36 THE FISHING PAPER - FEBRUARY 2017
www.thefishingpaper.co.nz
Tail-flick turn at Twizel Graeme Detlaff
As an engineer for Air NZ, I work in a team of five, who all happen to be keen fishers. Someone suggested a work trip to the canals was in order, so we did a dash for Twizel but came up short in Fairlie - the obligatory pie stop! Cravings satisfied, we edged into camp early afternoon, promptly rigged our gear and attacked the Ohau with a fervour. We had all bases covered: two of us were flinging flies, while the others switched from baits, spinning, and softbaits. To be fair, our enthusiasm and efforts didn’t match the fishing, which was really slow. The odd small fish rewarded our combined efforts but they were quickly released. By six o’clock the passion had ebbed and all but died, so we started packing up but I was stalled in my tracks by a big fish cruising the edges. It would drift in and out of sight but it was enough to tempt me into the fatal ‘one last cast’! I was using a beaded Woolly Bugger on a
Graeme with the monster that taunted him.
six-weight rod with a medium sinking line - just the right combo because the fish turned and followed the lure right into the shallows before giving a tail-flick turn to disappear into the deep again. Okay - one more cast. It followed again. Tail-flick turned again. And I gave it one more cast. The Woolly Bugger had its work cut out because that damn fish followed again and again, each time almost grounding itself before giving up the ghost. One more cast. This time it edged right in, lifted its snout and gulped the Woolly Bugger, tail-flick turned and pulled line. I could feel the weight through the line; it was a big fish but it didn’t go ballistic. The fight was more a heavy lazy pull - dogged. Eventually might prevailed and I had the monster ashore. Beautiful fish like these command respect, so it was a quick pic, a quick release, and a tail-flick before it was gone. I thought I’d caught and released a monster trout, only to be told later that it was a salmon.
Ian Hadland from Fish & Game comments on the unusual nature of Graeme’s salmon catch: The salmon may be ‘egg bound’, which means it has been unable to shed its eggs at the proper time: autumn for salmon and brown trout and spring for rainbow trout. Trout and salmon need clean loose gravel in which to dig, lay, and bury eggs. Once covered it’s called a ‘redd’. After 6-8 weeks, depending on the water temperature, the eggs hatch and the small fry emerge from the gravel and begin to swim freely. When spawning areas are not present, as is the case in dams, some canals or in pens, the females are unable to shed the eggs naturally. They try to re-absorb them as far as possible but they can turn septic leading to mortality. A common occurrence in rainbow trout that have been unable to spawn is that the eggs are partially absorbed but block the vent the following spring, when the new seasons eggs are ready to spawn. That situation almost certainly leads to death of the female.
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