fishing – A Yank Among the Kiwis

To spend time outdoors, some people like to hike. We go fishing. We like to catch fish, of course. We like eating them even more. But for me, the more important part of fishing is being in the outdoors on a river, lake, or the ocean just enjoying the sunshine and the breeze. We also use fishing as an excuse to travel.

First stop Christchurch. I had wanted to go salmon fishing. They farm salmon here and there are places you can drop a hook into a lake or river and the salmon are there ready to bite. I wanted to actually try to catch a wild salmon. We learned that some of the best wild salmon fishing is near Christchurch the largest city on the South Island. As of now, Christchurch is the second largest city in New Zealand, taking the mantle from Wellington. Known as the garden city (beautiful rose gardens), they have perfect weather for all things flowering. In 2011, Christchurch was hit with a massive earthquake and it decimated the city. Buildings collapsed or were rendered unusable, earth shifted, and lives were lost. We had visited the city in 2005 but we remembered little about it.

Unfortunately, we did not do much sightseeing because we had fish to catch. We had a five a.m. pick up time for a drive an hour south to the Rakaia River, which purportedly has the best salmon runs in New Zealand. The river is a braided river, which means the river moves according to flooding. The river is very shallow and rocky, so we had to be taken upriver in a jet boat.

We were de-boarded onto a spit in the middle of the river before dawn.

Yeah, fishing in the dark. Not fun. Kind of dumb actually.

The boat driver said see you in six hours and sped away. The guide was very upbeat even though it was still dark. We started casting into the dark water and we continued to cast for six hours with absolutely nothing to show for it but sore wrists. I was not happy to say the least. This was an expensive trip.

What really ticked me off was that after we returned I did more extensive research and I learned that the salmon fishery on that river has all but collapsed. There are few fish to be had and the guide had to have known that. I felt like it was false advertising. Oh well, I learned something. Do more research before we make the effort.

We still had a nice dinner in Christchurch and we visited the International Antarctic Center. This is an interactive museum/penguin research facility where you can learn all about living in the Antarctic. We took a very bumpy ride in a Haggland, the all-terrain vehicle that can travel in snow, ice, general bad weather and difficult terrain including the ability to cross a crevasse. (A crevasse is a crack in the ice surface, usually a glacier. If you fall in, you are gone.).

Not exactly a limo. It was a very bumpy ride/

We stood in a room to experience the equivalent of a winter storm with the cold and wind. (It honestly did not seem all that bad.). But alas, we were not able to get into the penguin encounter. Still, it was fun, and it was Antarctica. You can’t go wrong there.

Next stop Lake Taupo. At the end of the summer we drove to Taupo, about four hours north, and home to excellent trout fishing. In fact, this is the trout fishing capital of New Zealand. You have two options—go fly fishing on a river or go trolling on the lake. Seeing as fly fishing requires work and trolling requires sitting on a boat enjoying the day waiting for a to fish bite we chose sitting on our butts.

Lake Taupo is a huge inland lake, 238 square miles and over 600 feet deep, formed in the caldera of a still active and ancient supervolcano. It is part of a large volcanic geothermal hot spot that crosses the North Island. Nearby are two active volcanoes and to the north geothermal springs bubble. So the weekend was set for fishing and a visit to the geothermal hot springs spa.

Our fishing trip was a huge success. Contrary to all fishing advice, we went out in the afternoon and pulled in four nice size trout. We threw one back for insufficient size. Another one got away.

We could have pulled in more, but I was getting concerned that we would have nowhere to store them at home. We took two of the trout to a local butcher for smoking and we brought two whole fish home with us. Oh, the joy of being able to eat trout. (See my entry about the absurd trout rules here.)

The next day we headed to the Wairakei Terraces thermal pools for a soak and a massage.

The North Island has several geothermal areas where bathing in water from hot springs is an option. The difference here was that these pools are filled directly from the steaming springs bubbling out of the ground just above our heads. There were four pools of varying temperatures, with the hottest pool measuring in at a scalding 105ºF. I step in it and said, “no way.” The people in it were so red, it looked like they had been scalded. We opted to spend our time in the second most hot pool. It was very relaxing and not too crowded.

