At the river

This is the Waimakariri River (or Waimak for short). This guy and I fished together and he also had his white bait net out. Shortly after up there was a huge amount of splashing as a sea run trout chased white bait in approx knee deep water.

Large if you want to check if he has any white bait ;-)

The Waimak is the closest large river to Christchurch. It starts at the Southern Alps in the back country. You often see it's upper reaches when I'm tramping or climbing in the Canterbury high country.

For the first time I've fished the bridges. That means I fished around the area between the motorway and old bridge. It's not the most beautiful stretch of river but it holds brown and rainbow trout, sea run trout and salmon.

Unlike last night (when I wasn't here) the sea run trout didn't appear in numbers tonight. It's tidal all the way up to the bridges and on the incoming tide they herd silveries and white bait into the shallows. It can make for exciting times (apparently, says she who is yet to catch a sea run trout ;-)

I like that I'm starting to embrace the entire length of this wonderful river.