Boys Fishing Trip 3...Third Time Lucky.

Over the last few days my Dad and I went trout fishing on one of the lakes in South Waikato, Waipapa. This lake forms part of the Waikato river, between the Maraetai hydroelectric dam, and Waipapa hydroelectric dam. Maraetai is the largest of the 8 hydro Dams on the Waikato river system, and Waipapa the smallest. The Waipapa section is also supplied by the Waipapa river, which starts in the Pureora forrest park, and flows eastwards out into the lake...

It is a stunning part of the country, and is only an hour away from Willowbrook. Here is a view of some of the park, from one of the highest bridges in the north island...

We had lovely weather. The lake was a flat as a millpond...

until you got up close to the Maraetai dam outlet...

 

Above: You can see some of the penstocks of the dam. 

Below: The penstocks during its construction in 1953

Fast flowing water...

The area is rich with native birdlife as well as fish. We saw a family of black swans...

you can hear the Tuis and other birds in the background over the swan honks...

This is the still pond where we caught most of the trout. It is just where the Waipapa river flows into the lake... 

Further upstream Dad showed me a waterfall that he used to hike up 30 years ago... 

  

We went harling in the water between the lake and the waterfall, as well as fly casting. We caught about 14 trout, 6 of which we threw back, and 8 we could keep...

  

Here is some footage of landing a small trout...

Bounty, Day 1...

On the first night we baked our trout. We seasoned them with salt, pepper, ginger, mustard, lemon, dill and capers...

On the second night we smoked our trout, seasoning them with salt, pepper, ginger, lemon, and brown sugar, before smoking them with Manuka wood chips...

Mmmmm. So, third time lucky, I finally caught some of these elusive trout. 

We are hoping to fit in some deep sea fishing around Christmas, before I leave for Dubbo.