i payed for it. Should have thought well it is Christmas time so should get to my spots first. Anyway i fished the ngongataha river which is their most popular river. I found a SIGNED angler access point that didn’t have 3 cars parked there so i had a 300m stretch of river to myself. Blowing 30nt in my face again but that didn’t phase me, but i should have used the 7wt rod and the 3wt was struggling in the wind but i managed. Spent 2 hours fishing the stretch and spooked uncountable numbers of trout up to 6lb SPEWING.. but then i saw this rainbow infront of me, i thought i may have seen him too late and spooked him because he stopped feeding. I made a hasty struggle to get some line of and sort out a blasted tip wrap and noticed the fish was doing a backwards drift in 30cm of water towards me (not a good sign) made a hasty 4m cast and landed my dry with a dropper smack on his head. Instead of bolting he rolled on the nymph and HOOK UP !! finally! After a spirited fight i landed a lovely raimbow of just over 3.2lb. (had one of those nets with a fairly accurate scale on it. Spooked a few more fish and made it to a SIGNED angler exit (man those kiwis really know how to look after their tourism) not like our SA water. In hte arvo i went back to the stream with the monster trout in it. And had fun loosing the biggest trout of my life! it was a brown of est 8-9lb who fell to a squidgy bounced directly towards him and he responded with an aggressive strike and a ‘salmon’ jump which looked awesome. He tore off upstream and all i could say was ‘not the undercut bank with the blackberries!!!’ (jynx) (ping) and it was all over. I was fishing 10lb braid on my sol 2500 and 10lb fluro leader. Gutted!. But thats tnot all! I then saw a fish est 12 – 15lb!! After 40 casts with the plastic one cast got it right and bounced right towards him, thats when the log came to life with a solid THUMP and i was on!!! ....... briefly..... after a 30second fight he went downstream in the current side on while doing solid head shakes, it had to happen. SNAP goes the fluro. This wish would have been a good 90-100cm thicker than my thigh and a mouth like two open hands wrist together! HUGE! And got away. Went and fished a few river mouths with not much luck and went back to that river but down stream a bit and pulled a nice 3.5lb trout on plastic with a weird as bottom jaw. Anyway before i left i saw a Canadian dude under the bridge. After chatting for a while he showed me his score. He had 4 trout teathered the largest being 7.5lb! he just stayed in the same spot for 6 hours chech nymphing and just kept chaching fish that migrated up the the small waterfall. Crazy. Being 4pm and being nackered i went to this awesome river i know of 26km away. Clear as! Ferns all draping in, nice pools and water falls and it runs at a schorching 38degrees! Natural spa pool! Chilled there for like 3 hours. Gotta love the thermal spots for recharging the batteries.3.2lb trout 3,2 lb trout 3.2lb trout http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC170207.jpg3.2lb trout http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC170209.jpgFunny jaw http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC170213.jpgCanadian dude http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC170210.jpgDay4. I hired a guide for the day to fish the eastern region about 1 hour north of rotorua. He was Miles Rushmer and i highly recommend him, it was the best experience of the trip. Prior to meeting him i went to the spot the Canadian was fishing and tried chech nymphing with no luck. One cast of a plastic and BANG 4.5lb rainbow that was an absolute handful in the well oxygenated water. Surges, jumps, flips, snags, banks ect after a good 5- 10min i got him into the net. My biggest LANDED fish so far. Met up with miles with the plan to break the day up between 3 different spots. First saw me catch a small rainbow first cast in the main river and the proceeded to stuff up about 10 or 12 opportunities before i made a blind cast to the side and infront of a pressure wave caused by a submerged rock and as expected but un expected there was a 5lb brown trout which took a liking to the dry and proceded to go upstream and hand my ass to me on a plate. LOST. Missed a few more shots and off the the next location. From the bush to the farmland and a cattle dirtied river, we struggled to find some fish here but the first one we sighted was a 8lb rainbow in a a mini gorge. Didn’t take. The next was a brown trout openly feeding near the surface of a deep hole. Made an awesome presentation and the trout responded! A nice brown of 3.5lb! and wicked colour too. A short while later we spotted a plump rainbow of 3.5lb feeding on the surface on a bubble line. I made a wayward cast which landed 1m outside the bubble line but this trout wanted that size16 parachute adams. This thing tore off up and down the run several times with nice jumps and was a struggle to land. The last spot produced a lovely rainbow in a tricky spot. Feeding infront of a massive boulder in the middle of the river. The only way was to wet wade in the chilly water almost ‘too deep’ got behind the boulder and did 3 bow and arrow casts with a nymph and we were on to a spirited 4.5lb rainbow on my 3wt! After a tough crossing back to the bank with the fish on and a short fight produced a nice rainbow. Well my 3 days in rotorua was over and back 3hours to Auckland.4.5lb trout http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC180216.jpg4.5lb trout http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC180217.jpgThe brown http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC180219.jpgThe brown http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC180221.jpgRainbow 1 http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC180224.jpgThe big rainbow http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC180228.jpgDay5 just before chrissie i went back down to rotorua with my brother to get some trout. I landed 1 3lb trout and he also landed a 3lber and one a little smaller. We fished the big trout river with no luck, however the numbers had increased and in one spot i saw 9 trout ranging to 8lb all within 3m of each other and spooky as!. We fished a few more spots for a few takes and misses and that was the end of the day, with a quick stop at the thermal river before completing our 6hour drive round trip.Day6. Kingfish in the Auckland harbour! Went out on my dads 5.30 centre console the first windless day in a week and a half! with my flyrod in hand, this time using the 7wt with a type 6 full sink line. We went to the channel bouys where the kings live and had a blast catching kings upto 75cm on my fly rod, screaming drag and bruised knuckles and arms like lead were the result of landing 2 dozen of them, and a further dozen on my medium conventional diawa mullie outfit on plastics. They took a liking to heavy