AL fished with me several years ago and we did a Multi Day Trip exploring some out of the way rivers and streams in the Central South Island region. We ventured into some of the more remote rivers and streams catching some cracking brown and rainbow trout over the 5 days. HE contacted me earlier this year to say he was coming out again and bringing his new girlfriend Jeanhei and wanted to head into the same area as he had a few scores to settle with a couple of big fish that had smoked him the previous trip ! We made a rough plan as to where would head but left it a little open as the summer weather we were experiencing this year was very up and down to say the least !!

I picked he and Jeanhei up from the Queenstown airport and off we headed for a 4 day adventure the first destination was a small stream deep in the mountains that AL had enjoyed on his previous trip and had a score to settle with a very big fish !

Day one was a little cloudy first up , warmish but a little overcast which made spotting tricky at times but we fished all the likely pieces of water if we couldn't spot fish and got the results . The above fish was holding in a deep rock chute and was more than happy to rise to a cicada pattern that AL dropped right on his nose. AL finished up hooking about 5 nice browns for the day all between 5-7lb and all on cicada imitations . Day 2 was a stunner and started well with a nice fish we spied cruising just under the surface along a big rock ledge in the first pool of the day rising and taking AL's dropper nymph he had suspended under his dry, after a 5 min battle he had a beautifully conditioned Brown trout in the net of around 5.5lb. The temperature rose as the day went on and fish happily rose for cicadas with a couple even moving a several metres to intercept them again all the fish we netted were around the 5-7lb mark and all in great condition. Day 3 saw us head up to the Nevis River a river renowned for not having great numbers of fish in it but what are there are quality ! We started out a fair distance up the valley and saw 2 fish in the first 2km we walked covering them both well with a dry fly and having them both run for cover as soon as the fly hit the surface,,,,it was going to be a long day ! I decided to head lower down the valley where I knew a few more fish wereholding in a piece of river I had fished myself a week earlier and had done well on . The first deep run we came to hit a high bank and had a slow deep back water that had formed just off to the sidea good sized fish could be seen cruising in and out of the main flow feeding off the surface , AL cast his Stu's Tan Deadly Cicada a few metres above the fish and bang...the fish rose and smashed his fly which unfortunately came unstuck. We fished on for another couple of hours and landed 1 nice fish of around 4.5lb and missed another . A fun day up in a magic river valley a rare day of no wind and blue sky all day !

Day 3 we ventured into a river that he had fished on his first trip to New Zealand fly fishing and had be very impressed with both fishing and the scenery . The was recovering from some heavy rain the night before but I knew would fish well as it dropped . I explained to AL that there were other options for the day's fishing that would be clearer after all the rain but he insisted on heading to this river as he wanted to propose to his girl friend Jeanhei at the start of the day !

The plan was to walk with Jeanhei to the turn off of her day walk into a remote valley, propose to her then carry on fishing upstream for the day fishing...what a legend ! thanks for making me a part of your special day guys !