Shanks Ranch, sorting the pen

The usual early start was had, and we chugged away from Tim's pretty much on time. Coffee call was made at Huntly, then we travelled onwards to TA to catch up with Mick and get the stuff for Craig's kitchen. Except Mick was absent and Mrs. Mick sounded like she truly appreciated her wake up call.... not! We made it to the Shanks Ranch about 9 and Aunty rocked up a bit later. Coffee, tea etc then out with tools and down to the pen.

Where we'd left off last time

Today we had to dig in the corrugated iron and lay up the wire netting around the pen; effectively proofing it from ground predators. A couple of hours of yakka and we'd got it ship-shape looking.

Simon & Craig at work. (Baldies!)

Wires were strung for the shade cloth roof, leaving the final big job for Craig - putting up and stiching the shade cloth. Then in with the feeders, drinkers and out with the traps... one final big job is building the boxes for the traps.

Chicken wire strung

Iron dug in & nailed

All done barring the shade cloth

 

Craig got 100 odd of the reconditioned traps ex AWF&G so we need to get them operational ASAP.

In the afternoon the lads took the dogs for a walk after a pig and I hit the river looking for a trout. I'd been looking forward to heading upstream following the river into the bush, but water clarity wasn't the best so spotting fish wasn't easy. Those that I saw were small and the peewhacker I brought ashore was but a 10"er. Somewhere along the way I felt the kiss of nettle on my neck.. and then in a big pile of Supplejack I slipped and heard the dreaded "click" as the top 2" of the Sage 5 weight parted ways with the rest of the blank. Stink, but lifetime replacement is exactly why you pay a bit more for these rods. incidentally I've broken the tip of this rod twice now and smacked the guides off my TCR 6 in a rock fall. Sage replaced the last tip for a small shipment fee and I paid for replacement of guides. If the blank had broken instead of guides it would have cost less.... but anyhow. I got back to the car and headed downstream for a look, the rod, while abbreviated was still functional. Still nothing. Back to the house we had afternoon tea and made preps for an evening hunt. I nipped down to the river below the house, now a much broader beast full of snags and other horror. The first pool is a big broad one, with current emptying into the pool along the far (true left) bank. The angler stands on true right bank, above a mini cliff some 15 feet above water. The cast is not overly long, perhaps 40 feet, across the pool which because of the nature of the inflow has a big upstream swirl/back eddy. The drift is natural for about 10 feet before the line is impeded in the back current. I had on a big Mike Davis stonefly imitation in brown with long wiggle legs, although damed if there'd be a stonefly natural within 300km of the place (they require pristine water and generally a rocky bottom). At the termination of the natural drift I began to retrieve the fly jerkily. Half way back as the fly came into view so did the fish shape chasing it, always a foot behind. I stopped the fly, the fish pounced, and I set the hook. At first it was just a "fish" but as it came up through the water column (and murk) a flash of gold gave it away as a brown - and a good one too, just the right size to feed us (Craig wanted smoked trout for dinner). Fighting fish from a high bank really gives them no chance, the upward pressure tires them and you can exert control easily. After a pretty good tussle it was on its side and I had it beat ... if i could get to water level and gill it. As i looked around for a way down I moved downstream a few paces and the fish sensing the extra speed of the water as it shallowed and exited the pool made a frantic run and threw the fly. Not that I think fish can sense anything logically; it just knew to head for cover! I wasn't too dark because the back up plan for dinner involved steak! Then I went and blew it by catching a food sized rainbow and giving it its last rites, so after all that it would be fish for tea instead of steak. Incidentally the fish ate one of those big blingy wire bodied things with a red abdomen, red bead, orange legs, flash back.... it would never have seen anything like that in its life so just more proof that fish are completely base and will eat just because they have to.  Its gut was packed with horn caddis (Olinga feredayi) so guess what I'm tying on next time I fish there?

The evening stalk was a goodie, the chill Easterly doing its best to chill us down; it was quite dark before Craig muttered 'There's a pig down there'. There actually were 2, and after a stalk a nice fat young boar hit the dirt with a bullet thru his shoulder. Back to the house to watch a DVD then we hit the hay. Up at 6, pig skinned, on the road and back in Ak hell by 10. Joy. Next Saturday I'll be making sausages....