Well it has been a long and busy culling season. We are not finished yet but the weather lately was so hot that it was time to get out for a fish. We normally do not get started until December. We set out for Matahina and launched the canoe at the bridge above the lake. The river was still high and a little dirty. It did seem strange as it had been sunny and dry for a couple of weeks. It was so dry that I had to water the garden daily in recent days.
The usual shenanigans started the day. We were about to launch when Dan put his rod together. His leader and tippet were wound tight into the gears and he decided to take his reel apart instead of just popping the spool out. He made a real mess and lost a screw. Turns out it broke off so now he has no drag. I stepped in and sorted it for him.
Then we got down river a ways when I realised my fly rod was still where we launched; it was a great start to the season. I set Dan up with straight 10 pound fluoro and a bead head krystal olive bugger. I put on a bead head pink tag nymph using the same tippet I had on last April. It is a new product and I wanted christen it with a trout. It is simply a hare and copper nymph with a pink tail. Apparently, it is very popular in Tasmania, said a client who wanted a bunch of them.
The river and lake edge at Matahina was high and still a bit dirty so we made our way down the lake to find the shallow edges with more visibility. We both worked hard with very little action. Dan managed to land a rainbow and dropped a couple others. I hooked two good fish and lost them both. The rare trout I could see following did not seem so keen to take. It took some finesse to even get a take.
I know very well that I should have changed to a sinking line and worked the deeper edges but we just love fishing the shallow edges. We worked really hard flicking flies to every shallow edge, hoping for the trout to turn on the feed. They just were not there. There were a few adult damsels around indicating the nymphs should have been active. It was just not our day.
Aside from the conditions it was a gorgeous day until the northerly came up mid afternoon. We pulled the pin around three in the afternoon. The the yoke broke when was was carrying the canoe on my back up the steps. It is hard enough navigating each step then the canoe collapses on top of you. It hurt a little. It was still a great day with no regrets.
The video below shows the most exciting part of the day. Dan was casting a bead head brown woolly bugger to a sighted brown. He missed the strike several times. Then he managed to hook up with a good brown only to lose it at the surface.
