When your camera is set to take time-lapse video the results are quite funny - even if not quite what you're expecting... Reminds me of Benny Hill footage, now if i could just load a sound-track.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
A flyrod kingi virgin deflowered
During the week TT texted me that we should go for a fish Saturday.... the weather on Friday afternoon had me thinking because it was shocking. Saturday dawned chilly, moving frontal system has sucked some cooler air from the south and we had a sub 20 degree day for the first time in a while. Southerlies don't normally float my fishing boat, so I checked in with TT because the weather was supposed to be worsening.... his reply was ..."hell yeah lookn mint". It was calming down, but somewhere out to the south was a bunch of weather just waiting to pounce. Met up at TT's and met our third musketeer, Lucas, a mate of TT's. We had the boat in by 3 and headed out to the channel markers for a fly rod session on the kings before looking for snapper on soft baits. I rigged up a couple of rods, the 10 for Lucas and the 8 for me. I wasn't sure about Lucas's fly fishing pedigree and didn't want a broken rod so gave him a few tips about how to cast, strike and not raise the tip and point load my rod. First marker I fired the fly in to the buoy, 2 maybe three strips and it was on. The rat gave a good account of itself on the 8, and with TT motoring us off the buoy steadily we led him out into clear water where he played a straight up and down game and was in the net after a good fight. I hit a fish at each the first 3 buoys we rocked up to, the final being my best of the day.
 |
| Grunting into it |
Don't want to jinx myself but for once I landed 100% which is unlikley to happen again, normally the buggers seek out structure like the buoy chains and ping off, so that was neat. Lucas meanwhile struggled away - getting the hang of hiffing a chunk of T-14 (tungsten impregnated line) is not easy. We pulled up to another buoy, I got tail nipped and then tangled my running line when suddenly he was taken. He played the fish like a pro, not high sticking, handling it gently and not freaking the fish out. Now the rain had started.
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| A happy man |
The fish led Lucas around the boat until finally it was in the net... by now the rain had started. The kingis were really on the chew, and TT had the next fish on.. and the next. And the next. His luck was out, pinging off 2 larger fish and landing perhaps the second smallest kingi I've ever seen.
We left to head down to Motuihe Channel to look for a snapper, and boy did we look. We each boated reasonable fish on plastics but it wasn't a hot bite... and by now the wind was not quite howling but we were getting wet and cold out there. We stopped and fished in a few spots before deciding to soak some pillies on local reefs. The tides were huge, so when we anchored at our final destination the current flow was something else again. Little did we know that within 12 hours much of low lying Auckland would be in flood. Er struggled for a few more small snaps before heading back to Okahu to pull the boat. I couldn't believe the time, and at about 9.30 we were in KFC looking and feeling like cold drowned rats.
Saltie fly at its best, 5 landed, 2 lost (broken) and a few missed takes. Snapper fishing at almost its hardest. A mixed bag.
Friday, January 21, 2011
A triumph for commonsense
After the last (Nov) AWF&G council meeting, a Councillor stalked off muttering because no one (not staff, not council, not the hunters) supported the premature closing of the AWF&G owned blocks, per last year's abbreviated block season. As such, it was not particularly surprising that he looked to have rallied some of the 'not newly elected' AWF&G councillors to support a motion for a special meeting to discuss the goose season length, and to overturn the council's decision to leave the blocks open for the duration of the waterfowl season.
There are some pretty important principles at stake here; those blocks were purchased with YOUR money, and MY money. As license holders, we are effectively the landlords of these blocks. Our license fees are actively spent in the blocks, yet we were being asked to deny the licenseholder the opportunity to benefit from the use of the facilities they own. This IS NOT what F&G is about. An additional detail was that in the previous council meeting, Councillor Carey asked the council to consider zoning the region into management areas, a remit that was roundly dismissed as "being unmanageable". So there we were, being asked to consider denying license holders their right of access to their own land asset; and by doing so set in place a separate management zone.
The meeting, which was not particularly well advertised, was surprisingly well attended. And the attendees, rather than relying on a proxy who was perhaps not representing their wishes faithfully, had their say. And the things they had to say were enlightening. They wanted their blocks open. They wanted a say in voting about issues affecting their blocks rather than having minority will imposed on them; they felt sideswiped by last year's block closures and they certainly had no inkling of it before the regulations were passed last year.
I think that last night the AWF&G council made a quantum leap - the paid staff's advice was adhered to (almost faithfully). The fact that we spend far too much time endlessly debating regulations WHICH HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IMPACT ON GAMEBIRD POPULATIONS and then do the same next year, and the year after ad nauseum... the fact that this cacophony stops us from discussing and supporting real research... well as Guy pointed out quite rightly we just need to put this behind us forever and do some REAL work. And I think that shifting the powerbase in the council back onto a proper management course was a vital step-change in this particular council. The effect of the license-holders input and feedback was dramatic; from a position of what looked to be a split small majority of the council voting in favour of closing the blocks, the decision to keep them open was a landslide.
