Eagle Eyes

A river worn forest giant.

Rock hoppin up the gorge.

Trout, ghosty, mid-photo.

A window passes over to reveal his lie.

Taken on my yellow nymph.

Warming up.

A good cast matched with a good fly will get'em, if you can see 'em!

Cicada's beginning to chirp, mayflies and caddis on the move too.

Off the Road

My next goat curry on the supermarket shelves.

Broke the tip off my cane rod....not a good rod for bush bashing!

Man those eels are scary big..

Tried to get into this creek, took the waders off when it got up to my arm-pits, then tried to cross in my shorts with my pack over my head. Had to backtrack when I started floating. Tried again up-stream and finally got into some gem-green pools. Fish sitting at 20ft eye balling me. Missed a good fish in the top of this pool, he came down the pool a couple of times suspecting some kinda mischief.

Green Stoneflies - Teimco 400T

Thought I'd give this idea a go. Tying on the side of a 400T swimming nymph. This weekend I turned a few stones the the river in the photo and found some big stonies. They way the curve when they crawl and curl when they free float inspired me to try and capture it. Not sure how the hook-up will be having the hook on the side, should be OK. My mate Jack bent his up into some unusual positions with pliers and they still worked. These stonies have a yellowy orange on the underside which I penned in. The suggestion of gills were made from yellowish CDC.

My New Old Vice

Regal vices have always been number one in NZ, that's if you could afford one. I guess years ago they were around the $250.00 to $300.00 NZ dollar mark and back in the day this was a lot of cash for a high school lad. My first Regal was purchased from "The Tackle Box"in Chrtistchurch, where I once worked as part-timer. It was the standard regal with no rotation or leverage up and down. I've used it for years, only ever had one hook ping out, it's an old faithful, the jaws are still holding firm since the mid-80's. That one has now been passed on to dad and may have been used after his recent renewed interest in tying. (Although in all honesty he's probably using his old Indian vice.)

The other regal I picked up was for around $70.00 when I was living in Japan. The shop just wanted to get rid of it as it didn't seem to suit the tiers over there. Something about hook size. Anyway they have C and F and other fantastical vices to chose from.

Here's where the story gets interesting. While purusing our local internet auction I came across a Regal in all it's glory, advertised as new with rotating head, the up/down movement and a large clamp. It looked great. So like the trout to the fly I decided to buy it. I was so excited by the thought of being able to turn my fly upside down, nothing else seemed to matter. On arrival all looked good apart from the positioning of the jaws. So I contacted Regal in the states to ask them about the jaw positioning. They were extremely helpful. According to them however, this vice is an antique. possibly brought out on one of the first four ships to colonize NZ. They haven't seen this model since the early 80's and don't carry parts for it.

Anyway it performs well and now I can turn my fly upside down. And hey, I have a new antique!

Pale Yellow Nymph

For the rib I used this micro-tubing from Wapsi.

The wingcase is a yellow, mottled thin-skin.

I sat down to come up with a pale-yellow stonefly nymph and ended up with these . . . more like a mayflies. These were tied on a long shank #16. They have a small tungsten bead on the front. They are a bit plasticy, but in some places it's good to have flies that other, more professional fishers don't use.

Re-cycled Wooden Cabinet

I had been wanting to make a cabinet to display a few old fishing collectables and finally finished it last week. All of the wood I used was from old building materials with the odd nail hole here and there. I didn't check to see if it was square the first time I glued it, so had to pull it apart and straighten it up a bit. The woods I used are NZ Rimu and Macrocarpa. The lighter "macro" in the back makes a bright background to display the old tackle against.

Season 2010

Some trees have been cleared out, while others have appeared.

Bending the rod.

A 7.5lbs beauty.

Silver with a touch of orange.

Hard to see in amongst the rocks, silver rocket.

It's great to be out on the water again! After about a week of torential rain prior to the start of the season, the smaller creeks have started to clear. With the snow-melt and rain some of the larger rivers are still coloured up. Most of the fish landed have been in pretty good condition and haven't been too fussy.