"Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it."
Norman Maclean

Sunday, March 22, 2009

New Zealand River

New Zealand River Again
The missus woke me up with her shadowless kick, as usual. In our younger days, it was much more gentle. Anyway I was out of the house quickly. It was drizzling lightly. I took out the brand new Gortex rain coat from the fishing gear box. Haven’t had the chance to use it since the day my nephew, Ming, bought it for me.

The drizzle had eased up by the time I made the turn into the road leading to our destination. CY called. He and Uncle Wong had arrived and will wait for me at the usual rendezvous point. Normally I don’t fish at the River when it rains because of falling trees and branches. But the urge to fish was unbearable after a lengthy spell without the fishing fixes and the risk of a tree falling on me was delegated as a lesser danger than it was when I was fishing almost everyday.

The river wasn’t flowing. The best way to spend a raining Sunday morning is to sleep through it, like everybody else. The valve technician must be sleeping too. So the river will not flow today. The place was deserted except for 3 mentally compromised fly fishermen. Adi was down with rangerphobia and will not be joining us today. You guys gonna miss the star of my photoblog because he almost always catches something for me to post.

Uncle Wong and CY had rigged up their bamboo rods very quickly and started fishing. I was wearing the new Fishpond chest pack, bought yesterday from Coho, for the first time. The length of the strap made it more like a stomach pack on me. Any longer and it would definitely be a groin pack.

Uncle Wong and CY was hooking up Peacock Basses on every cast. I was shooting away left and right with my Canon Digital Ixus. Uncle Wong gave up his spot under the big tree for me. On my first cast, a ferocious Peacock Bass hit the fly with a force I had never felt for a long time. The LeoRod was bending double and the Peacock Bass decided it was an acrobat and did some spectacular aerial somersaults. I was hooking up a Peacock Bass on every cast.

CY was catching Peacock Basses on almost every cast with his new Mario Wojnicki 225FF4. He invited Uncle Wong to try out his new baby. “Like butter” Uncle Wong said. I took my turn to try out the Wojnicki. The rod was very light. I pulled out more fly line and did some false casts. It was throwing the 4 weight line very smoothly indeed. On the third cast, an Earth Eater grabbed the tadpole fly. A few quick shots by CY and me, as Uncle Wong hurried us to release the Earth Eater gently back into the water. These beauties can't last very long out of the waters, and we can't last very long in here due to the rangerphobia bug floating around recently.

Breakfast at Ah Hoe’s


Earth Eater.








































The new Fishpond Stomach Pack




CY's new Wojnicki. The name was hard to pronounce, but the rod cast the fly line smooth as silk.








Fishpond bags are the most wonderful friend for a fly fisherman.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful fish. I like your bamboo fly rod. Do you build your own

A Fly Fisherman said...

No Pierce, Uncle Wong built the first Singapore built Bamboo rod. It's call the LeoRod. I re-built some bamboo rod some years ago, that's about it. The place we fished every so often is called Pierce Reservoir.
You have a very nice blog. I had included it in my links.

Cheerio

Billy

Edward Ng said...

Good to be back on the water with a fly at the end of our line. I can truly feel what you felt when you need some fishing to fix what you need to fix...

Cheerios!

A Fly Fisherman said...

Wow Sharky, where have you been lately. Kinda missed your fishing photos on your blog. Ka kin post tampo like kua leh.

Cheerio

Billy

Anonymous said...

Great post. I still get such a kick out of seeing you catch fish on the fly that people I know have in aquariums!!!

A Fly Fisherman said...

Thanks. Come visit us in Singapore. It's cheaper than going to the Amazon.

Cheerio

Billy

Edward Ng said...

Billy, I started fishing again lah. 2wks back. Haha.

I posted in the Fly Fishing Singapore blog leh but not sure if it is appropriate though.

I have an idea. Why not Fly Fishing Singapore go Facebook? Members could easily posts photos in their account and everyone will get to see it easily. What you think?

If facebook is appropriate, I can get it rolling.

Call me sometimes lah, we go wet a line in your little fishing holes. Hahaha.

I got rod, reel and flies in my boot!

A Fly Fisherman said...

Facebook is a good idea Edward.
You can help get it going and invite those who want to join.

Cheerio

Unknown said...

sir. NZR have just been exposed on FK recently, please do take note of it in case you guys are heading there soon. =D

Unknown said...

Nice catch, I enjoyed reading your blog.

I am based in Abu Dhabi - UAE

You can read about my fly fishing adventures at

www.fishinguae.wordpress.com