The license-holders saw that they do have a voice, and hopefully from this point onwards they will use that voice.
A triumph for commonsense and democracy and a massive vote of support for the paid staff.
There are some pretty important principles at stake here; those blocks were purchased with YOUR money, and MY money. As license holders, we are effectively the landlords of these blocks. Our license fees are actively spent in the blocks, yet we were being asked to deny the licenseholder the opportunity to benefit from the use of the facilities they own. This IS NOT what F&G is about. An additional detail was that in the previous council meeting, Councillor Carey asked the council to consider zoning the region into management areas, a remit that was roundly dismissed as "being unmanageable". So there we were, being asked to consider denying license holders their right of access to their own land asset; and by doing so set in place a separate management zone.
The meeting, which was not particularly well advertised, was surprisingly well attended. And the attendees, rather than relying on a proxy who was perhaps not representing their wishes faithfully, had their say. And the things they had to say were enlightening. They wanted their blocks open. They wanted a say in voting about issues affecting their blocks rather than having minority will imposed on them; they felt sideswiped by last year's block closures and they certainly had no inkling of it before the regulations were passed last year.
I think that last night the AWF&G council made a quantum leap - the paid staff's advice was adhered to (almost faithfully). The fact that we spend far too much time endlessly debating regulations WHICH HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IMPACT ON GAMEBIRD POPULATIONS and then do the same next year, and the year after ad nauseum... the fact that this cacophony stops us from discussing and supporting real research... well as Guy pointed out quite rightly we just need to put this behind us forever and do some REAL work. And I think that shifting the powerbase in the council back onto a proper management course was a vital step-change in this particular council. The effect of the license-holders input and feedback was dramatic; from a position of what looked to be a split small majority of the council voting in favour of closing the blocks, the decision to keep them open was a landslide.
The license-holders saw that they do have a voice, and hopefully from this point onwards they will use that voice.
A triumph for commonsense and democracy and a massive vote of support for the paid staff.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
A 23 day break
Happy New Year! Stuffing about is fun. I decided to have an extra long Xmas break, starting Dec 24 and returning to work Jan 17. 23 days off in a row, the longest break I’ve taken since 2001. And it’s been a good break too – nice weather, beach days with the family, not too much work drama (you never really escape). Some really good fishing too and some new experiences. I took Marce’s nephew Josh down to Shank’s to do some work on the pheasant rearing pen, which we cleaned up relatively fast which gave me and Josh some time on the river prior to an evening pig hunt.
Our little charges - looking good!
Check out the camo
The river was discoloured (which it is 90% of the time) but we extracted a fat brown and hooked and lost dinner, a medium sized (couple pounds) rainbow. That evening we drove up to the airstrip which was planted in crops – the pigs had nailed it. As soon as we stopped the car there were pigs everywhere, but as we stalked in they disappeared – who knows where? Later on Shank’s neighbour came over and we had a hunting party of kids, dogs and spotlights. The dogs caught a couple of piglets and that was that for hunting. Next trip was a fly stripping day on the hydro lakes, fishing over the weed beds. Quite a big fish number day, I lost count after 20. Fish were mostly rainbows but I stalked a couple of browns in 50cm of water and nailed them, all in all quite satisfying but not what I’d call a challenging fishery. I put the yak into the harbour a number of times, but everyone was struggling to hit fish. Tons of anchovies in the channels but the fish were reticent, not really helped by the southerly. A trip to the Waikato spring creeks soothed my non-snapper conundrum, with sun beating down and insects buzzing the fish were looking up for food, another 20+ fish day but I didn’t net a brown, losing the 4 I put a hook into. Not good form really, but so nice to have such an array of rises from slow sips to splashy grabs – I missed a few on the rise but who cares? Dad and I snuck out real early one morning to fish the mussel farm at Waikawau Bay
Kingis were about and I briefly had a couple chase my lure cast hard against one of the buoys; and then later in the day a couple chased a yellow tail mack that I hooked up on a Clouser. I kept the fish down there and fished a livie for an hour or so but nope, the kings just weren’t in the mood. We took home seven reasonable snaps between us. A trip to the ponds to lay more bait in the stations, clear some willows and lay new carpet in the hut showed the ponds to be in superb order, still plenty of water although lower than it could be but good for high summer. Lowlight of the day involved smashing the prop on the same stump that dad hit 25 years ago, despite his warnings to “turn around, there’s a big stump in here…” yow, expensive… But yesterday was the crowning highlight of the break. Nik and I had arranged a trip on the harbour flats for kingis, chasing them on 8 weights with floating lines. The deal is that the kingis follow the big black rays and feed off the fish that the rays disturb. OH MY GOD.
