After a slow day yesterday I was wondering if I should go out or not. Text my friend at lunch and we decide to go anyways. Like they always saw, "Shoulda been here yesterday" we were hoping for that day to be today.
Suppose to meet him at 1:30 just above the Crossing - our usual meeting spot. Like always I am a good 20 mins late
. We decide on the area and head up there. In 4 trips so far to that general we have no yet been skunked - always have hooked or caught something, hopefully we can keep that streak alive. As we are walking in we run into a guy walking out. We ask if if he's had anything, and to our surprise he has landed 2 wilds
. Confidence starts getting high. Beautiful blue skies, nice warm weather and there are apparentally fish around
.
We start in the run where I think he had gotten them (he described the run to us). I work through with a colorado while my friend goes upriver. Nothing in that run
. We next head up to the run where I have hit something 2 of the 4 trips and even got the nice wild out of. Work all the way through and nothing on the prawns or colorado
.
We decide to walk all the way to where we normally start and hit the 1st run. At the very end of the tailout, where my friend hit the fish yesterday, he gets one again
(not exactly same spot but close). He calls me and says "I have a fish." I look at his rod (while reaching for the camera to video tape it) and ask him if hes sure. I start taping and it finally moves... It fought a lot like a spring. I say it looks like a Steelhead but as it gets closer, before I can even tell, he yells "It's a dolly". Sure enough a big fat dolly around 4 pounds comes into the beach
Confidence restored
We keep moving down to another area where we have hooked fish. All of a sudden I hear a large "roaring" type sound that last about 2 seconds
All of a sudden my friend yells, I look back to him, thinking he has heard it... He hasn't, but he points me across river and my eyes meet a guy battling a fish. After a short 2 or so min battle (hooked it right at shore) he drags it onto the beach and bonks a nice 10ish hatch.
We keep working down. Get back to the run we started at (about 15 mins since the bang) and he asks "Is the water colouring up?" I had noticed but thought I was losing it... within 30 seconds the water went from 5+ feet vis to less than a foot
I no longer feel confident and the vis keeps getting worse, and we have a bad wade ahead. He asks if I want to try a spot down lower to beat it, I say sure
On our way out I'm watching the water. All of a sudden 2 different fish (about 15 feet apart) roll at the same time
I try casting there but with like 8 inches of vis there is no point. We do the sketchy wade and head downriver. Finish the day at tamahi in the clear water, but to no avail.
So our days was pretty much as this goes : Fishing buddy has pretty much caught EVERY single fish in the river besides a Steelhead (including whitefish, resident bows, and dollies). Beautiful sunny, warm weather that felt like spring almost. 4 fish seen and heard of another 2 in the same area. Hopefully the vis is better for you guys tomorrow.
Tight lines,
Dan