Pre Xmas Trip - 2012

December heralds the Pre Xmas Trip with TT, I think this one is the 6th* annual trip; enough of a fixture now (having done anything for more than 10% of my life makes it a fixture) to be considered an important annual event and always one I look forward to. It goes like this. Some time in October or thereabouts we begin to re-hash the ideas passed around after the last Pre Xmas Trip and to figure out date, time and costs. We then forget about it until mid November and then scuttle around organising ourselves. Then a week out we begin to get our work ship-shape and everything lined up so we can stop and drop and be on our way.

This year we decided to drag the boat down to Lake Waikaremoana, to fish for tailing brownies cruising the lake edge, stalk a small stream on its opening day (1 Dec), strip bully imitations in the evening for cruisers, and hopefully to nail a deer for the freezer. We took one of TT's acquaintances Wayne along to help with that part. It went like this.

Thursday being the second last day of the month seemed a pretty stupid day to be leaving the office... running around sorting out end of month was pretty hectic so I was glad that I'd packed and piled my gear the night before. Get home, hitch boat to car, final double-check of gear, kiss family good-bye, throw gear in, try and remember the vital thing I'd forgotten (turned out to be life jacket - didn't remember until we were well south)... cross town, get to TT's say hello to him and meet Wayne, throw their gear in. Ahead of us lay a 6 hour minimum drive and here we were, setting off at 5.30 into rush hour traffic.... so add another half hour or so... . We got to Matamata in reasonable time and stopped for the boys to do their food shopping (I'd already done mine) then off we headed. We made Rotorua, then Murupara and were into the final stretch... 2 hours of corrugated and twisting gravel road into the heart of Te Urewera. Under no circumstances whatsoever should this road ever be paved. It makes the experience of getting there so damn worth it. While our original plan was to set up camp at Mokau, the weather was looking a bit dodgy so we opted to spend the first night in a 'chalet' at Home Bay which was a pretty damn good idea, as we pulled in at about 1.30 am. A quick unload of gear, refuel of the car from tote tanks and we were settled. My eyes were falling out of my head from the drive so I was pretty glad to hit the hay.

Boom! Awake. 0.600. I dragged my ass out of bed and went for a wander... one thing I know about TT is that he doesn't believe in getting out of bed early. As for Wayne, well, turns out he knows a thing or 2 about sleeping. So far he wasn't showing the signs of being a keen hunter apart from having the gear... but looks can be deceiving so he got benefit of the doubt. There was a very distinct chill in the air so it would be a waders day (snow had fallen over night, the day before the official start of summer...). After breakfast we decided to leave our gear in the chalet (giving us options if the weather packed in) then drove to the DOC Ctr to get hut passes. Then we packed light, loaded the boat and headed in a stiff breeze to the south west arm to find a sheltered area allowing us to spot tailing fish. We landed in a grassy bay and immediately spotted more deer and pig sign that you'd think is possible to find in one place.

Wayne headed up into the bush and we rigged up our 5 weights. I set off on a slow stalk and no more than a minute in spotted a cruising brown, dropped the damsel imitation slightly behind and to his right, he heard the plink of the fly, turned and scoffed it .. fish on! (the danger of catching a fish first cast is that its often your lot for the day...). The fish ran and burrowed into the weed so a quick wade over to drag it out and soon the first fish of the trip was beached.

Solid start

Sweet! And that set the tone for the day... while the overhead conditions and constant swirling breeze made spotting really difficult when the fish were spotted they were hardly backward in coming forward and eating what we presented.

We worked the shoreline like herons all morning, winning some, losing some then headed back to the boat where we found Wayne reading his book.  A lunch of fried trout steaks and rolls, then into the boat.

Post lunch....

The breeze had stiffened so when we pulled up to a point with a white sand bottom the waves were rolling around. I headed around to a natural bowl with the wind behind me and proceeded to catch small rainbows and lose a better fish which thumped the fly. TT had difficulty spotting cruisers in the waves and under a leaden sky.  We moved into another bay and pulled in.

By now the wind chill and biting cold added to my 4 hours of sleep leaving me feeling like a zombie, so I snugged down in the bushes for a nice sleep. I awoke to rain on my face so headed to the boat. We packed up and headed around the lake to the Maurauiti Hut, arriving to find deer haunches in hanging in the trees, the best bunks occupied and what looked like it was going to be a full house.

We had a relax on the deck as we planned our next move - deciding to head back to Home Bay, the chalet and the comfy bunks... we had a meal and then dropped Wayne off at a track before heading out for an evening fish. I rigged the #6 with a sink tip and put on an Orange Witch bully pattern while TT fished his floating line and a damsel. It was chilly but pleasant out there and I hit a couple of good fish over the next 90 minutes including a really nice rainbow that spat the hook on a leap, and a good fish that stayed deep choosing the moment when our lines crossed to charge off causing my leader to part. Having retrieved the boat we went off and found Wayne. Day 1 was quite a success!

