Well...after being on the road for two weeks, we've caught plenty of fish and had plenty of laughs along the way!! We dropped Lewis off at the airport today, and he's heading back home to carry on working in the building trade!!

So...what did we catch? and what on? Well we caught Brown Trout and Rainbow Trout...along with one hell of a Kawahai!! The rivers we ended up fishing within the two week period were:

1st feb: Pokaitu stream: It fished well during the evening, but had a fantastic evening rise, we took 3 fish around the 1lb-2lb mark for dinner, when we had cajun spiced fish on toast for dinner!! We caught most of our fish using the trio method, with a size 10 stimulator as the dry, and then any two nymphs seemed to work!

3rd Feb: Waipunga River: Having been told by one of the local fishermen in the Fishing and Hunting shop in Taupo, we decided to head over to the Waipunga River. Having got lost of the previous day we decided to head back after seeing the road look just like the track near the Rangataiki River, stoopping on a bridge we could see what looked to be a nice brown trout! Alex decided to try his luck and set up to have a couple of casts!! After the second cast the fish took a little Mary which was falling apart at the time, but being on the bridge we were trying to figure out just how we were going to land the fish!! Lewis being Lewis decided to put his wading boots on and jumped off the bridge into the river, and here's the pictures to proove it!!

5th Feb: Whirinaki: Pat O'keefe was very generous in spending his time and energy with us in the Morning! One of the friendliest and awesome fishermen we've ever met, he was very helpful and knew exactly where the fish would be lying! We caught some fantastic fish and hooked into more than we landed! Fish up to the 6lb mark...and absolute mint condition! I've never caught fish like it before in my life! The hardest fighting fish I know, I've never been snapped off so much on 6lb line before.

7th Feb: Kawahai - thornton, Rangataiki estuary: After asking around the local fishing shops we were told to head over to Thornton (which reminded me of back home instantly!) Fishing in the surf is not something we all get to do at once, but it was a nice change! we fished right out in the surf and you could see the Kawahai in the waves, we knew it was only a matter of time before we got to hook up!...3 hours later, we had one hell of a result!! Alex battled it out with a 2 kilo Kawahai and eventually landed it! Here are some cool pictures!!

8th Feb: Waioeka just outside Opotiki: Now this was a great River to fish, and we all wished we had spent longer on it, Myself and Alex will definitely be fishing this river again! We caught fish up to 6lbs again, and they were fighting fit! This was the first River where you could do some proper sight fishing, and that is exactly what I did. Whereas Alex and Lewis had great success fishing the bigger pools.

8th and 9th of Feb: Ruakituri River: This is a fantastic river and holds plenty of fish, although it proved a hard river to catch on, most success came later on with the evening rise! Fishing the deep slow sections of the river at night and the faster flowing water during the day. It wasn't really worth fishing during the day, especially with the distance we had to walk to find a fish or two and then they were hard to catch, it felt like we were putting in too much effort for the smaller fish. Although when it came to the evening rise, the fish were much easier to catch, again using the trio method with a couple of really simply mary's, or rubber legged creations.

10th Feb: Lake Otamangakau: Heading back up in the Taupo area, we decided to have a go at fishing what is known as the Big O, as we stepped out of the car and looked out onto the canal part of the Lake, where we had been told to give a go due to the cold water, we could see some pretty big grey clouds and thought nothing of it. Lewis managed for around 15 minutes the heavens opened and we all got absolutely soaked! We headed back to the campsite and grabbed some food and had a couple of beers along with it. Lewis was sure that we would catch later on, so we decided to head back that night, it was almost like we had done something right for a change! We hit fish after fish after fish! The first, second and third casts all connected and landed fish! Great sport and we'll probably head back there for a night session at some point along the trip.

11th Feb: Lake Otamangakau: We fished the canal part of the lake again in the morning, hoping that it would be as good as the night before, but we didn't have such luck! We then decided to head over to Whakapapa, where we didn't see too many fish, but Alex was broken off by quite a big fish, around 3lbs, whereas myself and Lewis didn't catch anything, but saw one or two. After that we decided to head to the Mangatutu. After fishing for around an hour and catching the smallest fish of the trip it was time for Lewis to pack his rod up and put his fishing stuff away for the last time in New Zealand.

We will update you as much as we can and put plenty of pictures on as usual as soon as we can!! Enjoy the pictures!!