This seriously will be hard to beat as the fishing highlight of 2011, running around after rays with kingis sitting atop…. Yellow tails sticking out of the water… well we were both hooting. So there’s the holiday wrap up. Hopefully my brownie points jar is slightly fuller than it has been as well J.
Mussel Barge on the move
Kingis were about and I briefly had a couple chase my lure cast hard against one of the buoys; and then later in the day a couple chased a yellow tail mack that I hooked up on a Clouser. I kept the fish down there and fished a livie for an hour or so but nope, the kings just weren’t in the mood. We took home seven reasonable snaps between us. A trip to the ponds to lay more bait in the stations, clear some willows and lay new carpet in the hut showed the ponds to be in superb order, still plenty of water although lower than it could be but good for high summer. Lowlight of the day involved smashing the prop on the same stump that dad hit 25 years ago, despite his warnings to “turn around, there’s a big stump in here…” yow, expensive… But yesterday was the crowning highlight of the break. Nik and I had arranged a trip on the harbour flats for kingis, chasing them on 8 weights with floating lines. The deal is that the kingis follow the big black rays and feed off the fish that the rays disturb. OH MY GOD.
Act like a fool Al, and you'll be published (...punished)
Kingi Fodder - Piper imitations
Spot the kingis - there are 2 there!
Steeeee-RIKE!!!!
This seriously will be hard to beat as the fishing highlight of 2011, running around after rays with kingis sitting atop…. Yellow tails sticking out of the water… well we were both hooting. So there’s the holiday wrap up. Hopefully my brownie points jar is slightly fuller than it has been as well J.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Users Pays - Why don't the commies understand this model?
In "our" swamp, we've suffered little in the way of interference by govt forces over the years. I say little because our user group governance body (Upper Piako Wetland Management Assn) have a pretty solid governance strategy, policy and a management plan that is approved by DOC. So when I got an email from dad that DOC were upset with our most recent spraying effort, I was a little less than amused. Need approval to spray poa aquatica (Glyceria aquatica)? God almighty, these idiots straight out of uni need to get a grip. Who asked us before mass chopper boom-spraying the willows that protected bird-life and created habitat? DOC? No way. Neat crop of blackberry and other wandering herbal pests that created for US, the USERS to fix up. Stupid hippies, living off the public purse. So dad gave them a barrel and they came creeping back all apologetic like, guv. Stupid slimey belly-creeping hippies with their dumb apologies. Next we'll need RMA approval to slash a blackberry. This is Helen Clark's legacy you see. We all need to be saved from ourselves and closeted in little pigeon holes. God help free thought.
We use, we pay, we manage. And somehow due to years of doing that we know what we're doing. I really hate Johnny-come-lately slimeballs that come with a "we know it all" attitude.
Merry Xmas.
We use, we pay, we manage. And somehow due to years of doing that we know what we're doing. I really hate Johnny-come-lately slimeballs that come with a "we know it all" attitude.
Merry Xmas.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Hopeful signs
Paul Stenning, noted waterfowler and Southland F&G Councilor is a worried man. His worry stems from the lack of research into NZ's Greylard/Mallard population, and how little we know of the population dynamics. His immediate concern (refreshingly) is not for his region's birds right now; but should the population markedly decline as is inferred it has done in other regions - what would an adequate management response be? How would we know what to do - is there an emergency plan? Here's where I digress....(again! Yay!) In our business we plan for a range of business outages from widespread mass interuptions (earthquake, acts of God) to global events such as break out of various strains of influenza derivatives to localised events such as power blackouts. Techinically everyone in the business (yeah there's always a dumbass) knows what the appropriate response should be in order to allow business continuity depending on the scale and severity of the event or outage. We know how to do this because in our knowledge banks we have the information gathered from when we've suffered power blackouts, had staff down in droves with various illnesses and even had terrorist threats on our building (given we're housed in one of Auckland's transport hubs, that's not too surprising). The point is that we know what to do. And it sort of works. A bit closer to home, that whole PSA gig in the kiwifruit industry exposed a clear lack of continuity planning... ok so resources were brought to bear but it took so long, and was so disjointed...
So, back to waterfowl, what happens if in Eastern there's a mass botulism outbreak in say Tauranga Harbour (unlikely example), or if some egg denaturing disease takes hold in Northern and wipes out all the nesting effort; or.. the list could go on. How would we know what's happening? How do we know our breeding success rates? Or the effect of crippling? Or whether our birds are nesting more than once? Or where?
Paul is worried, so he's pushing for a nationalised approach to researching our waterfowl populations. Its not a new idea, but its one that has merit. It needs to be nationalised and coordinated and run scientifically in order that planning can be put in place to allow for population management that has a fact base. Paul's taliking with councilors from various reagions, as it is expected that Southland F&G will put forward a remit to national; and if it isn't to die an agonising death it will need support from all regions. It will need buy-in, funding, coordination, but we have the staff power and appropriate job titles to do this! I can't see a single negative to be found. Someone may of course, that's the nature of committees.
