First stop - Mill Race. Lovely swinging water. I'd walked the track with a spring in my step. First in the car park after a 4 hour drive - virgin water! Tim phoned - he and Greig were up at the Blue Pool car park, so I agreed to catch up with them a bit later. At the car park I'd rigged up the Sage One 5116 with a Rio Skagit Short head and light MOW tip, 10 feet of T-8. Wooly Bugger on 1m of 10lb Maxima.
It's been a while between casts. Focus on foot placement. No shortcuts with the lift - anchor placement critical. OMG the cast booms out - did I do that straight off the bat? Its going to be a good casting day! I use 2 casts here. At the head a quartering Snap T that drops the fly into the fast shallow water past midstream then swings slowly into the deep seam. The other cast, used when abreast of the big rock is a double Spey across the current, landing the fly at the far bank and achieving a faster swing as the current takes the fly down. By using this combo I can show a fish the fly with 2 different drift profiles.
It was the quartering cast that brought the first take, just in the lee of the big rock. The fish hit and took line and despite being slightly coloured and a bit on the skinny side, gave a good account of herself. I beached her, removed the hook, let her go and prepared to swing the deep seam. I've seen a nymph guy take fish after fish in this seam, its perfect holding water. Cast after cast raked the seam. Maybe I wasn't getting depth (uh-oh. Not this thought. Resist the urge to change tips... R-E-S-I-S-T damn it!).
I changed tips. 10 'of T - something heavy. Stupido. Fool. Idiot. My casting went straight to crap. Must be not "T something" but T-14. IDIOT. Off with that, and on with 10' of T-10. In all, 10-15 minutes of fishing time lost with not a damn thing achieved. Ok, the T-10 while not as elegant as the T-8, was certainly not killing the cast. I swung the seam, only hitting one further fish where the tail out began, and that was only a brief tug and a few feet of line ripping off the reel... but the fish was gone.
2 other guys arrived and began to fish down above me. Layla told them this was her pool. I told her to play nice. Grumpy little cow. Nothing else came to the fly. I'd spent 2 hours on the pool, so was due for a walk to warm my legs.
At the Blue Pool carpark I called Tim. He and Greig had covered the upper pools; Greig was in the tail of the Blue and Tim came up to meet me. Just back from Montana, he was sporting a tan - jealous much! Greig joined us and we ate some of Tim's excellent veni Kranski sausages and had a coffee while catching up. Layla played nice and got some saussie for her troubles.
The boys headed downstream. I wanted to fish the tail of the Blue, but with the human vacuum cleaner Greig having gone through I didn't hold out much hope of hooking anything. I gave it a red hot go, covered the water as best as I could, but drew no strikes. Pete phoned me and he'd finished his home duties, so said he'd come up for a fish. I crossed the tail of the blue and headed down to the Boulder. I LOVE this pool. As mentioned elsewhere, it's the scene of my first ever hook up with a Spey rod. I got into my work. The throat of the pool is heavy heavy water - worth swinging the inside seam but the mid to tail out is where its at for swinging. I was still banging out casts ok. Pete sms'd me that he'd jump into the Blue for a swing - I let him know I'd be an hour at least. The first hit was a goodie and the fat little jack that ate gave a good account of himself.
Back in the pool I lost my fly to a snag as I took a phone call and let it sit too long so tied on a fresh one. I sent a cast across to the stump where a large proud Pinus Radiata used to stand pre-logging activity and the swing stopped dead. The fish felt solid but was just a big skinny old slab that I dragged shore.
Several casts later the line was ripped from my fingers as the fish dashed off. Another fat jack that fought like a demented creature.
At the bottom of the pool I turned and headed upstream. Layla's got this crossing sorted now and made it across no problem. She beat me up to Pete's pozzie and jumped all over him. We walked upsteam talking smack and at the cars made a plan to swing the run below Admiral's. Its often overlooked. Pete went in half way down to swing his red rabbit and I started above the head of the pool. Layla chased rabbits and quail in the scrub. She likes it here. Pete soon had a hit. Watching him effortlessly roll out casts is a pleasure. My hit when it came was in the slower water mid pool. Pete netted the fat little hen for me. And with that we drew a line under the day.
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