Hey everyone......here is my fishing up-date for New Zealand. Got to this link to see all the photos.......http://cfrobose.com/drkevin/fishing%20in%20NZ/

New Zealand was one of the best places I’ve ever been to. For all those who love the outdoors, you must get to New Zealand one time in your life. It has so much to offer the outdoor enthusiast. Before we got to Queenstown, our bus had to overnight in a small town called Wanika. This was where I had the opportunity to hire my first a fly fishing guide. Fly fishing was one of the reasons why I wanted to go to New Zealand. New Zealand was world renown for its crystal clear water, and pristine rainbow and brown trout fishing. These fish are ironically not native to New Zealand. Like the whitetail deer and elk, trout where introduced by the first foreigners who settled there. These species have thrived in this perfect next to perfect environment.
At 5:30am my guide picked me up at my hotel. He was an old guy named Bill. He had been fishing these rivers all his life, so I was confident he was going to put me on some fish. After a half hour in the car, we arrived at the river. It was perfect, just like I had always imagined it to be. He gave me a pair of waders and a 6 weight fly rod. The river was crystal clear and with polarized fishing glasses, you could see all the action below the surface. The guide told me before hand that the average trout size was around 4 lbs, or about 25 inches. At first I thought to myself, “ya right!” The average size trout in most streams in the US is 12 inches! You can’t always believe everything your fishing guide tells you. Then I saw it for myself, these monster fish swimming around like submarines. They were practically everywhere, I had never been fishing anywhere like this. That’s what makes this whole story funny. Although I could see these monsters swimming around, I never managed to catch one bigger than 16 inches. I was pretty disappointed, even though I made some awesome casts. I guess that’s why they call it “fishing” and not “catching”! Luckily, I had a few other chances on the north island to catch me a nice one!
Fishing on the north island (Lake Taupo) was more productive more me than the south island. I got so lucky with this guide I got. We’ll I got his name from a guy I had met. His name was “BIG JOHN” and he wasn’t so much a guide then a fishing buddy. The fist day I met him, he picked me up in “monster truck” looking vehicle. This guy had “red-neck” written all over him. I knew right away he was “my kind of people”. After climbing into his monster truck, he took me to the trout hatchery. I got the opportunity to take some underwater “trout” photos with my camera. This will give you an idea of how many fish are in these waters. The fishing was fantastic, although once again I didn’t catch anything. Most guides point out where the fish are, not Big John. He brought his rod along and like any other red-neck, didn’t say where the fish were. He just caught him himself. I had a blast with Big John. For lunch, we got some sandwiches and beer. Later that afternoon, Big John invited me to his house to meet his wife and kids. Big John had fun with me and he also felt sorry that I didn’t catch anything. So he offered to take me fishing the next day for free. Like I said, we had fun. The next day was almost the same as the first, except I caught my fish. It wasn’t a monster but it was good enough for me. For lunch this time we cooked the 4 lbs. trout by the river. Big John put lemon pepper seasoning on it along with brown sugar. It was fantastic; we also washed it down with some New Zealand beer again! It was a true blessing for me to have had this amazing experience. I said bye to John, and promised to come back and hang out with him again. I know that I will!
For those fly fishing enthusiast out there, please go fishing in New Zealand! If you have your own gear, don’t worry about hiring a guide. All the rivers in New Zealand are filled with trout. Tight Lines.......