Paul's been on the phone to a few people, Tim Allen, Guy, Craig, me.. to name a few shady dudes. Or leading lights. Naturally he wants our support, which will be granted and the support of our managers, which will take some work.
Watch this space.
So, back to waterfowl, what happens if in Eastern there's a mass botulism outbreak in say Tauranga Harbour (unlikely example), or if some egg denaturing disease takes hold in Northern and wipes out all the nesting effort; or.. the list could go on. How would we know what's happening? How do we know our breeding success rates? Or the effect of crippling? Or whether our birds are nesting more than once? Or where?
Paul is worried, so he's pushing for a nationalised approach to researching our waterfowl populations. Its not a new idea, but its one that has merit. It needs to be nationalised and coordinated and run scientifically in order that planning can be put in place to allow for population management that has a fact base. Paul's taliking with councilors from various reagions, as it is expected that Southland F&G will put forward a remit to national; and if it isn't to die an agonising death it will need support from all regions. It will need buy-in, funding, coordination, but we have the staff power and appropriate job titles to do this! I can't see a single negative to be found. Someone may of course, that's the nature of committees.
Paul's been on the phone to a few people, Tim Allen, Guy, Craig, me.. to name a few shady dudes. Or leading lights. Naturally he wants our support, which will be granted and the support of our managers, which will take some work.
Watch this space.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
"Obsessive..."~!
Well well lookie here. This batch augments the number of full body goose field dekes that have been hidden under my desk at work, or snuck out to the wood shed. These dekes look primo, can't wait to line them up against the GHG pro grades and see which look best.... hahhaahaaaaa, let the sledging begin!
People at work save I'm obsessive, so does SWMBO but to my absolute rapture, Justin Bieber Fan Club told me "I want to drive your dirty 4 wheel drive and kill geese". All this without prompting. The old heart is gladdened, warmed even by this. What a fine obsession to have!
Now, for that boat......
Monday, December 6, 2010
Oh Rats!!!
Waitemata Harbour is a great fishery, cheap, accesible and close to home. The harbour is filling up with spawning snapper at the moment, but yesterday's mission was about kingfish and fly rods. We wanted to at least get out and about after the aborted Waikaremoana trip, so the loose plan was to meet up at TT's, load the boat and get down to Okahu Bay and meet with Garth Planck who would join us. Garth's a well known competition angler who is trying to make the NZ team for the world champs. He reckons its his lake fishing that he needs to touch up on. I have my own thoughts about fishing competitions. Somehow sitting on the bank of a stream, smoking a ciggie and watching a fish feed seems to me to be a bit more 'in tune' than covering every mm of water with methodical no second wasted time bound precision of the top guys. Each to their own. One thing I do know about fishing around obstacles for kings is that presentation of the fly has to be accurate - it doesn't really matter how you get the fly just deep enough just upstream of the obstacle - only that you get it there. Waitemata is known for afternoon breezes, which tend to be steady and make casting tricky, so any manipulation of back-hand, over head, or roll cast to drop the fly in the zone will do. It will have to do. T-14 isn't exactly designed for pretty casting anyhow. Its designed to sink like a half brick. We headed out to a well known rock between 2 islands, got in postition which was tricky and after a couple of casts I was on. With the current and wind TT was having a hell of a job keeping the boat in place and we drifted across the buoy chain... fish 1 angler nil. After a few minutes we decided to anchor and dropped the pick. The position wasn't great but it was manageable and a few minutes and a couple of pack attacks later I was on again. But as I was standing on the line that fight didn't last long.... Garth meantime didn't have any action.
After a few more minutes TT wanted to reposition, but in doing so we hooked the pick on the buoy chain and had to jettison it after a bit of toing and froing. Bye bye $200. We decided to move back into Rangi Channel and check out the action there. First up the marker pole. Nothing doing. So we began to buoy hop and began to find fish. At almost every buoy at least one and sometimes up to half a dozen rats would chase the fly out. The Megamushy got eaten a few times and it was nice to get on the board; Garth meantime began to suffer from the dreaded mal de mer and his efforts flagged. I gave him a fly that would get bitten; his flies were a bit too bulky. The fish were all rats, nothing I saw would have exceeded 4 kilos or so.
After a few more minutes TT wanted to reposition, but in doing so we hooked the pick on the buoy chain and had to jettison it after a bit of toing and froing. Bye bye $200. We decided to move back into Rangi Channel and check out the action there. First up the marker pole. Nothing doing. So we began to buoy hop and began to find fish. At almost every buoy at least one and sometimes up to half a dozen rats would chase the fly out. The Megamushy got eaten a few times and it was nice to get on the board; Garth meantime began to suffer from the dreaded mal de mer and his efforts flagged. I gave him a fly that would get bitten; his flies were a bit too bulky. The fish were all rats, nothing I saw would have exceeded 4 kilos or so.
