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Sunday 31 August 2014

Release the worms

A couple of weeks ago, on a still sunny day; a nice-sized brown in the water below.

The bank was steep and there was no decent place to jump down to land a fish so I didn't bother casting. I ended up scaring the trout off by slowly getting more out in the open trying to photograph it. In the end the reflection on the water that was getting cut out by my glasses was still showing up in the photos, so didn't end up with much more than some pictures of water.


The dog and I continued down this side-pool of the Wairau, closer to where it connects with the main river. Two more nice browns were calmly pointing into the slight current just behind a small tree that had tipped into the river due to erosion.

A white dog really doesn't help when fishing in such a prominent spot - I had a trout follow a fly with curiosity at one point, but they disappeared when the dog got overly curious, peering over the bank.

***

I've been digging in the garden, getting prepared for spring. Many worms have been uncovered, and I decided to go back and try my luck fishing with a worm and no dog.

I normally stick to artificial lures rather than 'bait' (i.e. an animal in some form), due to it not being as messy and not wanting to kill an animal if I don't have to. There is possibly the factor of  'fooling' a fish with something man-made as well, which I assume will grow when I get around to putting all of the fly-tying books I have accumulated to use.

At the moment, though, I have enjoyed getting back into using bait, but I've never fished with a worm. Geoff Wilson's Complete Book of Fishing Knots & Rigs has a diagram for using worms as bait.

Riding back to the same spot twice on the motorbike armed with worms hasn't been successful - I haven't seen any trout at all. The last time I also went down to the Wairau Diversion mouth after looking for the trout, and ended up losing a couple of lures.

The great thing about fishing on the motorbike is that you always tend to end up in a good mood from having a ride, even if the fishing isn't successful.

No worms were harmed in the making of this... unfortunately. They were all released back into the garden. I can't vouch for the two hens that are normally scratching around in the garden at the moment.