Taponga River

Date: 18 February 2017

Weather: Overcast 

Crew: Toon
Target Fish: Trout
Bait: Celta Spinner Green

Gear Used: Shimano Stradic Ci4 2500, 1-3kg shimano raider

Catch: 1 Rainbow 1 Brown
Report: Hit a couple of parts of the taponga, but didnt venture too far. 2nd cast of the day caught a nice little rainbow. Caught him in the eye poor bugger! Then snagged a brown later on. Pristine rivers all around, too much fishing to be had up here.  

One bad thing with this spinning are the treble hooks. Once you've hooked a fish often they're in a bit of a painful situation and unhooking them can be a little nasty. May look to squish in the barbs so that removal is easier, or transfer to single hook. Not sure how this will impact strike rate, as i already have a number of hits and misses, but thats better than one f'ed up trout. 

Report: 8/10

Whooray River

Date: 18 February 2017

Weather: Overcast

Crew: Dave
Target Fish: Trout
Bait: - Fly - Parachute Adams Hopper #14, 

Gear Used: Orvis Superfine Carbon 3wt, 7'6"

Catch: 2 Browns (1 other solid hookup, and two takes)
Report: On the way to my many trips to the Bitwenjopit I'd often noticed, if the sun was shining, a section of the Whooray that looked worthy of a stop. Today, time was not on my side and I needed to hit somewhere close. This possibly fishable section of the Whooray seemed a worthy candidate.

I found a good spot to pull over, and bush bashed through to the stream....yes, definitely fishable! Was hard not to notice the hoppers on the walk down and back to the car, making my first fly choice for the day an easy one. 

First cast just downstream from a submerged log produced a nice little brown. All other 'should hold a fish' targets came up with the goods.

Will hit again, a good alternate to the Royal Bird. 

Report: 7/10

Tangip

Date: 12 February 2017
Weather: Overcast and rainy - rubbish

Crew: Dave

Target Fish: Trout
Bait: - Fly - Parachute Adams #14, Royal Stimulator #12 with Copper John #12
Catch: 5 Rainbows, 2 Browns

Report: Drove up the long way and had a quick look at the upper reaches. A long drive, but looks like its worth a crack. 

Action on Tangip was pretty consistent. Patience and mixing up the offering was key to pulling in a few fish.

Water was quite warm

Report: 7/10 

Young Buck/Keys

Date: 4-5 February 2017
Weather: Hot and clear Sat, overcast and rainy sun
Crew: Dave, Kellie, Mish
Target Fish: Trout
Bait:  - Fly - Parachute Adams #14, Royal Stimulator #12 with Copper John #12

Catch: 5 Rainbows, 1 from buck, 4 from keys

Report: Have always struggled to find trout on the Young Buck. This time, I hit the regular good looking runs with no success, then came up to a nice looking pool. I decided I'd sit down for 5 minutes and if I didn't see a fish, I'd head back to camp. One minute later a fish started rising. I slowly crept upstream to a good position, and threw my first back cast into a tree. Crept back, untangled and crept back again. Cast again, and BANG hit...strike...nothing. Pulled the line up and found the line had snapped right at the leader-tippet knot. I reckon the line was damaged in the snag.

Continued the same approach further upstream and managed one good sized rainbow.

Next day, Kellie gave me 'no longer than one hour' on the Keys. I was literally running upstream, bypassing good water to focus on 'water that definitely contain fish'. Managed to land 4 rainbows, and lose a couple more. The Keys is one of my favourite rivers ever.

Report: 8/10 (most likely would have been 10 if I had a few more hours on the keys)