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Good things come in twos...
Mon 14th March, 2011
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There is an old Chinese saying “that good things always come in two’s” and that was certainly the case with Irish brothers Ken and Brendan Whelan who I spent a day with on the Tongariro yesterday.
As soon as I heard that wonderful accent it brought a smile to my face and I knew it was going to be a another fun day on the river.
They didn’t disappoint and the stories of their angling exploits from the Bahamas’ to Russia’s Kola Peninsula kept me entertained all day.
These guys have been fishing since childhood and even after half a century still have that boyish enthusiasm that all keen anglers never seem to lose.Until we met up I’d been a little concerned because it was their first trip to New Zealand and things have been tough on the river recently but these boys could fish...really fish.
We started in the tail at Boulder Reach and within a few minutes Brendan’s {he's the tall one} indicator fly shot under and he was into his first New Zealand rainbow. Unfortunately it was another of those half pound juveniles that seem to be hanging around for ever this year...but it was a start.
What I forgot to mention was that both brothers are friends of Jozef Ocverk who is one of the Slovenian anglers that make up TRM’s International clientel this month.Jozef had tied the guys some Czech nymphs and this first trout had taken a bright pink version of the world famous pattern.
Ken who was fishing a little further up didn’t have to wait long and he soon found himself attached to a great conditioned rainbow which looked around three pounds.
This fish jumped him all over the pool with a series of spectacular leaps. Just when he thought he had him it took off on one of those unstoppable runs and Ken and his fish parted company.
Brendan was still having fun in the tail with the little fella’s so Ken and I continued up to the Cliff Pool.
During our email correspondence before their trip Ken had expressed a wish to at least have a chance at a big brown.
As we slowly approached the pool it was immediately obvious that chance had come because we fairly quickly spotted a number of browns feeding in the slower water about a third of the way up. One of them in particular was an impressive looking jack and probably into double figures.
If you look at the image above you can just pick it out towards the end of Ken's line.
Well… feeding they may have been but they certainly weren’t eating any thing in our fly-boxes. During the next hour Ken put all sorts over them from small naturals to lures. Even the good ole orange glo-bug only provoked a half-hearted turn of the head from one of them.
All morning the Whelan boys had been bragging about this top secret Irish fly that where ever in the world they used it the trout just jumped into their landing nets.
Looking down river Brendan had now made his way up from Boulder Reach and was casting into that very fishy looking water just before you cross the by-pass to the Cliff Pool.
Once Ken and I were out of sight had taken one of the killer flies out of the portable safe in his rucksack and was now using it in the riffles.
Almost immediately he was in again this time to a recovering jack and after a stubborn fight had the fish in the net.
As the brothers huddled over the trout in a vain attempt to prevent me seeing the fly I managed to sneak a photograph.
It's a pattern called an Alder which has been around for over 300 years...just like Brendans reel.
It works well fished as a dry under overhanging trees and doubles as a good caddis substitute. 
Brendan was fishing a single fly on a fairly short leader and the trout were hitting it pretty hard.
Its one of those patterns that looks like nothing in particular that the fish mistake for everything.
And seemed to be working best "drowned".
A little later in the day it scored a couple more times particularly in faster water no more than a few feet deep.
I've placed my order and I've got their email address...just in case they forget.
 
Ken and brother Brendan are:
Professor Brendan Whelan
Research Director of TILDA { The Irish LongituDing study on Ageing }
Professor Ken Whelan
Research Director of the Atlantic Salmon Trust.
Ken is also a well known angling writer and his book The Angler in Ireland written in 1989 is still regarded as one of the most comprehensive works on all aspects of Irish Angling.
More recently he initiated and instructed on the first professional Angling Guide workshops to run in Ireland.
He and his co-writer Chris McCully are presently working on an angling book about Irish sea trout called Nomads of the Tides which is due to be published some time in 2012.
Be Lucky Guys
Mike. |
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