The 4 of january in the year 2008 time 07:00-12:00

I woke up feeling very nervous since the legendary Simon Chu
was picking us up from the hotel at 07:00 sharp.
We went down to eat breakfast at the hotel restaurant but I could
hardly eat because of the nervousness.  I went outside to take a smoke and there he was in the jeep with the number plate that said troutbum.
I went forward and said hi and he lit up and said "Thanks to god that u are not an old fucker!!". Then he meets Åsa and shined up even more when I told him that she wasn’t a beginner either. We loaded up the car and cruise down road 73 towards trout heaven and Simon told us about the river we were supposed to fish for the day. After an hour he stopped the car cursing about the car that had already stopped by at our final stop.
Nobody in New Zeeland goes down to a river section that is already taken so turned around the car and drove of at warp speed on that cattle road
up to a big estate maybe 10ks from our current location.
We asked the farmer if it was ok to drive thru his patios and lands down to his river section at that was totally fine since he knew Simon from the past. We went up a step hill and then Simon pulled over and we all got out of the car a looked over the edge and 100meters down there was a magical river section with clear emerald green waters. When we looked closer we saw 6 cruising trout’s that Simon thought was between 6-10pounds standing in very deep heavy water. To hard to fish for since the willows were growing out to the water front.
Then we got into the car and cruised down to the river bellow and got our gear together rigging up the 5 weight rods with 2 nymph tackle and a indicator big as royal wolf.
Åsa said that the first sighted fish was mine to cast for and Simon agreed after some time after stating that the women always should have the first run. :wink:  :oops:
We went downstream for about 3km always staying hidden from the river bank so we wouldn’t spoke the trout in this very clear river.
Then we came down to a marvellous pool with small riffle passing down in the first end. Simon directly spotted 3 trout one small around 2 pounds and two bigger fish, one 5 pounder and a 8-9 pounder.
Me and Åsa didn’t see jack shit at first, but soon Åsa spotted the fish but I couldn’t still seem them in my brand new Loop XOOR glasses. Simon borrowed me his Smith glasses and directly i could spot them. A valuable lesson was thought as you should only looked for movement not the whole fish. If u do so u will only se 1/10 of the total fish population visible a clear bright day like this one and ALWAYS use pink lenses of the outmost quality whenever fishing gin clear creeks!!!!
I looped out the flies 2 meters upstream of the fish and Simon said "great cast u will nail one of them for sure". The small fished grabbed the small fly and fought very hard but was soon landed. 2 pounds of silvery and golden trout was release by a very happy fisherman. My first sight casted fish was caught!!! The big one still remained in the pool but looked worried and was shifting from side to side in the stream. We sat down and shifted flies and i gave it another try 10 minutes later. He rejected the flies flat out 2 times and then we shifted flies again and waited for an other 10minutes. Still nothing but after the 4 shift of flies he finally nailed the dropper fly a size 20 copper john with rubber legs. He leaped straight into the air and then he just peeled of line from the real and we had to chase him to the next pool downstream. Simon yelled "keep him out of the willows for heavens sake man". Of course the fish just went straight to the willows and buried the point fly in root branch and leaped its way to freedom. A deafening silence occurred and then Simon said “that was a 8pound fish and he just pissed in our faces”. We all began to laugh and the tension was of. We wonder on for 50 meter upstream and in a shallow riffle Simon freezed and pointed up about 15 meters with his rod tip. Two large shadows appeared on the golden sand bottom. Now it was Åsa”s turn and Simon positioned here about 8 meters up from the fish in shelter of some willows and Åsa desperately tried to cast 2 weighted nymphs with 6,5meter of leader and only 3 meters of fly line up to fish. But the fish spooked of here rod movement and lining them didn’t help one bit either. :cry:
Simon happily said "No use spilling more time on those fishes they won’t bite until tomorrow again" and we wander on with Simon in lead and me and Åsa as two little ducklings behind him.
After 10meters we found 3 fish in very deep pool and Simon told us they were feeding so i put on 4.5mm tungsten nymph as point fly and size 18 black bead head mayfly nymph of Simons making on the trailer position.
The first cast was smack on and the fish rose and to the fly and Simon screamed "Strike him for fuck sake". Of course i was to slow but I didn’t scratch him. A quick fly change to a copper john size 20 and on the 2 cast the smaller of the fish roses up and I stuck it to him and felt myself connected to a runaway freightliner going downstream in high speed. Simon screams again "Start running you crazy Swede!!!! "
I ran down the fish and about 150meters downstream he found a deeper part where he started to jerk with his head a tried to get down to the rocks to cut the leader (educated trout).
But Simon managed to net him and I just cried out yes and public hugging party started on the bank. A 5 pound golden trout was lying in the knotless net and i was feeling truly happy for the first time since my father passed away 4 years ago!!
We sat down in the grass and shared a beer and talked about life in general and fishing in particular and life was just so good that it only can be on the bank of crystal clear stream filled with big trout and surrounded by a newly found friend and your lovely wife.

The end of the first part of that day.

P-A Nilsson "Trouthunter for life"

Some pictures from this great experience