• A new stream

    The Christchurch earthquake has caused havoc with the fishing here so what a pleasant surprise to find a new stream, well not quite new but new to me. Driving round town is a challenge as road closures due to demolitions or work to repair services. New routes have to be found or diversions taken.

    I had planned to fish a river some 50km from town and following a diversion ended on a back road I would not normally take and realised that I had crossed a bridge. Ho ho! I never knew that was here; so turned and parked up close to the bridge for a look see. Peering over the hand rail a beautiful small brook met my astonished gaze. About twelve feet in width the water flowed briskly over a stony bottom from beneath the bridge, met a large bed of elodea weed then slowed to a beautiful pool followed by another riffle which disappeared into a tunnel of brambles and crack willow. This bought instant memories of a distant childhood of a similar southern English brook and fat half pound brown trout. Gum boots and polaroids on it was off to explore.

    Creeping slowly down stream taking advantage of the plentiful cover I spotted six trout all small, just a few ounces each, all except one and this was a fish of at least 14 inches, a pound or even one and a half. All were feeding confidently but on what? They held station in mid water swinging from side to side taking nymphs of some kind. An examination of the bankside grass and sedges revealed only a damsel fly shuck so it would have to be trial and error. Back at the car and tackled up I tied on a Hare and Copper 14# always a good basic search pattern. I had found that after 200m the way was blocked by houses and gardens but still that short stretch took a pleasant two hours to fish and watch, It would be nice to report success but that was not to be and I left entranced but fishless.

    The following week I was back and tried a tactic from that remembered boyhood stream where I freelined a worm on a greased line down stream relying on touch to feel the takes. This always worked then and doing the same now with a Diwal Bach 12# nymph worked just the same. Within the first 25m a lively 10in brown took the challenge from the willow tunnel it thought a secure home. The choice of the Diwal Bach was a good one and a second fish danced the fandango with me half an hour later almost a twin of the first. Both had almost inhaled the fly and were hooked well back in the roof of the mouth. A lovely autumn morning and two fine trout, how lucky I am. Having viewed the Google satalite map of the stream I find that I can access it from another point further down and fish up to the houses so there are more adventures to come, tomorrow perhaps. Interestingly this stream does not appear on the local topo' map at all so who knows it may be that I will be the only one to have found the trout in this lovely stream.
    This article was originally published in forum thread: A new stream started by heathcote View original post