Cascapedia
by Eddie Bosomworth
The name “Cascapedia” may be totally unfamiliar to many New Zealanders. It is the name of the most important Atlantic salmon River in Canada. The Cascapedia or to give its proper name The Grand Cascapedia earned its reputation by producing some of the largest and strongest Atlantic salmon amongst the rivers of the North American eastern sea board There are 23 salmon rivers on the Gaspé Peninsula, and 150 in the Quebec Province, but the fish that return to the Grand Cascapedia are a distinctly superb strain of salmo salar [the leaper], the biggest in Canada, or anywhere except Norway’s Alta River.
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Catch and Release
by Michael Sommerville
“Limit your kill.” - “Zero limits.” - “Catch and release.” These are simple words on which I personally base my fly fishing philosophy on. However, these days they seem to be controversial ones, with current discussions on whether released fish count toward your bag limit, and, furthermore, whether fishing is even, in fact, a sport! For me the words of Billy Bob Thornton, the actor playing an air traffic controller in the movie “Pushing Tin”, sum up my feelings and\ attitudes to this subject. Thornton was fly-fishing a Colorado stream and had just caught a good trout when his fellow controller, played by John Cusack, joined him. As he released the trout, Cusack questioned why he had let the fish go. “Not big enough?” Cusack asked. To which Thornton replied, ”The trout knows I caught it, and I know I caught it”. For me, that says it all, although I would have added, “…and that’s good enough for both of us”.
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Crocodile Spinners
by Eddie Bosomworth
The use of natural baits has always been a proven successful method of fishing for Atlantic salmon and trout wherever they can be found in the rivers of Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland and no doubt the rovers from Norway and Sweden as well.
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Eastern Cape Revisited
by Michael Sommerville
I first visited Thrift Dam in 2003, when I was invited at the last minute to join some friends on the dam. On the day I thoroughly embarrassed myself by failing to catch anything, while my friends caught plenty! At the last light of day, I finally managed what was probably the smallest fish to be taken on the day! I blame this, of course, on the loan equipment I had been forced to use. …. However, while I do believe that familiar and comfortable equipment does give you an edge, on this day I think I just had a bad day and an element of bad luck.
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Jigging for Trout
By Alan Sherson
Jigging for trout has become a very effective method in the lakes. My first attempts were with bass jigs on the reef at Okataina in the late seventies, we fluked a few but never really got it sorted till the mid Nineties with the advent of super braid.
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Opening Day
By Alan Sherson
Consider before you go fishing whether you want to catch big fish or just have a good time. You can do both but either way you are going to have to work at it. Trolling is easy, you throw the line in and drive around……… right? If its so easy why is it that some boats consistently score a lot of fish and most are lucky to get one a day? As withanything else, you have to work at it.
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Techniques For Tongario
by John Pellew
With the new season upon us and the opening of all the local streams, it seems obvious where to fish. Most anglers will abandon the Mighty Tongas in search of summer action. But what many haven’t experienced is how good the fishing still is on the Tongariro after October. Because the spawning runs are later and later each year now there are still plenty of opportunities to get into good fish on warm summer days in Turangi. Here are a few tips and techniques that might help.
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The Last Rites
by Eddie Bosomworth
Priests come in all shapes and sizes, no not the human ones although they too come in a variety of sizes, age, ethnicity, and country of birth. The priests I am referring to are the ones used by fishermen. They like their human counterpart are called upon to give the last rites. So where did the term ‘PRIEST’ originate? I know of no other similar terminology in any European language that refers to such a device as a means of dispatching a fish that the angler has successfully landed. The use of the ‘Priest’ in salmon fishing in Britain is very much a part of the ritual of despatching the fish and is, in Scotland, usually accompanied by a ‘wee dram’ of neat whiskey provided by the angler and much enjoyed by the guide or ghillie as he is known.
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The Traveling Fly Fisherman
by Michael Sommerville
I did not know the Hutt River too well, so was unsure whether it was worth heading up the valley, but I figured that since I had gone to the trouble of packing a lightweight kit, including waders they may as well be put to good use.