We ended the day at Rough Rock - a new buoy is attached there and its pretty 'clean' -no barnacles or weed growth on it yet. One small king came out and made a half arsed pass at the fly. Then we wound in. Inumerable casts, 4 hookups, 2 landed, heaps seen. Sweet.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Late spring
Well the trip didn't eventuate due to sickness in the household. TT's dad is near the end of his innings so TT was looking forward to some solitude, but the never-ending bug in our household just keeps taking its toll. JB Fan Club still up every hour on the hour coughing all night; I'll not miss this bug when it passes. TT and me are going to hit the harbour buoys for kingis tomorrow, so better make sure the gear is all ready.
Anyway, Shanks made a video of our little charges, this morning he let them out on the grass in the pen extension: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0q9eLLHerE
Our little charges are looking great!
Shane from Taupo took this photo the other day on a back country stream:
So the geese are getting around as well. Late spring and bird life is looking good. The looming problem appears to be drought, already Northland is in a perilous state. The daily clouds are just rolling over and not dumping, yet dada told me that the tanks at our duck hut are full, something like 200+ lites of water have been collected. Good news for the swamp, because at my place we'd have been lucky to get any rain in the past 3 weeks - significant rain, that is. So we're facing another Waikato drought summer. How long can the central Waikato duck shooters weather this before they start to give the game away? Its almost predictable now that their ponds are dry from Jan - mid June. License sales are actually up year on year which is some good news, so maybe just maybe folks will hang in there. As for the ducks, they may struggle for food all too soon.
Anyway, Shanks made a video of our little charges, this morning he let them out on the grass in the pen extension: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0q9eLLHerE
Our little charges are looking great!
Shane from Taupo took this photo the other day on a back country stream:
So the geese are getting around as well. Late spring and bird life is looking good. The looming problem appears to be drought, already Northland is in a perilous state. The daily clouds are just rolling over and not dumping, yet dada told me that the tanks at our duck hut are full, something like 200+ lites of water have been collected. Good news for the swamp, because at my place we'd have been lucky to get any rain in the past 3 weeks - significant rain, that is. So we're facing another Waikato drought summer. How long can the central Waikato duck shooters weather this before they start to give the game away? Its almost predictable now that their ponds are dry from Jan - mid June. License sales are actually up year on year which is some good news, so maybe just maybe folks will hang in there. As for the ducks, they may struggle for food all too soon.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Free Saturdays
First free Saturday for ages today, which is good because I'm coming off a week of man 'flu, broken sleep and 2 weeks of work hell. Justin Beiber Fan Club has had a wracking cough and conjunctivitis for 10 days and is finally coming right. Talk about a hive of disease in my house. So, stuff that happened in past 2 weeks. I hit the tying vice a couple of times, but my ambitions weren't matched by output, somehow stuff just fell flat. Still have most of a box to fill. Am noticing that my visual acuity is getting shot too, I need lots of light while tying so my eyes are getting tired by night tying efforts. Last Saturday's AWF&G council meeting was just as the bug was kicking in; my head was pounding for most of it. Cocks got pi$$ed with not having shortened season on F&G blocks; put forward a motion that the goose season be of same length as that of duck season, was seconded, voted and hey presto we have a 7 week goose season instead of 16 weeks. We got a special goose season in late summer but that is subject to game bird trend counts. Subsequently paper is flying; we will have a special meeting in Jan to rethink the goose season.
With the exchange rate it is possible to partake in international sales and land stuff at prices that are about as 'reasonable' as you're likely to see. Half dozen Final Approach full body "Starter Pack" dekes can be got for NZ$241 from Cabelas, add in freight and you're still under the magical $65 dollar per dekes mark that seems to seperate the good dekes from the not so good.
Next Saturday is free as well; free in the sense that TT, me and maybe Tim will be in Ureweras chasing fish and maybe we can knock over a deer as well. We'll take off Thursday fish/hunt Friday & Saturday and come back Monday. Should be a goodie.
With the exchange rate it is possible to partake in international sales and land stuff at prices that are about as 'reasonable' as you're likely to see. Half dozen Final Approach full body "Starter Pack" dekes can be got for NZ$241 from Cabelas, add in freight and you're still under the magical $65 dollar per dekes mark that seems to seperate the good dekes from the not so good.
Next Saturday is free as well; free in the sense that TT, me and maybe Tim will be in Ureweras chasing fish and maybe we can knock over a deer as well. We'll take off Thursday fish/hunt Friday & Saturday and come back Monday. Should be a goodie.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Swamp working bee
9 am roll call.... well more like 9.20 because we all sort of arrived at different times at the boat ramp. Tom, Paul, Tim, Quinn and me travelled down with Tom's boat, Rick and Jason arrived just before us; Andrew, Aaron and 2 of his kids were already there. A few trips up and down the river (tide was out) and we had everything up at the hut. Scope of work was quite large:
Repair the roof (Tom & Andrew) - include installation of new chimney
Install the new window - Tim & Aaron
Spray the ponds - me, Paul, Rick & Jase.
