Saturday I went for a fish with 'the unk' aka my usual fishing partner aka my uncle and we hit a decent creek some ways away that takes a bit of getting to, a decent drive and through a couple of private properties. On the walk in we saw a fox out in the middle of the sunny warm day at 10:30 which was a little unusual. After hitting the creek we found the water to be crystal clear, almost too clear but it was to pay off in the end. It took a while for us to find fish, these 'bows don't seem to like the tail of the pool and are usually in the deeper water or bubble stream, unlike browns which will happily sit in the tail of the pool or undercut shallow banks. There isn't a lot of tree cover, and with a couple of cormorants flying around we weren't sure if the over bright weather or birds had kept the fish hunkered down. There were a few pools we were able to spot fish in both before and after fishing it (got a few follows/hits that didn't hook up), but we weren't seeing a whole lot. Shortly after lunch we came across a nice deep dark pool with a log half way up that crossed it completely making casting a little difficult. Just as we approached the tail end, there was a small rise on the downstream side of the log, so I put in a couple of good casts before hooking up on a 30cm odd fish that jumped and pulled like heck before I managed to drag it into the tail of the pool and subdue it to release. Approaching the log, I cautiously poked my head over the other side and could see a usual creek size fish finning in the clear water. I fired in a couple of casts that weren't the best I'd ever done when I saw movement in the deeper side in the shadows and eventually picked out a BIG fish. Another couple of difficult casts brought no response other than it slowly moved off upstream. Bugger!! Still, I flicked in another cast towards the head of the pool where the water bubbled in from above and slowly stripped the fly towards me. Suddenly out of the clear water a huge set of shoulders and head appeared - a couple of quick strips and it pounced on the fly only a couple of rod lengths away, the clear water giving me an awesome unobstructed view. All hell broke loose as it felt the prick of the #12 hook and it took off downstream under the log and only a bit of desperate rodwork and footwork as I climbed over the rootball of the fallen tree kept it clear and running free and it powered up and downstream a few times with the 2wt glass rod working over time to keep it in some semblance of control. There were a few rocks, roots and blackberries in the the pool so I had to be careful not to let it get too close as well as not overwork the tippet too much. Eventually after 5min or so the unk' managed to slide the net under it and it was caught!!!!!!
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That's 52cm of prime 'bow hen and possibly a once or twice a lifetime catch in this area! After a couple of photos I slid the big fish back into the water and watched it swim off into the shadows
We moved on, buoyed by that capture and that we were starting to see fish again. Not long after, unk (who I'd given and would give the bulk of the fishing now) was good enough to put in a great cast into a tight spot and extract a decent 30cm fish from a tight corner on a little pocket off one side of the main flow. Pool hopping towards some better water, we put up a sambar hind from a blackberry thicket and watched it crash into and get tangled up in the farm fence on the steep hillside above us. Soon after we came to a deep but small pocket of water with a log poking down into the depths where the water cascaded down from the ledge above. Firing a little yabby fly into the shallower water along the side, I let it sink a few seconds before a couple of strips and I was on! I small acrobatic fish was skulldragged down into the riffle below and I flipped it off. Throwing in another cast into slightly deeper water the exact same thing happened - another small fish was pulled down into the run below, but this time managed to throw the hook itself (all good, we deliberately give them slack to try and let it happen). Hmmm, 3 from 3? Not this time, but the 4th cast hard up against the log and a better fish decided it liked my yabby and snaffled it and a 30cm fish leapt and strutted its stuff before I was able to get it to hand and slide it downstream. A 4th followed a cast or two later - this was getting ridiculous! Turning to unk' (whose fished this creek a heck of lot more than me) I asked him what his best number of fish from one pool was and he replied with a laugh '2'. The last cast was into the deepest part of the pool on the far side of the log and the running water bowed the line out as the fly sank. A strip or two to take up the slack and everything went tight the moment the fly moved and a decent (high 30's/40cm) 'bow leapt and crashed around before suddenly everything went limp - pulled fly? Nope, the wear and tear of 5 sets of teeth had broken the tippet - bugger! Still, 5 fish in about 7 casts in a pool of water smaller than most kitchens was something to remember and we agreed about as much fun you could have with clothes on
That was really it for the day, though we fished on for another hour or so. Unk' managed to land one and I missed 2 including something that felt fairly decent. Returning to the car for a celebratory beer we agreed that it was both a disappointment in fish numbers seen, and a reward to see a fish that big. But we also agreed, that if we knew everything about catching fish it wouldn't be as fun
That yabby fly was an experiment I'd tied up and never got round to using before, so I quickly sat down at the vice and tied up a few variants to give to unk' and replenish my fly box for the next trip out as almost every fish (trout or redfin) we've ever caught have yabbies in them so they obviously feature high on the menu.
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Steve