This was the hot hot pool. The water comes straight from the bubbling hot spring to a water fall at the bottom of the photo. The guards were begging people not to sit in front of it but they really were not listening. Cooler pools in the background.

All in all, a very successful trip. We will most definitely return to Taupo when we run out of trout.

I previously wrote about the prohibition on buying and selling trout in New Zealand. The only way for me to have trout for dinner is to catch it myself. So, for my birthday, Matt hired a fishing guide to take us out in pursuit of the cagey brown trout.

I would not say I am an avid fisherman. My idea of fishing is to hire a guide who provides the equipment and takes me to a place to fish. He/she hands me a rod ready to go, points and says fish there. My hope was that by hiring a guide, we could at least get the feel of fishing for trout. And we made clear to the guide that fly fishing was not in the cards. I have to catch a trout by using a lure such as a spinner, or nothing.

Because he was not local, we agreed to meet halfway, which put us in Upper Hutt, to the north and east of Wellington. His idea was for us to fish the Hutt River. Sounded fine to me. What do I know? He’s the guide. He brought both rod and reel and fly-fishing gear. He wanted me to at least try fly-fishing. But we started with a regular fishing rod.

The guide, James, reminded me how to use a fishing rod. Seriously, I have not done this for years. Paranoid after the sand fly attack, I put on fingerless gloves to prevent bites on my hands. On my first cast, my gloves were so slippery, the rod flew out of my hands and into the river. A lot of laughter but no panic. I waded in and retrieved it. Then I removed the gloves.

The guide kept pointing at shadows he said were trout. He urged me to cast near the shadow. God knows I tried. He even tried. No luck. So we moved on to the Lower Hutt, closer to Wellington. Even though we were in a suburb, the river was crystal clear and once again, we could see the fish. But they absolutely refused to take us up on any of our bait.

At this point, frustrated at our inability to catch a fish, the guide pulled out his fly-fishing rod. He showed me how to cast. I wasn’t very good at it but worse, I wasn’t interested in it. If you can think of a hard way to catch a fish, fly fishing would be it. Fly fishing is a belief that you can outsmart a trout by sneaking up on it. It struck me that this is a guy thing. Only a man could come up with such an inefficient way to catch a fish. There is a technique to learn, flies to tie and waters to wade. It’s a whole world devoted to trying to catch a fish by pretending to be a fly on the water. There has got to be an easier way! I am in this for a meal, not a trophy. I will stick to spinners thanks.

Regardless of the type of gear, the entire day was a bust. The fish simply were not biting. No trout for my birthday dinner.

But we were not deterred. Having had a refresher on how to fish, (at least I needed it), we agreed that we would outfit ourselves with some gear and see if we could successfully fish for trout in the local rivers. The guy selling us the equipment thought we were kind of kooky—two Americans telling him we had no clue what we needed so just tell us and we will buy it. No, he did not take advantage of us. In fact, he did not sell us everything we needed as we learned later on.

A few weeks later, we headed to the Otaki River, which is very close to us. We had been there for about an hour with nothing to show for it when I gave up. I could not find a fish. Matt had lost a lure and, not wanting to spend the time to tie on another hook, he asked to borrow my rod. After a few casts, he got a bite and reeled it in. Tada! Lo and behold, Matt caught a rainbow trout in the Otaki River.

The salesman at the outdoor store forgot to sell us a fishing net, so the poor thing was flopping around on the ground. We did buy an “immobilizer” meaning a club to hit the fish on the head and stun it. But this fish simply did not want to be stunned. It took a few blows. I felt bad. I did not like hitting it. But a person has to do what she has to do to get a meal.

I cleaned it and cooked it up. Delicious! Finally, I had trout in New Zealand. I should add, along the way I foraged some nasturtium to garnish the asparagus, so I guess we can call this living off the land and water.

Tag: fishing

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