Arrived at Reaction promptly at 6am, my neighbor and I with our young boys in tow - after a stop at Timmy's headed off for a morning of taking a day off from life! Went mostly to have a look around, take the kids out and hike a little. Started at Lickman parking lot about 6:45, the only time I think ever that I've seen that parking lot completely empty!!! Water water everywhere and not a drop of coffee left to drink! The water was a nice color green but a little cloudy down there - there was however way too much water and way to fast to waste time fishing, so a nice walk was the order of the morning.
From there, up to Tamahi and parked in the campground for a picnic snack. Wow the fast water over those big boulders was a sure sign of 'don't fall in!' - bad day to be a fish, way too much work in that job today! Got a new-2-me C5600 reel a couple of months ago that I had spooled fresh this morning, so pulled out the rods for a few casts (float races!), just to introduce my rod to it's new reel, you understand...
Drove up to the hatchery - what a lonley place THAT would be for a fish, should there have been one there - noda, nuthin, zip, zero, nein, nix (getting the picture?!?). Took the kids for the tour then went to check out the limit hole. Pretty nice looking water (a lot of it, but nice and green and pretty clear, to about 2 feet or a bit more even, where it wasn't whitewater!). Spoke with a couple of guys that were on the way out, they said that one guy had one on earlier, but lost it the second it hit the faster water. Two more guys fishing, so we watched for a few minutes and headed out.
Next stop was Ranger Run (I'm pretty sure is what it's called) - boy has THAT place changed since last year! Took some pictures for you..... caught some rafterers having some fun, then it got really dark and quiet, too quiet - the bushes started whispering for us to leave, then thunder and lighting and BIG raindrops chased us back to the family truckster for a ride home. Beautiful fun day with my son, and we left all the fish for youz guyz (you're welcome!!
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Have a great weekend!
James