clousers and keel fly’s, one of which was maggot21’s fly which caught its fair share. We would sit side on to the bouy id cast up current and let it sink. When just underneath the bouy a couple of fast strips produced fish almost everytime! Then we had to slow motor with tight lines away from the bouy while walking the fish like a dog into open water where i could fight them cleanly with no chains. It was a TOP day!http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC220251.jpghttp://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC220255.jpghttp://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC220262.jpghttp://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC220264.jpghttp://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC220266.jpghttp://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC220267.jpghttp://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC220269.jpgDay7. My final day of fishing but ill get to that later. Went north a bit to find some bigger kings. After spending an hour chasing gannets and various other birds over the horizon and not finding a work up we gave up and went back to plan A.. king fish. With a fresh bouy in our sights i thought id cast a popper to see if anyone was home. Hello... 1st cast and 2 kings monstered the popper “one of those free ones that came with fishing world†he came to bang on a meter and gave a nice fight on conventional. There was another king there so i was going to chuck a fly and i was tying it on when two random boats came up and frothed the water white with poppers while were were still there. Oh well, i got one they got none! So we moved on to “flat rock†an open water Bommie/island come out of 40m of water. We found a massive school of salmon holding on a pressure wave over a bommie, spent the next 2 hours pulling 3lb+ salmon hand over fist on fly while poppers and SP didn’t catch a thing. They had a real liking for my micro surf candies and small popper flies. We decided to try the bouy again. After 2 casts with a garfish fly deep sunk on the bouy a 40KG king came up after it!!! He inhaled while i pulled the fly so he missed. Luckily as i could see a broken rod and a shredded fly line in my head anyway as luck would have it the motor wouldn’t start. The starter motor on the brand new 80hp shat itself so even if i hooked it we could have never got away from the bouy. So it was lucky. After putt putting for an hour on a 3.5hp we tried the motor again. After a few minutes we finaly got it going and made it back to the ramp.http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC260298.jpghttp://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC260301.jpgSurf candie notice the bommie/island in the background http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC260303.jpghttp://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll173/johnwalkley/PC260304.jpgWell after all that typing i have finaly finished this epic post. Hope you all enjoyed the read.Keep an eye out for the videos to come in the next week!john Quote Link to post Share on other sites
catch-nun 2 Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 what a quality post. one of the best I have had the pleasure to look at.have never seen so many clear and descriptive pics on a forum post. well done.will read the story tomorrow ;Dps..........any more photos :icon_e_biggrin: :icon_e_biggrin: :icon_e_biggrin: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benny 1 Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 Geez mate NZ sounds like heaven! Top pictures and a top report! karma to ya! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest addict Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 cracker post mate.Some lovely trout to and a nice quality kingfish to.Can definatly see you had a wonderful holiday. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jagger 24 Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 All I can say is WOW..... well done mate, trip of a life time Quote Link to post Share on other sites
brenton 637 Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 Quality alround John,as per usual. cheers brenton Quote Link to post Share on other sites
blackbeard 0 Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 top post mate - I love the picture of the school of trout I would love to be there . I holidayed in New Zealand 2 years ago but I only spent 1 afternoon fishing . I purchased two hand lines and a bag of pillies from a tackle shop and went to the top of a waterfall not far from where I was staying. We stood on a 20 ft cliff and fished the water below . Unreal we were hit almost straight away by Australian Salmon a good bit of fun on the hand lines. New Zealand is a great place to fish . Every body of fresh water you looked in there where trout . In Fact - a true story : it rained one day and I saw 2 trout swimming up the gutter . Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChuckTseeker 425 Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 great read and photos yet again John, your fishing adventures are becoming legendarykeep them coming matecheers chuckPS can't wait for the movies Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stu83 1 Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 Agreed.Top post and I think i speak for everyone when i say we ENVY you. ;DYou had a ball, I bet!!!! ;)Cheerstu Quote Link to post Share on other sites
urhookedfish 12 Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 Johnny, give me a buzz on me home phone and come round for a brew and a chat.Killer post.How come I didnt get an invite to NZ.Just bloody joking...I couldnt afford that.Looks like a cracking rainbow or two landed. Kingie looks awesome as well bro. :o :o :o :ops my mobile number has died as of last saturday.just call me on 8325 0074.Got to tell you bout some killer trips chasing reds.The photos taken are trully sensational. I love the way you always get great pictures. Nice one. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nicol 0 Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 Rotorua, my favorte trout spoti live 20 min from Taupo and Rotorua Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benny 1 Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Dunno if I told this to ya nicol, but ya are a lucky bugger! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nicol 0 Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 haha trust me those trout are small ones :Pwait till ya try the bottom of lake taupo you get HUGE ones Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Brooksey_134 1 Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 awsome awsome stuf! photos are way better than just reading a post and youv provided sum wiked pics at that! those kings woulda been a handful Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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