Hot and humid; steep terrain; heavy backpacks; thick matagouri patches to deal with… all those got dissolved in water as soon as we reached it.
So… follow your dream; always; whatever the obstacles. There might be a beautiful prize waiting for you at the end, maybe just to put all those difficulties in perspective; who knows?
“We have reached the time in the life of the planet, and humanity’s demand upon it, when every fisherman will have to be a river-keeper, a steward of marine shallows, a watchman on the high seas. We are beyond having to put back what we have taken out. We must put back more than we take out.“
Thomas McGuane
“La estepa tiene una particularidad maravillosa. Esa particularidad vive en ella, invariablemente, ya sea al alba, en invierno, en verano, en sombrías noches de lluvia o bajo el claro de luna. Siempre y por encima de todas las cosas la estepa habla al hombre de la libertad… La estepa se la recuerda a aquellos que la han perdido.”
Vida y destino
Vasili Grossman
“I only fish the dry fly, mainly ants. If the fish like it, good; if not, I don’t care: I sit here, smoke and wait.”
Signor Cabila
They say you can enjoy a trip three times: before, during and after. With “before” and “during” posponed, “after” is the last resort now; I start browsing through a heap of pictures that have been waiting for curation for too long a time.
And the mind travels with a hint of nostalgia of places and people. In this way, I recall: remoteness; dawn; solitude; lake; expectation; surprise; fellowship; happiness… Just as it happens with this image.
Take care!
Chris Dore es uno de los guías mejor considerados de Nueva Zelanda. He tenido la suerte de compartir con él varias jornadas de pesca, comprobando que esa fama es bien merecida. Ahora que por aquellos lares la temporada acaba de empezar, Chris acaba de publicar un corto texto orientativo para pescadores viajeros. Me ha dado permiso para traducirlo, así que aquí está.
Plop! La gran trucha vuelve la cabeza de inmediato y se dirige hacia mi pequeña ninfa; sin prisa pero con evidente determinación. Un destello blanquecino de la boca señala el instante en el que el pez se detiene donde —intuyo— se encuentra mi imitación. Al templar la línea activo un mecanismo que, al instante, pone al pez a hacer acrobacias a un par de metros sobre el agua. Tras el salpicón, de inmediato siento que ya no hay nada tirando al otro lado de la línea. Sin embargo sonrío. Las dudas sobre nuestra elección, a puro ojo, de este diminuto spring creek —no más que una corta y delgadísima línea en el mapa— ya se han disipado.
South Island. New Zealand. 2019
It was a week ago that we got back home from our fishing trip to New Zealand. Time to browse through thousands of pictures, delete a lot of them and keep the good ones, while savouring the memories that each photo brings back. Also time to reply some emails, messages and phone calls. A question is prevalent: how is the fishing over there?
Continue readingVisiting New Zealand is in the dreams of every fly fisher. Traveling there for the first time doesn’t relieve the itch. In fact, you can’t wait to get back!
Not an easy feat, to be honest, as money and spare time are hurdles difficult to overcome.
But, when more than a year ago I received an invitation from Chris Dore for some fishing in the South Island, I decided that it was time to jump those hurdles. So almost two years after my first trip to the sight-fishing paradise, I was there again.
“If you ask fly fishing guides what is the one thing that they would like their clients to be able to do better in order to catch more fish, the answer is not that they could tie better flies, tie better knots or owned better equipment. It is resoundingly that they should cast better.
If you ask fly casting instructors what is the one thing that they wish that their clients would do better, the answer is not that they read more books, watch more videos or even that they have more lessons (although that can help!). It is that they practice more.”
Paul Arden
onemorelastcast.net 