HVAV Newsletter March 2013 - Christchurch Fishing and Casting Club

As it happened, we were camped about a mile downstream from atrout hatchery. I should mention that there are virtually no selfsustainingtrout rivers in South Australia, so trout fishing was avery rare, secretive and perhaps elitist pastime. By the time I wasabout 14, I was already hooked on sea fishing for the wily breamin the Port River and I was aware of fly fishing but didn’t knowanyone who actually did it. Anyway, to get to the point of thestory, one crisp sunny morning we decided to go for a hike alongthe river. We left the campsite and headed downstream andeventually came to a bridge. When you’re a group of young ladsout for an adventure and you come to a bridge, the first thing youdo is find the biggest rocks you can then walk to the middle of thebridge and have a contest to see whose rock can make the biggestsplash in the pools below. Well we got to the middle, boulders inhand, and looked over the edge. There waving in the current,larger than life were 2 trout sitting in about 6 inches of water.Yes, actual trout! At first there was a bit of a debate. Were theyeels? No, we decided that they had to be trout and that thisparticular river must be part of the trout hatchery.Well, we stared at those trout for a couple of minutes then decidedthat we needed to catch them and we all agreed that the bestmethod would be to drop our boulders on them and stun them,dynamite style! It was not very pretty or sporting, but simple andpotentially very effective. Plus, the thought of sitting around thecampfire eating freshly caught trout was the icing on the cake.Now the trout were down there but not straight below us, so adirect drop was out of the question. We decided that a shotgunapproach was our best bet, so on the count of 3 we launched ourbarrage of fire. Of course, we missed by miles and only succeededin giving those fish the fright of their lives, but I remember the dayclearly...the day I first saw wild trout.Now, fast forwarding a few decades, I come to the present day.I’ve been fly fishing for about a year now and I see a steadystream of new club members who were in the same position that Iwas a year ago. During this last year I’ve managed to catch 4trout, hook and lose about 10 and scare off dozens as my fly linehit the water. What I would like to do is write a few pieces withthe novice fly fisherman in mind. Not to give advice...there arealready plenty of excellent articles in the club magazine...butrather, to share the lessons I have learnt as I have stumbled my20Hutt Valley Angling Club Incorporated .March 2013