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February 20 Trout Fishing On one of my many trips up to Mita Mita  or an bit further to the walnuts camping ground in the middle of winter 2 degree's the grass was frozen stiff and as you walked on it you could hear the grass breaking under your boot and really foggy anyway this river winds round the most beautiful country giant tree palms huge ferns wild flowers big buck deer drinking along the river back black berries and the most great mosey rocks in the back ground looks like an oil painting and the river well I sit down for awhile and study the water and back washers as the water is so clear you see the trout swimming around in front of you like a fish pond its unreal to experience as you almost pick the one you wont but not that easy well back to where I started at camp I got up at 5 o clock in the morning and boy talk about cold I got the fire stoke up to boil the Billy and get ready to go I put on my wanders and fly jacket get my rod ready and can hardly tie a fly on because of the cold but I win overall then I have a cupper and off I walk by this time its a little lighter and by the time I walk to where I have to get in the river which is about 1.000 metre's I then have to what until it gets more light as its to dangerous to get in the water in the dark might fall into a deep hole and drown that's another half an hour wait then I walk up stream for about 1 or 2 KLM'S and there is hardly any bank to walk on because of black berries and steep banks and under growth and fallen trees your rod would not last five minutes so the water is the only way mind you as I said its about 2 degree's air temp but water temp zero or close to 1 degree maybe anyway my feet are blue with the cold or cannot feel them bloody cold a bloke got rocks in his head all this for a fish My Bloody Oath and still doing it. Well on the way I am passing this beautiful land scape and about 100 metre's in front of me I spot these two deer standing in the river one of them had the biggest ateliers I have ever sign they where huge and he was rubbing his head or his ateliers on a giant tree fern that was growing on the side of the river I watch them for about half an hour then they disappeared into the bush so I move on as time is getting away by time I walked that distance and fish along the way you have to keep an eye on the time because you can be stuck up the river all night if you don't turn back in time like I did walked to far and paid the price well I will get to that soon ok anyway I am at my favourite spot no one comes this far its called Hells Gate and why you ask well there are these two walls of rock straight up vertical against the bush about 20 metre's high and the water running straight of the top at the bottom there is this big pool of water really deep and clear and the trout there are huge for a stream that size and the name hells gate is because these two big walls disappear into the water and over time trees and rocks have built up against these walls and made a water fall and the river bottom slopes down on an angle like a stair way its weird almost like a stair way going down that's why I call it Hells Gate and what is weird that there no plant life around the bottom but all on top where dozens of brush ferns then when you really look you can see this huge trunk leaning against one of these walls with mose all over it you would think it was a rock anyway its 10 thirty in the morning and I am about half way there and I am watching these trout swimming around then I spot this rainbow trout swim out from under the cover of ferns hanging in the water this trout look about 2 to 3 pound in weight and it had this bright red flash up and down its body and when it passed through the water where some light was shinning in the water the colourers lit up and beneath this red flash you could see all the coloured dots yellow, greens,blue,and silvery belly well then I made a few casts ahead of the fish so that my fly would drift down on the current and I was watching this fish as it spotted the fly on the surface and started swimming to wards the fly and by this time the trout is about half a metre away am I am getting a pit nerves by now because sometimes they will swim right up to the fly and turn away at the last second well the line is drift down slowly and the trout is almost there and this bloody brown trout about 9 inches long appears out of no where and bang grabs the fly well that stuffed everything he scared off the fish around him and I reeled him in down the bottom of the pool got the hook out and let him go down behind me in the river so then I had to sit and wait for about an hour for them to settle down then they appeared again first one then two and they are flashing through the water like bullets but the rainbow didn't show he was just hiding under the ferns so I started to cast up stream again and I landed the fly above the the pool that I was fishing so that the fly would role over between the rocks where the water was running through well the fly has just hit the water and has just started to move with the current towards me and I am thinking and watching this fly moving down and just where I wanted it to go then the water surface breaks behind my fly and this big brown trout is on the sine well before I knew it he was on well all hell broke loose so for the next 10 minutes she on and he tries to swim down stream to get away and I almost loose him but I took control and got him in he weighted about 2 and half pound and I let him go as I catch and release fish I don't take every fish I catch I believe in keeping the river stock going so there's fish there for next time so its time to move on that rainbow has long gone I get further up stream and I have a few more casts and catch a few small ones by this time I am nearly there about 2.000 metre's to go before Hells Gate and there are 3 big pools of water and its very hard going as there are only boulders to climb over and this is the place I love here so quite the birds whispering and the deer moving around the slopes above you as the water splashes over the falls I have taken photo's of this place but the camera never makes it back because it get wet or broken through falling over in the river.Now