Orange Witch

The next morning we rose quite late to a beautiful still morning. We packed the car, got the news that it had snowed over night (great call to stay in comfy chalet!), packed the gear and headed off to fish a local stream - opening day! We dropped Wayne off with instructions on pick up time, camp location and gave him my GPS, then turned around and parked on the edge of the river. Conditions were awesome, still blue sky and as we crossed the river we saw fish immediately as a couple of browns cruised around downstream. Light rods were the order of the day with such skinny water; TT packed his #3 and I had my little 7'6" XP #4. What a ball we had; fish were plentiful, the stream beautiful ranging from gravel to bouldery, the fish a good size... by midday we'd hooked and landed over a dozen in various condition and lost a few as well.

It was pretty much the best way anyone could start a season, to be first on untouched water fishing for undisturbed fish ... bliss. The only downside was that as we returned to the car the peace was shattered by a sudden breeze that sprang up.

Our next move was to drive around to Mokau and launch the boat so we could head back to stalk the lake edge again, this time in more idyllic conditions. As we pulled in a cruising brown ignored the boat until were were almost atop her then charged off in a cloud of silt. TT jumped out and I hadn't even rigged and he'd a nice brownie on.

I decided to rig the #6 with sink tip and fish the wave action on the point.... but instead turned and walked the other way... what I found I really needed the #4 for... I found fish after fish cruising and destroyed every chance to trap them with line slap... by the time I returned to the boat to rig my light rod I'd put down 4 fish. So with the right rod in hand I returned to the scene, but too late, I'd wrecked it, so we jumped in the boat to find fresh pastures. My afternoon of (happy!) frustration continued as I pulled flies from fish's mouths, landed a minority of those hit but you'd be a very sad person to feel down! TT caught fish here, there and everywhere, then hit a tough patch. We fished in so many locations and to so many fish that it all became a bit of a blur.. all I can say is that the panorama was truly lovely and the fishing superb.

Finally we travelled around to our meeting point... hullo, no sign of Wayne. We decided on a quick plan. I'd drop TT off at the Hopurahine mouth (meeting point); he'd walk up to the main road and I'd drive the boat around to Mokau, retrieve it, make it secure and leave it there while I drove around to meet TT at the Hopuranhine turn off. I found him there and we drove up to where we'd dropped Wayne. No sign. We headed up to the next camp ground and found some hunters there who hadn't seen him. By now it was 7.30pm and 2 hours after the meeting time... surely with a GPS and good tracks he couldn't be lost... so next part of plan was to drop me at Mokau to set up the camp while TT drove around to Home Bay to alert the authorities. I got my tent sorted and started on TT's palace, only to find he'd not packed any pegs! So I tied it down with his chilly bin and to some trees, made dinner, smoked a trout and then waited.

At some stage there I nodded off and woke as a car arrived at about 11.00 pm... Wayne and TT emerged. Turns out that TT had raised the alarm, then gone back and found Wayne on the road, turned around and driven back to Home Bay to let the police know he was safe, then driven back to Mokau to the camp... Wayne handed over my GPS and I had a quick look and bit my lip. He'd travelled less than 2.14 km from where we'd dropped him. His max speed was 69kph which when I quizzed him on turned out to be because he'd hitched a lift... and been dropped somewhere (wrong place)... all in all he'd basically gone nowhere for 12 hours and caused quite a bit of hassle. To say I wasn't all that impressed would be an understatement. But it was a relief to see him anyway, so I hit the hay feeling relieved, even though it had been a shit ending to the day. (Wayne had pegs for his tent so at least that part worked out ok and TT's palace didn't fly away).

Mokau dawn

Now for a bit of duck humour... with a relatively full moon the bird and animal life was pretty active. Wayne had cooked some sausages and left the pan on the ground.. the fat had cooled and set. I was woken at 01.30 by the sound of duck feeding clucks and a rapid dink-dink-dink sound... when I poked my head out of the tent a pair of grey ducks were pecking the fat from the pan! The sun was about to rise when I got out of the sleeping bag and cleaned up the camp. TT and I got things sorted while Wayne slept on (clearly we'd discovered his hidden talent, which wasn't deer stalking). We made a quick plan to hit the road earlier than we originally planned to do, and to stop and fish some streams (Whakatane, Whirinaki) on the way home. The drive out of the park was excellent and we made good time.

We fished the streams and drew a blank on the first before catching some small fish in the Whirinaki and judging by the boot prints all around they'd seen a few flies since opening (1 Oct). Murupara, Rotorua, Te Poi, Matamata for gas.. and by 4.10 we were parked at TT's place where we said our good byes. Wayne awoke with 10 minutes of the journey to go, thereby proving impeccable credentials as sleepy the urban hunter. :)

Man, what a great few days, adventure, fun, warmth, cold, amazing scenery, new experiences, cruising brownies, fast and loose rainbows, nice looking touristy girls (oops how did that get in there?), boat was great, good food.... and now, what are we going to do next year for the Pre Xmas trip? Hard to top this one...

*looked at diary - is 7th annual Pre Xmas trip