As we continue to post more about the wedding and trip preparation, I would like to chime in some and talk about fishing. Morgan knows that this is the part of the tripI am most looking forward to in the months to come. I have been to New Zealand, and fished the South Island for about 2 months. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I planned my trip for months, researched all the waters, tied flies, and dreamed about catching huge brown trout in pristine waters . Once I arrived in New Zealand, it was more than I expected. The fish were more challenging to catch, the scenery more beautiful than I imagined, and the people more hospitable than I could ask for. I literally lived out of a Toyota Camry and camped out wherever I ended up for the day. It was a dream come true for any guy. As the weeks are counting down until we fly over the big sea to New Zealand, I am so glad that I found someone that would want to do this all over again with me. The most common question I have been asked by friends is ” Now is Morgan ok with all of this, does she want to go?” The answer to that question is a big yes! My only concern is that she will catch a fish bigger than me this time, but if that time comes, I will post that picture on Facebook, smile, and say ” yeah that’s my wife, she’s pretty awesome.”  With that being said, we do have a little bit bigger car this time, and we will be staying in hotels every once in a while to shower and regroup  (cold river showers are the worse).

The eternal angling question is ” Which fly should I  use.” Morgan is sometimes baffled, almost disgusted with how many flies I have and the need to have more. I just use the comparison of girls and shoes. The debate and argument usually ends there, but I do see her point to an extent. For this trip, I have a lot of flies from my prior excursion, have tied about 60 more, and have bought another 50 . Needless to say, if I don’t have anything to catch these fish, then the fish were just not meant to be caught. For those reading this who do know some about fly fishing, New Zealand is different from anywhere I have fished in the world. It is all sight fishing, big dry flies straight to 3x mono and some nymph fishing. If you miss a fish, might as well count him off the books. They are spooky and require exact presentation. On my first day of fishing, I learned a vital lesson from a guy from Britain. I had never done a whole lot of dry fly fishing before I went so this was good advice. He said, “When the trout surfaces to eat your fly, count to three and say ” God save the Queen”, then set the hook. If you set the hook when he first takes that fly, you miss every time.” Very good lesson indeed, and enabled me to land many fish during my trip. So above  is a picture I recently took, as I got all my gear out to take for the trip. I have to sort through all of this and decide what stays and what is going.  This shows you the glimpse of challenge I am up to, and the separation issues that I will have as I make these choices. It will all be worth it in the end, but know I will be standing out on some remote river soon saying

” Now which fly should I use?”