Question, what do guides do on their day off? You’d think the last thing would be to go fishing. Top NZ guide Ian Cole however is as keen as they come. I joined him on his day off to reccy a couple of remote rivers in the back o’ beyond. Now, fishing streams without previous form can be feast or famine stuff, as not all Kiwi rivers are teeming with trout. The first port of call drew a blank and scratching our heads, on a salvage operation, we decided to head deeper into the high country. A 4WD is needed to negotiate the often rugged terrain and it wasn’t long before we found a stream flowing into a lake (above), which is generally a good bet as trout can drop back to deep water when these small mountain become parched.
~Keeping well away from the tiny stream, Ian scopes the water for signs of life~
It’s late in the day before fish are discovered and whilst we only managed three between us there’s a sense of satisfaction to be had from exploring unchartered streams…
One of the beauties about trout off the beaten track is they tend to be quite obliging…this belter pounced on a large dry sedge first cast