No photo again until the insurance company raplaces my lost camera.

I took Greg and Rick today and the boys had a great day with 14 hooked of which around half were over 5 pounds – I think 4 of them were actually 5 and 3/4’s. A little bit slower today for Mikes group who tried lake fishing in the morning with just two trout landed in the morning. The guys went up river with Charlie from Spot X Lodge this afternoon and should have a good time.

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Had a slower day today as predicted but just wanted to offer some variety. Both mine and Mikes group hooked 4 each today and landed 2. Most of the fish were sight fished and the fishing was challenging with around 50 rainbows spooked by by both groups.

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Yet another great day out for both groups of the Dave Betz booking from the USA from Spot X. Mike guided Greg and Larry close by the Lodge today for a total of 22 hookups on average 2 lb fish but ranging up to 5 pounds and my 2 consisting of Rick and Dave landed over half of around 20 hookups averaging around 4 pounds. In my group 11 of the first 12 fish were over 4 pounds including several 5 pounders and 1 6.5 pound rainbow. We also had another 7 or 8 fish around the 1 to 2 pound mark that I didn’t count in the tally. Tomorrow will be a different “kettle of fish” providing it doesn’t rain too much as predicted and provided cloud cover isn’t too heavy tomorrow as we are going to try to satisfy Ricks desire for sight fishing dry fly by going to a river a couple of hours away that I fished a few weeks ago which has a lot of 2 – 3 pound rainbows which will take dries but a very tricky to approach and hook. If we land 3 or 4 tomorrow (in fact landing any will be good) I would be quite happy for 4 or 5 takes good. Just a different thing and some different scenery for the boys!

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Have lost my camera so no photos till the new one arrives.

Thought I had better make time and catch up on my Blog since I was away hunting last week and am back into guiding again.

Both Mike Burgin and myself are currently guiding a group of 4 American gentlemen for 4 days over on holiday. I guided Dave and Greg today for a score of 17 hooked averaging 4 pounds, 6 landed and 2 broken rods – on fish! Mikes group consisting of Rick and hooked 14 for the day in a smaller stream.

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Gave my guiding friend Ken Drummond a hand with a Group of South Africans over to film the Would Fly Fishing Championships and hoping to get a bigger fish or two on film. The biggest for the trip so far had “only” been 7 and a 1/4 pounds and they had heaps of film of 3 pounders so that wanted to trophy hunt. We gave them the usual warning that when trophy hunting it is quite likely to not hook a fish all day and then left for the spot early. Greven was busted off on dry fly in the first pool by a good fish and we then attempted to entice some very fussy monster trout to take a fly for several hours before he missed a take on good 7 lb + rainbow that was nymphing away just below the surface. Sometime later Grevins father Mike managed to land their biggest fish of the trip which was a 9 lb rainbow after an epic battle that will hopefully show on ESPN and will definitely appear on a South African fishing show.

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Went hunting for red deer last week in Te Urewera National Park – well actually a private block that adjoins the national park – no boundaries though.

I never fired a shot all week but my mate Ross Wilson managed a good 7 point stag and his father Ian managed two. I had one in my sights but could only see its stomach area and head as its head was out one side of a tree and the body the other. The animal got onto me after a long minute as I tried exercising all my phsyic powers to get it to move into a position where I could make a good kill shot. A bad shot would have had the animal run straight into the bush injured never to be seen again hence I don’t shoot unless I can hit a high percentage area – the head is two smaller target for me at that distance without a rest.

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Forgot my camera so no photos of trout today. Went exploring some new rivers closer to Auckland and found one suitable to guiding experienced fishermen with high numbers of 2 – 3 pound rainbows in relatively clear water suitable to sight fishing dry fly. Saw about 50 rainbows yesterday afternoon and managed to hook just 3 on dry – was more covering ground than stalking. My mate Johan had told me about this water last week. Looked at the lower reaches of the same river this morning and 3 other rivers but found them less suitable to guiding – quite coloured and not overly scenic – despite hooking another 3 on dry. Was going to stay over another night but the town I stayed in didn’t have a bar open past 7pm – had to watch tv in the motel!!! Will need to find a better little town or pub to stay in if I am to guide clients out there at all.

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After Spending Saturday with Peter on tuturing Single Handed double spey, snap T and Tongariro Roll Cast, we spent Sunday out back-country fishing. Peter landed around 15 out of over 20 hooked mainly around the 2 pound mark but a few over and around the 3 pound mark as well. Later in the afternoon we were able to sight fish a few on dry as well as picking up a few blind dry flying up some runs as well.

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Started the day with our tradional trophy hunting breakfast of Subway and then headed to the secret spot again. This was the biggest of the day at just over 10lbs landed by me but in the tail though the fish had the first fly in the mouth through most of the fight and then after a sizzling run upstream turned up with the dropper fly in the tail. The most amazing fish of the day was an 8 and half pound 75cm (30 inch) slab – skinny recovery! We also landed two 7 and a 1/4 pound rainbows and a 6 pound brown and missed a few other takes and one other lost fish.

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Guided Matt from the USA today on river 3. The river was a little slower than it has been but fortunately thanks to Matts superb fly fishing skills (30 years of fly fishing) he was able to land 7 out of 11 ranging from 2.5 to 4 pounds. There were also 3 other fish over 12 inches long that I could count on a hard day plus a couple of dinks.

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