Do you have a favourite spot that you often head to?
Here on the Coast I have a mate who had a spot X, but he was rather reluctant to share it until one day he described how the main river was dirty and high and to escape the flow, half a dozen good brown trout had lined themselves up in a clean, nearby creek. He said, “they’d be sitters for you with your fly gear, a nymph would be deadly.” Naturally I was keen to know where this cornucopia of fish was and his description sounded familiar, so next time the river rose I hurried up there, but not a fish did I spy. Things change and one day might not be the same as another. Such is fishing.
This set me thinking about the many spot Xs I have had over the years, starting with my first one in the 1960s as a kid in Christchurch. I’d peered under a concrete bridge over the Styx River, where a shaft of late afternoon sunlight lit the water and to my untrained young mind, it just felt fishy. How did I know this, is it in the DNA, did I inherit something from ancestors in Scotland or Ireland? Whatever it was, the first cast under there with a small silver ‘ticer induced a “follow.” However, the thing couldn’t keep up with my frantic, amateurish cranking and another cast brought the same result. The light bulb over my head briefly lit up and I resolved to wind in more slowly, so on the third cast came the moment that committed me to a lifetime of fishing. A lively pound and a half brownie was winched out, making the location my first Spot X. Us young lads thrashed that wee stream over the next couple of years, with the fish getting ever smaller, as our treble hooks decimated the population. The lesson in not plundering, but conserving fish stocks was learnt and has stayed with me across time.
A transition to the fly was begun and eventually with a career that meant transfers around the country, there were new spot Xs to discover. One such place was in Southland, where I had my first posting to Invercargill and while there, I discovered a number of spot Xs, as it was a wonderful province for fishing. I had a cousin who worked on the Monowai power station, 115 kilometres to the northwest of the city, so while paying a visit, the opportunity was taken to wet a line in the Monowai Stream, draining the lake of the same name. The lake was raised around 1926 to provide power for Invercargill and the dead, drowned trees around its shoreline, remain as skeletonic specifics of that instance in history. The stream is deep, gin-clear with tempting pools on the bends and a prospecting cast downstream into one of them with a streamer, evoked the interest and then a take, by one of the largest fish I’d ever caught. The 7-and-a-half-pound rainbow gave a great battle and put the spot firmly into the X factor category. A fortnight later I was back and with a similar fly, took a larger rainbow of over 8 pounds and I am saddened to say I took both home. However, one of them provided some learnings, in that it was scientifically dissected on the kitchen table of a dentist friend, much to the dismay of his wife and we found it to be chockka with mice carcasses.
Our spot Xs are not always about the fish caught, sometimes it’s the atmosphere, scenic beauty and sense of well-being we get from just being there. Lake Brunner, a half hour or so from my Greymouth home is one of those places. It’s the largest lake in the West Coast region, surrounded by mountains, bush and forest, with many “nooks and crannies” to make it attractive and provide sheltered water in the lee of headlands, if there is any wind. We’ve had wonderful days on the lake with plenty of fish taken or released, while other days when the fishing was somewhat slower, those taken were hard won but well appreciated. We’ve even had rare days when we’ve drawn a blank, but we’d buoy ourselves up with the thought that we’re out there doing it, enjoying the sights and sounds of the great outdoors. There are heaps of locations I could give X status to here on The Coast, but naturally some areas can change with time and what was, might not be any more. However, I’m sure you’ll continue to find spot Xs of your own and even if they don’t add weight to your creel, I hope they’ll also be places that lift your spirits. That is all important.
