You ever have those days when everything seems to match up right, the stars align, you can do no wrong? Today was all of that and then some. Last night, we just happened to meet back up with the girls in Twizel and had a pretty fun night at what the kiwis call a holiday park, which is essentially a New Zealand version of a KOA. We bought some wine and the makings for burritos and had a relaxed, fun time. We also randomly met up with a guy we had been emailing back and forth with for the last few weeks named George. He’s a buddy of a guy that Les and I know from Steamboat and he just happened to have hitchhiked his way to Twizel and just happened to be staying at the same campsite. Weird. After a few glasses of wine and possibly a pull or two from the bag of wine, we ended up inviting him along with us for the next few days while we fished some rivers near Twizel and Lake Tekapo. We didn’t really think this one through considering we can barely fit the three of us in our car with all of our gear. But, we couldn’t back out on our invite and the next day, rocking a brand new headache from the cheap wine the night before, we somehow made it work. There honestly wasn’t an inch to spare in the Dirty Dog and for the hour so drive, Zach and George got real intimate and shared a seat in the back.
Now, on the map, it showed that the road we were to take to get to these rivers as a legitimate, maybe gravel road. However, from what we’ve read about this road, we were in for a treat. About 20 miles or so after starting our trek down what turned out to be a road cobbled with river rock, we remembered that we forgot to buy a tire iron in case we got a flat. We have a perfectly good and sound spare, but no way to change it. We’re slowly finding out why we got this vehicle for so cheap.
We found a spot for us to camp, set up our tents, rigged up and were gone. We walked up the main body of water, but the lighting was a little weird and spotting fish was a challenge. We looked to the east and noticed another line of willows that will usually signify another stretch of water. We hike over to the tree line and found this gorgeous piece of river. I jumped in below the other guys and immediately started spotting fish. I lined up one solid, maybe 2.5 pound brown and stuck his ass on the first cast. I saw a second fish and made a cast with the same Amy’s Ant pattern & stuck another one of similar size. This went on for three more fish and after 5 casts, I had 5 eats and 3 fish to hand. It was definitely one of those special moments on the water that you can’t necessarily put into words and give it the justice in deserves. Being out here with 2 other guys doesn’t allow for you to have that time alone that sometimes as an angler you crave. As fun as it is, fishing these waters in a group and having the camaraderie and support of a couple buddies, those times spent alone on a river is very refueling and meditative time. It is a time like this, which completely rejuvenates my soul.
I ended up meeting up with the other guys and we continued having the best day of fishing I have seen for a long time. Today also put Zach on the board after landing a beautiful 3.5 lb brown on a dry. He was pumped and we were really excited for him. Hopefully today got him over the hump, and built a foundation of confidence, so we can now just fish. The pressure is off.
We were trying to count, and overall we had to have had at least 20 opportunities for gorgeous fish, all ranging from 1-5 lbs. The stars were definitely aligned for all of us today and the best part is, we’ve got two or three more days of it.
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