Bit of a scenario for day 3, we bought a permit intending to fish a river on the way up on the Friday. It was a river that we had never fished before and i was looking forward to it, but studying the map issued with the permit , had a scale and looking at it revealed just how small the beat was, hardly enough for a day fishing and the flat water didn't look like the most appealing , a waste of money, but now i know not to bother it's a shame cause a lot of the river does look good but it is reserved for a syndicate of salmon anglers.
So we went back to the river we fished on Friday, this time around it was a beautiful day , in fact perhaps the first day of summer . We got permits for the same beat , and decided to do a beat as well further up the glen . So we fished the upper beat first,after getting our permits from what i can only describe as a hermit in the hills.
We were straight into fish , i had a fish around the pound , Brian rose a better one amongst some he landed .
One memorable fish was one in a shallow flat tail , as i walked up the banks i thought I'd spooked him as i watched him bolt , only to settle stationary directly in line with me 20 yards off the bank, so i thought , I'd have a cast at him, i had the typical Klinkhammer, nymph NZ combo, first cast slightly short, no response, but on the second cast he swung his head left to intercept my nymph, i struck , then he went ballistic, fighting extremely hard for his size, not the biggest but he gave a enjoyable and a fulfilling experience, just a couple of ounces short of 1 1/2lb .
Leapfrogging each other up the glen we caught lots more, there seemed to be full of trout all sizes from a ounce up to a pound.
After a while we decided to go to the lower beat a few miles down the glen,
it seems the fish are of a better stamp down there. First cast Brian hooked up and landed a fish just over the pound!
That though was the last of the action, as promising as it looked the fish just didn't seem to be feeding , quite a contrast from the ones up the glen. We decided to head home , the drama wasn't finished though unfortunately just a couple of miles from home Brian's car broke down ,probably the only blessing was it didnt happen out in the wilds, turns out it's the timing belt. Apart from the unfortunate outcome, we had a great trip, hope to do some more of it again soon!
