Five children take a lot of feeding
By Craig Grant
When our children were young, long ago, we camped at Lake Middleton by Lake Ohau. In those days teachers got a lump sum, at the beginning of the holidays. Our holiday was almost over, when my wife Vivienne told me we had almost run out of food and we only had enough money to buy the petrol to get home. Five children take a lot of feeding. She had the bread I had to catch the fish.
My mate David, who was a fly fisherman was in a similar situation, so I collected a bucket of cockabullies and we headed up to the top of Lake Ohau, to go and fish the mouth of the Hopkins River. We took a short cut across the first bay. It was a windy day. The wavy water was a little cloudy. I hooked on a bully, let out heaps of nylon and trolled it slowly across the lake. I was up to my waist at times as I waded through water. By the time I reached the other side I had two fish. Then I fished all the streams and inlets on the way to the river mouth.
I was on fire that day and I pulled fish out of some crazy places. Poor David didn't get one. However, I got a limit bag, which was ten in those days and we shared the catch and no one went hungry.
A few years later I used the same technique at the top of the Ahuriri Arm of Lake Benmore. It was a fine day. There were fish feeding in the shallows but they were very spooky and I was having no success casting to them with my bully so I cast out my bully and walked quietly through the shallows letting out line slowly with my bail arm open.
When the first fish hit, I let it run for a bit. Trout initially grab a bully by the middle of the body. If you strike straight away you pull the bully out of the trout's mouth and normally fail to hook up. It is better to let the fish run. Then they will turn the fish in their mouths and swallow it head first. Don't strike, just reel the line slowly in for a start. That way it's possible to retrieve a lot of your line before the hooked fish realises what's going on. If you strike hard, you hurt them and then they will really fight. I got three trout that day.
When I took up fly fishing I often fished at night. Lake Middleton was a delight to fish before the Christmas crowds. It was full of feisty rainbows. When I changed positions along the shore, if it wasn't far, I wouldn't bother reeling in my fly line. Instead I cast it out and walked along the shoreline with my rod held out over the water, trolling my Hamill's Killer slowly through the water. Doing that I caught fish that were feeding in the shallows.
Lately I have tried a similar technique on the lower Wairau River, when I have been fishing the river at night. When changing sides, I walk through the shallower runs and let the fly line float down in the current into the deeper water and then work the fly as I wade across the river. I catch fish like that too.
It's an interesting method and it is one way to catch fish, when you normally wouldn't be fishing. It is also like trolling without a boat. That's why I call it, ' poor man's trolling'.
