On a rare occasion when dropping in to a licensed hostelry, I met a chap some of the locals call Kung Fu Panda.
This piqued my interest and during subsequent conversation I discovered he taught Kung Fu and Tai Chi. I was interested in Tai Chi, so I began to attend his classes for the good of my health. Pete was most helpful, also providing six foolscap pages of exercises and movements for use at home between lessons. It is marvellous for joints, breathing and well-being generally.
I discovered Pete likes a bit of fishing and so I enthused about using a fly and how it is a little like Tai Chi – flowing, relaxing and good for well-being. Upshot was I dragged the boat around to his place and we headed for Brunner. Nobody else was out there when we launched and as we made our way out around the lake there was a boom, and we remembered it was duck shooting season.
Pete said I hope we don’t get within range, and I agreed, remembering another year when I felt a bit uncomfortable with the detonations emanating from a nearby swamp. However, there were only a couple of bangs heard during our time on the lake, so we felt reasonably comfortable and continued fishing.
I had resolved to give Pete plenty of rod time so rowed most of the day and in the flat still conditions the odd trout was clearly visible. He was used to spin fishing and had a supply of Tassie Devils, Tobies, and all manner of other lures, each with treble hooks.
I reflected to myself the Silver Frog had never had trebles on board, nor a thread liner, but with an agenda of mentoring Pete onto the fly, I rowed quietly into likely spots in the hope of him scoring some trout. Spoiler alert – we only saw five trout all day and I think three of them were the same one coming round again, while we had our ham and chutney sandwiches for lunch.
I suggested to Pete the trout were likely to head away toward the river mouths, in readiness for the trip upstream to spawn. This was perhaps demonstrated when he spotted a fish with quite bright colouring and thought it could be a rainbow, however brownies do tend to intensify their colouring in the lead up to spawning.
I have a practice that ‘what’s said in the boat, stays in the boat,’ so people can feel free to unload anything that is on their mind, a bit like therapy if you like and as we know, fishing is great for mental health and well-being. Without going into any detail and breaking my rule, we discussed a range of topics from politics, both New Zealand and world, plus the machinations of corporate bodies to, well, let’s just say it will stay in the boat!
In a general sense though, we both reflected on how wonderful it is to be out on the water and how enthusiastic those people are, who might not immerse themselves very often in the wonderful vistas provided by the lake, bush and mountains, plus a variety of wildlife thrown in. We must never take it for granted.
There was an abundance of swans speaking to each other in quiet, high-pitched, tinkling whistles, pied stilts stalking the margins, noisy spur winged plovers protesting loudly about anything and everything, here and there a heron with its occasional primeval, harsh rasping and the usual range of land birds in the bush around the shoreline. There was enough to enjoy even if we didn’t get anything with fins, so I took a picture or two and posted it up with the message ‘my office for today.’
After our very enjoyable day out, I think Pete is interested in gaining some skills as a fly fisher – I’ll just have to get him out there again and show him how effective a fly really is and actually catch something!
