As the Mohaka was one of the few major Nth Is rivers I had not fished I had long held the ambition to do so.
On Wednesday the ambition was realised when joining in a trip with two fellow members of the North Shore Anglers Club booked with "Mohaka Raft Fishing"
After a week of dubious weather we were blessed with a fine day to enhance the experience which we would recommend to anyone that has not yet enjoyed doing so.
Deon & Jo the hosts that run the operation do so in a friendly, relaxed yet thoroughly competent manner so cannot praise them enough.
I had heard about the fighting attributes of the Mohaka fish never the less was blown away by the reality which I am inclined to think is due to a combination of natural inherent prowess along with the fact the river path is relatively high gradient consequently fairly fast flowing nevertherless with plenty of fishable medium flow runs.
Unfortunately having recently broken my favoured 6wt sage rod I had hurriedly put together a substitute combination of rod, reel & line, which proved to be mismatched, so was having to over power casts which invariably lead to tangles & spent most of my time either untangling or re rigging. Due to having to spend so much time re rigging with shaking hands, my knots obviously suffered from lack of attention resulting in the bulk of my hooked fish breaking off albeit the others struck a much better average of landed fish, despite having also had their fair share of break offs as well.
These couple of pics should show the sort of terrain encountered running mostly thru a ravine making it generally only accessable via raft & hopefully the pic with the bent rod will hopefully serve to partly illustrate the power the fish possess.
When you cry, feel pain or sadness, no one notices your sorrow .... BUT
fart just ONE time !!!!!!!!!!!