The day was hot but there was a decent breeze, but still Tom and Andy fried up on the roof. Rick and Jase powered through their work and me and Paul focussed on the heavy poa infestation especially between Park & Willow track and the Western edge of Bollocks. We trampled transverse lines through the crap and laid the spray on. Hopefully it has the desired effect. Lunch was called at 1 pm, Rick putting on a feed of venison sausages.
After a good day's work, all was completed. The new chimney looks brilliant, the new window is pretty good, and the Poa hopefully will wither under the intense spray program we applied. Paul and I saw a clutch of grey ducklings as well, a bit of a treat that you don't see everyday.
At 3 we pulled the pin at the ponds, tidying up and travelling to the landing took another hour. A big day's work out of the road, and really good to knock over some niggly problems that needed fixing.
Repair the roof (Tom & Andrew) - include installation of new chimney
Install the new window - Tim & Aaron
Spray the ponds - me, Paul, Rick & Jase.
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| New Chimney & Window |
The day was hot but there was a decent breeze, but still Tom and Andy fried up on the roof. Rick and Jase powered through their work and me and Paul focussed on the heavy poa infestation especially between Park & Willow track and the Western edge of Bollocks. We trampled transverse lines through the crap and laid the spray on. Hopefully it has the desired effect. Lunch was called at 1 pm, Rick putting on a feed of venison sausages.
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| Venision Sausage in bread - on way up to men on roof |
After a good day's work, all was completed. The new chimney looks brilliant, the new window is pretty good, and the Poa hopefully will wither under the intense spray program we applied. Paul and I saw a clutch of grey ducklings as well, a bit of a treat that you don't see everyday.
At 3 we pulled the pin at the ponds, tidying up and travelling to the landing took another hour. A big day's work out of the road, and really good to knock over some niggly problems that needed fixing.
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| Tom and Andy & the new chimney |
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Talking with Nik
.. I know why the big king may be disqualified from W/R ratification. It's a technicality that could become quite embarressing to a major manufacturer. But i still will stay schtum until I'm allowed to say why....
Monday, November 8, 2010
At the vice
My trout boxes haven't had much attention over the past summer & winter. Not really sure why. But of late I've been back in tying mode. I've been thinking about and using new (to me) materials, stuff like Knapek czech nymph hooks, Lucent beads and incorporating more wires and tinsels.
My ties aren't quite good enough to be professional but still I'm pleased enough with the results.
Getting there. Still have about 5 dozen holes to fill in the fly boxes.......
My ties aren't quite good enough to be professional but still I'm pleased enough with the results.
Getting there. Still have about 5 dozen holes to fill in the fly boxes.......
Non ratification
Nik says that it is 99.9% certain that the big kingi will not be ratified as a world record capture. I don't know why; and as he is writing an article about it I guess it will stay under wraps until published.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Roll your own sausage
Things I learned about making your own sausages:
1. The meat grinder/sausage stuffer makes noise equivalent to a small chainsaw. Ear muffs recommended. The family had to evacuate to Oma's house (Oma being Dutch term for Granny) to escape the noise
2. The sausage casings are little buggers. Part of the prep involves thoroughly rinsing them in cold water (they come packed in salt to preserve them), and if you're not careful they'll slide down the plug hole.....
3. It's not a fast process. It took me about 3 hours (I should get faster in the future) to rattle up 4kg of sausages
4. But man is it satisfying to end up with chains of sausages, knowing the origination of every single bit - except the casing I suppose
I used Canada goose, pork shoulder and pork belly - with lean game meat you need a source of fat content so pork belly from pigs shot at Shanks' place are the perfect source. Fresh sage, thyme, garlic, lemon juice, sea salt, cracked black pepper and some fresh chilli powder, a bit of playing around and voila! a really nice sausage emerged.
SHMBO has banned me from doing it again, so next weekend I'll put down another batch!
1. The meat grinder/sausage stuffer makes noise equivalent to a small chainsaw. Ear muffs recommended. The family had to evacuate to Oma's house (Oma being Dutch term for Granny) to escape the noise
2. The sausage casings are little buggers. Part of the prep involves thoroughly rinsing them in cold water (they come packed in salt to preserve them), and if you're not careful they'll slide down the plug hole.....
3. It's not a fast process. It took me about 3 hours (I should get faster in the future) to rattle up 4kg of sausages
4. But man is it satisfying to end up with chains of sausages, knowing the origination of every single bit - except the casing I suppose
I used Canada goose, pork shoulder and pork belly - with lean game meat you need a source of fat content so pork belly from pigs shot at Shanks' place are the perfect source. Fresh sage, thyme, garlic, lemon juice, sea salt, cracked black pepper and some fresh chilli powder, a bit of playing around and voila! a really nice sausage emerged.
