FLY FISHING NARNIA - PART 2

The second installment of this multi-part series, fly fishing this magical place in the Australia High Country.

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THE ANTICIPATION

The months following the first trip into Narnia were filled with thoughts of this special place, visiting the first time felt like striking fly fishing paradise. But the opportunity to visit again didn't arise for another year. A level of commitment is needed to get here and lining up calendars and weather proved to be a little difficult. This area is covered in snow in Winter, and of course the rivers shut down for the colder months in Australia (June to October) to allow the trout to spawn. There was this feeling in the pit of my stomach when I thought of this river during that year, I wondered if it would still be teaming with Brown trout when I did get the chance to visit again. I wondered if others also knew how good it was, and I did hope that in some way shape or form, this beautiful place would endure in the amazing condition it was found in, for many years to come.

It's special to experience a place like this, there is something deeper and more meaningful here than the act of catching trout. The reality of knowing that a place like this exists is comforting in itself, its what we dream about as fly fisherman. This beautiful, untouched valley, is as wild as the wind and for a small amount of time each year, I get to experience its solitude and magic, fly rod in hand.

Once Spring hit, plans started to become reality. Dates in the calendar were being discussed and thoughts of different approaches became notes in my phone. New gear was purchased, including a new fly rod, day trips to closer rivers to fly fish were undertaken and plenty of fly casting practice on ovals close to home occurred. All in an effort to stay sharp with the absolute intent to get back here and fish it well in the upcoming Summer season. If this place was going to fish as well again, I wanted to be as prepared as I could be, to make the most of it.

A stunning middle size brown caught on a Backcountry Wulff size 14

THE RETURN

We left in the early hours on the first day, to make the drive. It was pitch black at that stage and the journey was filled with conversations about what may lay ahead on this trip. We had picked the best weather form the start of January and made our way into the river, once again on our bikes to save time and be able to carry more gear. It had been another wet Spring and on first glance, the river was up but running clear, it looked immaculate. The hoppers were once again out in force, helping with my decision about which dry fly to try on the first run. Dropping into the valley once again after a year long wait, was filled with hope for a great three days on the water.

Making our way into the river

THE FISHING

After we arrived on day 1, it took me roughly 20 minutes to walk from camp to possibly my favourite run on this river. The river runs down a set of cascades after a long calm pool and provides as set of large rocks for cover, in water that is just over the knee in depth. There is one pocket that is slightly deeper and it often holds a fish. It took only three casts to witness the first fish explode on my hopper, it was in the pocket. This time, it was a healthy Rainbow that must have jumped clean out of the water four times. It ran me down stream in a blaze of energy, with my reel buzzing, as the fish stripped line. With the higher water levels, I couldn't keep up and the fish came off. It was a promising start none the less. After heading up stream and seeing little action for an hour or so, we saw two other fly fisherman. After a quick chat, we agreed to head right up stream from them as it was their last day here, so we could fish fresh water, and they could fish up for a kilometer or so to finish their trip.

Later that afternoon, I found myself at a special run, watching a large fish feeding happily from the surface. Every few minutes a distinct boil could be seen. We had headed about three kilometers up stream from camp at that point, and it was immaculate. It was further upstream than either of us had been and there were Caddis hatching everywhere. After watching this fish feeding for about fifteen minutes, I placed a Caddis emerger pattern on my tippet, and on the first cast, watched this amazing fish sip my fly and turn. As I set the hook and felt the weight, I knew it was a better fish. This fine specimen ran right up stream and then sat down deep for a period, before tiring out. An immaculate, healthy Brown. It was great to see the condition of this fish and it released well, swimming off strong.

Fish of the trip, a stunning Brown feeding from the surface.

The afternoon saw a number of other fish to the net, the further we walked up stream, the better the river seemed to be. We decided to call it a day, headed back to camp to do it all again the next day.

We probably spent too much time fishing runs closer to camp on day 2. We wanted to see if the fish had returned to feeding after the small group of fly fisherman we had met on day 1 had been through. But despite our persistence, it was very quiet and we didn't see a single fish. It was an important test and after a few hours we decided to walk further up stream to some untouched water. Once we arrived we instantly started seeing feeding fish, and despite them being aggressive and feeding with little care for their own safety, they were smaller fish and for some reason, once it hit around 4pm, things shut down. We decided to bail and leave water for the next day, which we already knew would most likely contain rain from mid morning. We made the long walk back to camp where we did fish the sunset period which yielded some smaller rainbows as dusk fell.

Greeted by overcast conditions, we were up early and walked straight up the river to new water on day 3, and it paid off. Once again we were seeing brand new water, and the runs with great trout habitat seemed endless. Even at that stage, when we hit the river for our first casts, the rain clouds were building in the west. The one factor about this day, was that there were more Caddis than I have ever witnessed on a river before, the banks were just lined with them, it was once again almost like snow. The trout were making the most of this plethora of food and they seemed to be feeding everywhere. Every run we came across seemed to contain multiple fish of differing sizes, feeding from the surface, it was special. We actually didn't cover a lot of river once we started fishing, because we didn't have to. We hit fish in the first run and it just kept on going and going, as long as we found slightly deeper water, the fish were there in good numbers.

After a few hours, the weather packed it in, and we decided that the next run would be our last, it was mid day by this time and we had a roughly an hours walk back to camp, and then we had to pack up and get out, in the wet. I placed the same Caddis emerger in slightly less than knee deep water, and struck as this buttery Brown engulfed my fly and put up the fight of the trip. Eventually the fish ended up wrapping my leader around the dried branches of a small tree but by this stage the fish was so tired I was able to just net it. It was a great way for me to end my time on this trip in this really special place.

A buttery Brown on a Caddis dry fly

THE AFTERMATH

The weeks after getting home were once again filled with thoughts of this special trip and I considered a solo day mission in February, just to be back in this special location. I planned the trip out last minute but what I didn't know at the planning stage, was that this single day mission would turn out to be one of the best days I have ever spent on a river.......tune into the next article in this series to find out what happened, article coming soon.