its 2 o clock in the afternoon and I relies that I am not going to make it back before dark so I have 3 and half hours of fishing to do no food no swag just a bag of humbugs that I love so much before I start fishing I collect sum fire wood and I make a small lean to for shelter and to sleep under as it get really cold at night I find a small piece of bank for my lean to and I take off my waders as they are wet in side and my socks and jeans are soaked anyway I am ready to fishing so I start with the first pool in front of me and I catch 2 brown trout about a pound in weight and let them go then I recast back again and I hook this rainbow a beautiful fish pink flesh and really sweet taste well this fish is easy 3 pound and as rainbow always do leap out the water like crazy well the fight on and he his getting the better of me as I could not control his jumping out of the water and causing slack line that I couldn't retrieve in a hurry as the line might break well by now its getting a real battle he is trying to run and I am trying to turn him then I slip over in the water well then the shit hits the fan I thought I lost him as the line went slack so I got up out the water ringing wet and cold and I put the rod down to take off my fly jacket and I put it on a rock near me then I bend down to pick up my rod and just before I grab it the rod it takes off down stream the rainbow is still hooked well I am off chasing my rod through the water and finely get hold of my rod and we start again more jumping and leaping out of the water by this time I am really cold ringing wet and hungry haven't eaten all day just humbugs to eat so I win the fight and get him in yeah tucker food but I wanted to let him go but hunger got the best of me so I put him up the bank in my fish bag that I made and its about 4.30 now and its getting a pit cool so I decide to make a fire to keep warm and dry my clothes before it gets to dark and I cook my trout over the fire man he was so yummy love it then it was pitch black before I knew it and getting fogy well that was the coldest night I have ever spent on the river ran out of wood no touch to see and really there wasn't much wood around when I collected it as most of it was to big to move or to wet so it was a sleep less night you might say anyway morning came thank god as I able to get so more wood up the bank just enough to make a small fire to dry my socks so I get ready for fishing again as I have two more pools to fish and I am not leaving until I fish both of them so I sit down for awhile and change flies then I start casting back into the pool where I caught the rainbow the day before and I pick up 2 brown trout about a pound and half in weight I let them go and move onto the next pool but this is really hard to cast into as there is this giant tree fern on the corner of the pool and a log across the middle of it and this log is about 2 metre's off the water now this is where you find out how good you are with a fly rod a real test so I use what I call is a sling shot you hold the bass of the rod near the reel you pull out about 2 or 3 metre's of line then you hold fly in one hand down near the reel and while holding the rod in the other hand you pinch the line between your thumb and finger then you turn your rod side on to the water and pull back on the fly causing the rod to bend like a bow then let it go and the rod does the rest lands pretty much where you wont it to go but can causes problems when you get hooked up as you don't have full control over the line and my snag or break well after trying 3 times nothing so I have one more try well that was the one I hooked this big brown trout he was 4 pound or more never caught a fish this big in this river before but they are there well I tell you he wasn't going to be the one that got away that's for shore him and I had the the best battle got wet again fell over and got tangle up in tree ferns along the back so I had to put the rod down walk across the log break off the tree fern then get back to my rod to reel him in as he was well hooked so I finely get him in the net he is coming home, now I am ready for the last pool and I started walking across the log and you wouldn't believe it I slip of the log broke my rod in half and broke my wriest and in heaps of pain so here I am at least 2 KLM'S from no where its about 9.30 in the morning really cold and the sun hasn't come over the valley yet so I need to get going first I make a split to put around my wriest and lucky for me I always carry a few bandages with me in case of snake bits so I bound up my arm make a sling and start leaving left the rod took the reel off put it in my jacket and walk out took me about twice time to get back to the car and I still had the trout be the way that I carried back in my snow boot trout net it was about 5.30 when got back to the car and in heaps of pain then had to drive back into Albury hospital and was in plaster for a month and I haven't been back up there since and that was a year ago but I planing to return this year about June or July I hope but this time I am taking another person with as I realized that I might have broken my leg or worse then what to dangerous by your self and the trout well he was beautiful I enjoyed eating him that's for shore. February 18 This a short story about two guys growing up in the western suburbs of Melbourne.This is a true story when boys will be boys. This is about a guy I know we were born in the days when kids were heard and not seen only aloud in the house when meals were on but the fun we had playing cricket out the front street every now and then smash a window or two with the ball then the next day play football with the same problem another window but we lived in a street of 15 houses and a factory on the other side of the street and every body knew each other it was great fun when we were young we had Billy carts with steel ball race wheels made from old fruit boxes or what ever you found even old pram wheels then we would ran around ramming each other and end up being the best on the day. Anyway we lived in Melbourne and winter time I can remember very well the washing used to be frozen on line and I mean stiff frozen and the puddles |
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