Yay! Got the fishing licence, the freshwater fishing permit from the post today!! Ready for the tasty trouts and salmons!!!

- Applied online https://fishandgame.org.nz/licences/
- Paid NZ$165 for a year family membership

Congrats

Remember to leave a few trout for Mark...I hear he is getting mobbed by sand flies and he might be heading to some trout country to get away from them !!

man - I was out with my paddle board the other day, trolling a Mepps lure behind me.
I got 3 strikes. The first one was a smaller rainbow trout. I saw it jumping out the water and it shook of the hook.
The second was a really big rainbow. It was pulling line and eventually I had it quite close to the paddle board - ready to land it. Got really excited when I saw it - it would have been my personal best. Then it jumped before I could get a hold of it. A really huge trout... and shook of the hook. I was soooo frustrated. I couldn't land it. Gone baby gone.
The last striker didn't even have to jump to get off the hook. I grabbed the rod and had a millisecond of slack line and it was gone. I saw another few big trout following the lure right to my board but they didn't take it.
It was a great and also very frustrating day.
The trout there were too cunning for me :-(