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heathcote
09-25-2010, 10:25 PM
On September the 4th 2010 at 4.35 am a 7.1 earthquake hit Christchurch NZ. Life for us all changed at that moment and for many will never be the same. We were lucky! We have, we find, a strong well built house on solid rock foundations and suffered no damage what so ever. Now some two weeks later the urge to fish was too much to be denighed so I headed off to my local urban stream on the other side of town to "Flick a Fly"
Now after the earthquake all the streams and rivers ran like chocolate mud with the disturbed silt and run off from the shaken waterloged earth being squeezed out from below. I had no idea what to expect but was pleasantly supprised to find the water clear with just a touch of colour. However the stream had changed subtlely. New riffles were formed, one pool was much shallower and in places the banks were a little closer together than before. How had the trout fared I wondered, they could not go anywhere except down to the sea and that I thought unlightly.
Polaroids on, tackle in hand I started off up stream, the light was good, a low early morning sun from over my left shoulder and I slowely glassed the water.
Two hundred meters later at the bottom of an old riffle were two trout slowely edging up stream on the far edge. One rose and sipped something off the surface then the leading fish slashed forward with a mighty lunge and whitebait scattered taking to the air. That settled the fly selection a glittsy white and pale green streamer tied on a long shank hook with a 3.5mm bead to hold it well down in the water column. I fished this down and accross and retrieved in little jerks up the edge of the current.
Two minutes later one of the pair of trout hit the lure in mid stream and the fight was on.
The fish, a brown male in exceptional condition for early spring took off at high speed down stream jumping and thrashing the surface all the way. He ran fast and I followed rod high to keep control until he turned some 40 meters from where I had hooked him; there we slugged it out until at last the head came up and I was able to drift him down into the waiting net. A real beauty, just over 4 lbs., golden brown flanked, red spotted, green backed drop dead gorgeous brownie. Just 8am and a wonderful start to the morning.
Needless to say I fished a further two hours, changed flies many times saw plenty more fish but never even looked like getting one to accept my offerings. Thats the way it is on my small urban stream, the dog walkers, joggers and others were out and about and the trout were on the QV for danger so a tactical retreat was made for morning coffee back at home.

Jax
09-26-2010, 01:11 AM
Hi heathcote; Good to hear you are coping with the trauma after the Quake.I hope you came through it without too much loss.

I'm in Tauranga and really feel for the poor unfortunates who are having it real hard down there at present.

Your tale of fishing your local stream shows that the good old Mainlanders spitit of survival and the life must go on ethic is still alive and going strong. Good on Ya!! Jax

Gerard
09-26-2010, 04:27 AM
Saw a report re the earthquake on Helifreak as well. Good to know you are OK and given your report the trout as well.

willowgrub
09-27-2010, 01:26 PM
Being a former Avon man myself , mostly in the 90`s , Im real glad there are still some who practice urban angling ,and that there are still fish that can make that worth while . Long live the trout of Christchurch city

heathcote
09-27-2010, 11:02 PM
Being a former Avon man myself , mostly in the 90`s , Im real glad there are still some who practice urban angling ,and that there are still fish that can make that worth while . Long live the trout of Christchurch city
Hi Willowgrub, nice to know there are old urban anglers still out there but I am sure you will be sad to learn that the Avon fishery is amost at an end. At the Botanics Bridge there used to be at least 4 large trout competing for bread with the ducks, now there is the occasional one. From the bridge up stream to Girls High you will now be lucky to see two or three smaller fish. Numbers are so low it is not worth the bus fare unless you want to take a nostalgic stroll and sit on one of the fishermans seats behind Carlton flats in contemplative mood of past glories.

willowgrub
09-28-2010, 03:32 AM
yeah , I do know . I fished it occasionally , less and less regularly during this 'century' It was like watching an old friend die of cancer . I hold some hope for the Heathcote because it does not get the same commercial pollution . Now that those hillside suburbs are maturing , the loess soils are being held in place . For all the crap that the C.C.C. put out they were terrible for preventing commercial siltation of the local streams . There would be silt load limits in the consents , but no mechanisms required to hold the muck during high rainfall events . They always seemed to be reactive , not proactive . It really burns me thinking about it all . The clean green myth ...........

Satoshi
09-30-2010, 07:26 AM
It's amazing you have such a great trout fishery in the city.
Also goo to know you and your house had no damage by the earthquake.

Satoshi

heathcote
10-01-2010, 02:33 AM
Hi Satoshi,
thanks for your good wishes, we are so lucky! Today we went to fish some other streams for opening day of the new season in our area; first stop no go the bridge was gone and no access, second all ok for access but colour and cracked banks from the shocks but trout few and far between. 60km from the epicenter an untouched spring creek willows and oaks coming into leaf, a beautiful spring day in perfect surroundings. We offered a small libation of whisky to the God of anglers in thanks, drank tea on the bank and retired fishless to return another day!

Satoshi
10-01-2010, 10:00 PM
Hi Satoshi,
thanks for your good wishes, we are so lucky! Today we went to fish some other streams for opening day of the new season in our area; first stop no go the bridge was gone and no access, second all ok for access but colour and cracked banks from the shocks but trout few and far between. 60km from the epicenter an untouched spring creek willows and oaks coming into leaf, a beautiful spring day in perfect surroundings. We offered a small libation of whisky to the God of anglers in thanks, drank tea on the bank and retired fishless to return another day!

Sounds like it was a really big earthquake.
The season ended on the last day of September here.
I hope the streams there will recover soon and that you will have a good season.

Satoshi

heathcote
10-01-2010, 11:44 PM
Hi Satoshi,
The NZ season starts on the first of October for lowland waters and for the alpine (high country) waters it is the 1st of November. This is organised to accomodate anglers from Japan ( and other lesser nations) to come and fish our wonderful waters during your close season. Come on over and enjoy what we have to offer.