SHMBO has banned me from doing it again, so next weekend I'll put down another batch!
Friday, November 5, 2010
Hen Houses
Now here's a really great idea - Hen Houses for mallards.
Teal boxes have been around for donkeys but the entry hole is generally too small for a Mallard hen to use. They are well used, but the ones I've seen are made with big wooden stands which are perfect runways for rats, defeating the whole purpose really.
The Hen House really solves that one, old Rattus rattus can't grip smooth metal all that well, I say it that way because I've seen one run up painted corrugated iron.
If you were to put Hen Houses on say farm ponds, with little natural cover they would provide a hen mallard with a structure in which she could find safety and comfort.
Gonna give these a shot....
Teal boxes have been around for donkeys but the entry hole is generally too small for a Mallard hen to use. They are well used, but the ones I've seen are made with big wooden stands which are perfect runways for rats, defeating the whole purpose really.
The Hen House really solves that one, old Rattus rattus can't grip smooth metal all that well, I say it that way because I've seen one run up painted corrugated iron.
If you were to put Hen Houses on say farm ponds, with little natural cover they would provide a hen mallard with a structure in which she could find safety and comfort.
Gonna give these a shot....
Caring for your trout
I was going to call this "Caring for your fish" but that sort of implies keeping the fillets in the fridge or something so that they taste nice. Nope, this one is about caring for your trout once you've caught it. To be clear about the subject, I'm going to assume that like the majority of anglers you don't really want to eat your trout, given that they are:
1. Often wild fish in streams with limited spawning opportunity
2. Farkin tasteless
3.Too valuable to catch only once - economically it is important that the fish you catch today can be caught again next week by a yank, or Aussie, Dane.. whatever, as long as they spend their tourist moolah in Godzone
4. Farkin tasteless
5. An important recreational resource that should be shared with others
6. Really farkin tasteless
I mean anything you have to douse in brown sugar or add garlic to or smoke or... well I mean they are just tasteless. Served in cream with garlic butter sauce, a trout tastes like cream and garlic butter with little bones in it.
I digress. Damn it, I'm good at digression.
So, you've hooked your big trout, played it as hard as possible to bring it to your soft meshed (no knots) large mouthed net as quickly as possible, and screamed in delight as Salmo monsteris has been netted. What you do next determines the viability of the fish's continued existence in this dimension. You want that photo of a lifetime, and your mate is nowhere near you. Forget the photo. Keeping the fish in the water (in the net) use your forceps to remove the hook, hold the fish gently in the current and say goodbye after it fins off when well revived. I can tell you from personal experience that dicking around with a fish, camera, net, rod blah blah on your own gives the fish a short life expectation. It is almost impossible to set everything up and get the snap and get the fish back alive. Smartasses out there will mention sand bags for their camera blah blah, and maybe they can get their shot and get the fish back alive but I reckon its a low margin exercise.
Let's say your mate is there. For a start don't let him net your fish, its safer for both of you that he doesn't. If it gets away while he's netting it there are gonna be either some choice words, hard feelings or digging rights forever after. Don't put yourself in that place, as your mate begs you to net his trophy just tell him he's a pussy and to get on with it. And don't ask him to net yours. Right, so Salmo megaspottyfish is now in the net. Holding the fish in the mesh of the net, head upstream, use your forceps to remove the hook. Whip your hat and sunnies off. Fish is still in net, submerged in water. Your mate positions himself so sun is right for the photo and camera is ready to take the shot. He calls the shot, you smartly lift the fish from the net, taking care not to touch gills, or eyes (don't ask me how you'd do that...). Your hands are wet of course and you've not recently applied sunscreen or anti-fly ointment which burns the slime off the fish. You take only a few shots, with lots of rest time between for the fish. Then you gently release the recovered fish into a part of the stream that has protected flow. Off he goes.
Check this out.
1. Often wild fish in streams with limited spawning opportunity
2. Farkin tasteless
3.Too valuable to catch only once - economically it is important that the fish you catch today can be caught again next week by a yank, or Aussie, Dane.. whatever, as long as they spend their tourist moolah in Godzone
4. Farkin tasteless
5. An important recreational resource that should be shared with others
6. Really farkin tasteless
I mean anything you have to douse in brown sugar or add garlic to or smoke or... well I mean they are just tasteless. Served in cream with garlic butter sauce, a trout tastes like cream and garlic butter with little bones in it.
I digress. Damn it, I'm good at digression.
