Hot Box

Date: 5 March 2017
Weather: Suny

Crew: Dave

Target Fish: Trout
Bait: Fly - Parachut hopper #14, Royal Humpy #12, Royal Stimulator #14

Gear Used: Sage Approach 9ft 4wt
Catch: 11 Rainbow 1 Brown
Report: Was a great session, with lots of good healthy fish. After running out of hoppers, the stimulator still proved effective. The one brown was the session highlight - took a tricky cast into a hard-to-get knook. Lost quite a few fish from broken leader, and broken tippet. This has started happening to me too often.

Report: 9/10

Tassie Streams

Date: 23 - 27  February 2017
Weather: Varied
Crew: Dave, Easty
Target Fish: Trout
Bait: Fly: Parachut hopper, parachute adams
Gear Used: Sage Approach 9ft, 4 wt. Orvis Superfine Carbon 7ft6 3 wt, Sage One 9ft 6wt, Stalker 9ft 4wt
Catch: 15 Brown
Report: Was a good trip, didn't bag as many fish as we had hoped for. The hopper session on the Cambden Rivulet was a highlight - sight casting to feeding fish. Pulled an absolute monster out of the same drain as last time too!

Streams hit include:

Mersey - Fished really well

Iris - Pulled the pin after 1hr - was freezing cold

Hellyer - Nice river, managed a few fish

Leven - A little disappointing

North Esk - A little disappointing

St Pats - A little disappointing

Cambden Rivulet - Fantastic!

Managed to lose the GPS, break a rod, and break a tent pole 

Report: 8/10

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)

Lagoon Pier

Date: 29 January 2017
Weather: Mild & Calm. 
Time: 3am - 8am.  
Crew: Toon, Ross, Willo Huggett

Target Fish: Snapper, Gummy, Garfish
Bait:  Pillies, Squid, Silverfish

Catch: 1 flathead

Report: About time we organised a boys fishing session. Wound back the clock and hit up a pier. We remembered how boring and slow pier fishing is! Pretty much no action all morning. 

We hit the incoming tide in conjunction with sunrise. No action at all, until the sunrise began. Lots of pinkies were being pulled up by the locals in what was about a 45 minute hot session which then died down. Thats when we landed the flathead and decided to pack up shop and roll home. 

We berley-ied hard using weet-bix mixed with tuna oil, and then also pulled out the oldschool method of crucnhed up twisties to entice garfish. Nothing. What a waste of good twisties in the end. 

Cooked the flattie for lunch. Was the typical awesomness that flathead is. 

Report: 6/10. Its fishing. Still fun, therefore 5 +1 for one tastie flattie. 

Pyhätunturi

Date: 6 January 2017
Weather: Cold. -35 degrees. 
Crew: Toon & extended family

Target Fish: Anything
Bait:  Small lures with a tiny bit of worm on the end

Catch: 1 tiny little guy! And 2 massive pikefrom the net

Report: Went ice fishing in northern Finalnd. Got there at 4pm, and it was already pitch black dark. Fished for two hours in freezing cold temps, but managed to pull up a fish after 1.5 hours. The nets were out for 3 days prior and we pulled in a couple of monster pike. Epic adventure!

Report: 8/10

Glenlowren and Bitwenjopit

Date: 22 January 2017
Weather: Hot and sunny
Crew: Dave, Toon

Target Fish: Trout
Bait:  - Celta Brown Trout 5g, Rapala CD5 Rainbow - Fly - Every combo I have!

Catch: 0 - See report

Report: Had a quick flick with Toon at Glenlowren top dam. Toon had a hit, and a hook-up that ended with a busted line and an aerial display from a 6lb rainbow.

Tried a few old and new stretches on the Bitwenjopit. Tried every dry and dry/nymph combo in my box and didn't even get a look. Did see two platypus on two separate sections of water.

Looking forward to getting back to Glenlowren. There are some absolute crackers in there!

Report: 8/10

 

No photos this time.

Little Tagger

Date: 15 January 2017
Weather: Hot and sunny
Crew: Dave

Target Fish: Trout
Bait: Fly - Royal Stimulator #14, Parachute Adams (High Vis) #14

Catch: 3 browns, 3 rainbows ??
Report: I hit the lower reaches of this stream quite a bit a few years ago, and discovered today I had been wasting my time. The upper reaches are excellent. Nice and open, and holds plenty of solid size fish. Adams seemed to work best. Need to get a net. 

Report: 9/10

Naughty Mick - West Branch

Date: 8 January 2017
Weather: Hot and sunny
Crew: Dave, Easty
Target Fish: Trout

Bait: Fly - Royal Stimulator #14, Parachute Adams (High Vis) #12, Klinkhammer #14

Catch: 2 browns, 4 rainbows
Report: After a 6.5 km hike we arrived to find the west branch a little uninspiring, and thought 'perhaps we should have hit some of the glorious water we passed on the drive up'. Had a bite to eat, geared up and jumped in. Easty had a keen look in the first pool hit with the Royal. The smaller Klinkhammer did the trick on the next pool. Ended up a cracking session, with solid action at every pool we hit.

