Just fishished two days back-country/wilderness fishing with Mike Burgin. Had some excellent fishing both days with over 20 fish hooked each day between us. Whilst numbers weren’t really high the fish quality was pretty good with numerous fish over 5 pounds and some estimated up to 8 pounds. The fishing would have to be classed as wilderness with no sign of any other footsteps and steep native bush on both sides.

We extended 2 existing beats on river 3 eventually getting gorged out on the higher one, and failing to push though blackberry to get out of the first one and had to walk down river. On the scoping out missions we try to find easy ways in and out as well as checking out the safety of river crossings etc. Ideally a little less flow on both days would suit.

Fished O this afternoon and got busted by a whale that we never saw – only the splash which was huge! Seems 18 pt on 3 to 4 pound good. Steven Rowe hooked 2 on nylon and Ross Novak 3. I just had the one big one bust me on fluoro.

Guiding for next 3 days

With winter fast approaching and the stags roaring I am finally able to catch up on a few things and do a little fishing myself. Went to O today and got a nice 6 pounder and got bust off by another smaller fish around and snag. Didn’t fish too long, just a bit of a muck around in the afternoon.

Did an hour or so on the Tongariro yesterday and the day before. More just seeing how far I could crank out the Tongariro Roll Cast, still a few feet of my best but wasn’t going too bad. Its the first time in months that I’v been out with the 8 weight for a fish anywhere where you could let loose. Have been living out back basically.

Have improved the description on the Tongariro Roll Cast page and will try and do some more detailed filming of the cast as quite a few people seem to actually be downloading the video and asking the odd question on it.

Havn’t written a post for a little while due to being out of the area on holiday until a few days ago. Guided 3 Norwegions on the Tongariro on the 30th. We had 22 hookups with the majority being landed. The largest was 1.7k and average size just over a kilo. The fish were smaller than usual but it was still a great day out. Most fish beats 5 and 6 on glow bugs – slightly coloured water.

Guided Andrew And Ngaire from Auckland yesterday on river 4 beat 8 and river 3 beat 1. It was there first days fly fishing and they hooked 4 each and landed 1 each. Both Andrew and Ngaire picked up the art of casting really well and were able to be fishing completely unaided by the end of the day. Ngaire landed the biggest – a beatiful rainbow of around 5 pounds that took her several hundred meters down river on 5 pound tippet – a fantastic effort! The flow was up a little and a little coloured as well but the fish mainly took Burgin Sawyers.

Previous to these two jobs I had spent a few days up in the Bay Of Islands with my Uncle on my boat in a Game fishing competion. On the first morning we had two marlin strikes but they only stayed connected for a few seconds before coming off. Very exciting stuff!

Before the game fishing I was in the bush hunting for a week with another friend Ian Wilson. We had a scary helicoptor trip in followed by great hunting. Ian shot a yearling on the first afternoon and then two stags the following day – I missed 1. On the 2nd day I missed a great chance on a stag I stalked to within 20 meters before getting a glimpse of its backside dissappearing into the scrub. I shot a hind later that day. We came out a day early with as much meat as we could handle.