So, you've hooked your big trout, played it as hard as possible to bring it to your soft meshed (no knots) large mouthed net as quickly as possible, and screamed in delight as Salmo monsteris has been netted. What you do next determines the viability of the fish's continued existence in this dimension. You want that photo of a lifetime, and your mate is nowhere near you. Forget the photo. Keeping the fish in the water (in the net) use your forceps to remove the hook, hold the fish gently in the current and say goodbye after it fins off when well revived. I can tell you from personal experience that dicking around with a fish, camera, net, rod blah blah on your own gives the fish a short life expectation. It is almost impossible to set everything up and get the snap and get the fish back alive. Smartasses out there will mention sand bags for their camera blah blah, and maybe they can get their shot and get the fish back alive but I reckon its a low margin exercise.
Let's say your mate is there. For a start don't let him net your fish, its safer for both of you that he doesn't. If it gets away while he's netting it there are gonna be either some choice words, hard feelings or digging rights forever after. Don't put yourself in that place, as your mate begs you to net his trophy just tell him he's a pussy and to get on with it. And don't ask him to net yours. Right, so Salmo megaspottyfish is now in the net. Holding the fish in the mesh of the net, head upstream, use your forceps to remove the hook. Whip your hat and sunnies off. Fish is still in net, submerged in water. Your mate positions himself so sun is right for the photo and camera is ready to take the shot. He calls the shot, you smartly lift the fish from the net, taking care not to touch gills, or eyes (don't ask me how you'd do that...). Your hands are wet of course and you've not recently applied sunscreen or anti-fly ointment which burns the slime off the fish. You take only a few shots, with lots of rest time between for the fish. Then you gently release the recovered fish into a part of the stream that has protected flow. Off he goes.
Check this out.
Here Simon hasn't even taken time to remove hat and sunnies. The water dripping from his hog sized fish shows he's just lfted it for the shot, perfect technique. Hats off to fine angler and excellent practitioner of C&R.
What makes it even better:
The angler is a big fish chaser, but check out the fish - yup its him again! Steven caught the fish in Jan '10, Simon took him in Oct '10. And I've been heard that this guy (fish, not angler) has appeared in no less than 4 Facebook pages.
The lesson here is that this fish has probably driven a zillion anglers into mad dribbling mutterings about travelling to NZ... he may have accounted for more tourist dollars than The Lord of The Rings... oh ok but you get my drift.
2 things spring to mind when I think of that fish:
1. Some people are doing a good job of releasing their fish in a fit and healthy state, ensuring that a valuable resource is available to others
2. That fish would taste awful, even in beer batter with extra spices.
Monday, November 1, 2010
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.
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.
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.
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....
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....
Chinese Whispers
The record kingi is 32.7kg, not 37.2kg as first reported.... sort of a dyslexic Chinese Whispers thing happened, by the time I got the news it was pretty third hand. Still a massive fish and still an impressive record.
Friday, October 29, 2010
New World Record
News filtered through yesterday that Nik put his Aussie (grrr hahaha) client onto a 37kg kingi, which they landed - and get this on an 8kg class leader. That's outstanding, easily the biggest kingi ever caught on a fly rod, plus most people after big kings wouldn't even dream of fishing class tippets. And the 8kg class to boot. For those who don't know, the IGFA lines classes for fly fishing are:
Metric U.S.Equivalent
1 kg 2.20 lb
2 kg 4.40 lb
3 kg 6.61 lb
4 kg 8.81 lb
6 kg 13.22 lb
8 kg 17.63 lb
10 kg 22.04 lb
So this is more than just a meritorious catch, if ratified. Ratification involves weighing the fish on certified scales, and then providing photos, the official weigh cert., the leader/fly setup and a few feet of fly line to the International Game Fishing Association where they test the leader for length/construction and the class section of the leader for breaking strain.
Nik does it all by the book, so most likely this herculean effort will dominate the record books, perhaps forever. Even better and as a mark of his skills, his prediction was that the WR kingi would be taken in October based on their spawning cycle, relative 'mood' (let's not get into a debate, he has his theories and this one is borne out) and location. The thing to remember here is that its a team effort, yes the angler has to hook play and bring the fish close enough to gaff or net, but putting the angler in the right place to get his part right, well that takes some doing.
Brilliant.
Metric U.S.Equivalent
1 kg 2.20 lb
2 kg 4.40 lb
3 kg 6.61 lb
4 kg 8.81 lb
6 kg 13.22 lb
8 kg 17.63 lb
10 kg 22.04 lb
So this is more than just a meritorious catch, if ratified. Ratification involves weighing the fish on certified scales, and then providing photos, the official weigh cert., the leader/fly setup and a few feet of fly line to the International Game Fishing Association where they test the leader for length/construction and the class section of the leader for breaking strain.
Nik does it all by the book, so most likely this herculean effort will dominate the record books, perhaps forever. Even better and as a mark of his skills, his prediction was that the WR kingi would be taken in October based on their spawning cycle, relative 'mood' (let's not get into a debate, he has his theories and this one is borne out) and location. The thing to remember here is that its a team effort, yes the angler has to hook play and bring the fish close enough to gaff or net, but putting the angler in the right place to get his part right, well that takes some doing.
Brilliant.
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