Manic Monday - Cam and the lads from Botany Hunting & Fishing

With the boss man away in the USA and the rest of the Manic Crew holding down the fort, I managed to hijack a fishing trip being planned by Gary and Pat from Hunting and Fishing Botany. With rain forecast the day before and the stars aligning for an epic day, we lads left Auckland at stupid o’clock to be on the Hine by 6:30am (you do the math on the departure time). This left us rigging up in the dark and trying not to over-froth from the anticipation.

Gary and I started off slowly and lost Pat in the early goings. Pat then reappeared from the bushes claiming to have landed 5 fish in about 15 minutes. As Gary was about to call BS he then started to slay them, a theme which continued throughout the day. What followed was one of the most prolific fish-number days I have ever been a part of. All told, we landed over 50 fish between us and lost a whole heap more.

As well as copious amounts of fish, this day had a little bit of everything! Broken rods, flies embedding themselves in my head, fishing rising to eat pink indicators – it was just one of those days.

The gear doing the damage on the day were Scott Radians in 9ft and 10ft 6wt configurations as well as the Airflo SLN line. The boys at H&F Botany have been mastering the art of short line nymphing and never before have I seen the Taupo fishery approached with such ruthless efficiency. If you have been out of the game and need to get a few fish under the belt, give short lining a go – you can access areas that indicator nymphers cannot! The Manic flies producing the goods were Otters Soft Eggs in multiple colours, with Simons Uglies and Epoxy Bombs to get them down and amongst the fish (and account for a few fish themselves).

All in all we summed it up as one of the most hectic days on the river we had ever had. A day which was finished off by a beer and burger and with the help of our good friend caffeine, we even managed to make it back to Auckland in one piece!

Still early days as far as the fish runs are concerned from all reports, bring on the rest of the Taupo season!