I wish I could say I've been into some fish but no luck at all. I'm on the road for work at the moment so have been having a few quick digs at some rivers around the N.I. I just keep an old 7wt rod in the car and a few flies etc, no waders so it's a wee bit prohibitive but I pack light for a reason, so as to not spend too much time getting carried away on the water.
Had a nosey a couple of day ago up the Waitahanui, walked from the road up to the Gordon Williams fishing mainly the shallower riffles with a green beetle. Didn't see a single fish the whole time, usually there's a couple sitting in some spots up the top but nothing that day. Bit of a shame but a good walk nonetheless.
Had a quick walk around the lower TT the next day but high winds made it difficult and a few of the paths were overgrown. The spot I wanted to fish was already occupied so ended up just fishing for half an hour or so before heading off, again no fish seen.
Shot through to the Bridge Pool at the Tonga just to have a look in the water. Spotted what I assumed to be a big brown nosied in behind a rock and a few others sitting in the middle of the current. There was a guy already fishing so I just pointed the lies out to him and left him to it.
Next stop was the Maingatinoka river just off the main road, too windy again to get a good enough cast across to the good water (without wading) so just had a few drifts and headed off.
Then onto the Ruamahanga at the Martinborough section, some really good looking water where the river split into two which I could easily access. Lifted some rocks and saw a lot of cased caddis and a few nymphs so fished a heavy H&C and flashback PT. Again no luck, the river was a really dark blue / green so I'm not sure if it's always like that. Definitely keen to go back there again a bit better prepared and make a couple of days of it walking the river. Looks exceptional.
Still have another three weeks on the road so hopefully I can update this with some South Island success stories somewhere along the line.
It just makes me realise how amazingly lucky we are to have so much available water in the country just on the side of the road. My best fish so far was a 5 pound brown I caught in the Kaitoke in between meetings!