Saw a (red belly black??) snake on the walk in, and a wild dog and lyrebird on the drive out. All up an absolutely cracking day. 

Report: 9/10

Port Douglas Estuary

Date: 19 December 2016
Weather: Hot and sunny
Crew: Dave, Kellie
Target Fish: Bream, Trevally, Saltwater crocs

Bait: Pilchard, Prawn, Squid

Catch: 2 bream, 1 grunting trevally
Report: Hired a little pontoon boat at the marina. Hit a few of the spots the hire guy recommended, and a few spots that look the goods. Lots of bits on the pillies, but no hook-ups on account of bait being too soft. Prawns worked a treat, nice hardy bait for bream. Grunting trevally is interesting, actually grunts when out of water!

Report: 7/10

Glenlowren top dam

Date: 6 November 2016
Weather: Fine 24
Crew: Toon and Jax
Target Fish: Trout
Bait: Worms
Catch: 1 massive rainbow
Report: Bought Jax his first fishing rod, so had to christen it. Went to the farm in search of trout. 

Got the big pitch fork out and drove it into the ground in search of some worms. After about 10 good ones we headed to the top dam to cast out a line. Throw some rolled up bread balls in the water as berley, and after 15 minutes a monster trout walloped the worms. Float went under and we pulled up, to which "fish on" occurred. A tremendous fight for Jax, with the trout literally jumping out of the water 10 times about a meter in the air every time!! I coulnt believe it. The trout gave some good runs by the pier, but we managed to miss him snagging it. Then as it tired we couldnt bring it to the bank to land it as it was overgrown with grasses, i had to pull it onto the pier (no net) and just before i could get a hand to it, he broke off. He got away, but he was the biggest trout i have seen! This dam is stocked with monsters!

Report: 8/10

Tagger

Date: 3 September 2016
Weather: Overcast, rainy
Crew: Dave
Target Fish: Trout
Bait: - Fly - Royal Stimulator #12 ( with/without Copper John Nymph)
Catch: 2 browns, 1 rainbow
Report: Season opener! Started the day with a visit to Bob Jane's for some new All Rounders. My tyres were worn down to the steel belts, and I didn't want a blow out to ruin my first fly fish in almost nine months! Started the session off with a relaxing riverside cup of Blend 43 before rigging up my new Orvis 9ft 3wt. Action was OK, Two fish caught on the nymph, the other on dry. Had a quick poke in Mary and Steve's on the way home.

Report: 7/10

Hudson Canyon #2

Date: 7th August 2016

Location: Hudson Canyon, Atlantic Ocean NYC

Weather: Sunny, moderate seas trending calm. 

Crew: Toon, Yac, Steve, Mike, Liz
Target Fish: Tuna, Marlin, Mahi Mahi
Bait: - Trolling lures and live Peanut Bunker
Catch: 9x Mahi

Report: A trip out to the canyon is always a memorable expedition, however this one came with its highs and its lows. 

Headed out to sea at 6am, to what was a 4 hour journey out to the 65nm mark at the tip of the canyon. We put the lines out and began trolling. Immediately dolphin swarmed the boat and the depth sounder went from 300ft to 2000ft! We continued to troll the waters for 4 hours, but failed to get onto any tuna. We were hit twice, however no hook ups which was slightly disappointing. Despite that, it was absolutely unreal to be out there in the middle of nowhere chasing such fish. Dolphin, pilot whales, bird life, skipjack etc all around us. Unreal. 

At about 1-2pm we headed to the lobster pots which are scattered throughout the canyon. We cast baits around them in search of mahi mahi. This was where the fishing success began, and it was very difficult to pull up stumps as they were everywhere. We ended catching 9, some monsters, others quite small. We even saw a sunfish that came up to the boat and mahi were under that which was wicked. 

As it came to 4pm, we had to reluctantly pull up stumps and began to head back to port, where after 15 minutes the portside engine broke down and we were left with 1 functioning engoing and another 10% functioning engine. We couldnt strain the other engine too much, so we went from 28 knots on the way to the canyon and 7 knots on the way home from the canyon. A 4 hour trip turned to 12 hours! It was certainly frustrating, but there was not much we could do - just thankfuil that we could chug our way back in without being stranded in the middle of the ocean. We ended up getting back to the dock at 4am. 

Pretty epic journey. 

Rating: 6/10 - 2 points lost for no tuna, 2 points lost for engine dramas. 

Special thanks goes out to Mike and Steve!