I get asked about memorable events in my guiding career all the time so, during 2011 I sat down and wrote about some of the people, events and places and with the help of my graphic designer son, Alistair, published it on Amazon.com. I had so much fun doing this that I’m already close to finishing the next eBook but I’m not giving away any clues as to title or content until it’s up there. In the meantime check out ‘Grip ‘N Grin’ - The memoirs of a New Zealand Trout Fishing Guide. The Kindle edition costs just $3.99.

A long, cold spring didn’t help the new season to get off to a flying start with fish being quite hard to find at times. For some reason that I’m yet to fathom browns are far more inclined to take nymphs when there is sun on the water in my experience. At last we have been experiencing the ‘right’ conditions. Alistair, my son and I had a few hours on the Opihi on Christmas Eve and found fish all over the place. The positive thing was that they were feeding actively. Al got onto half a dozen nice browns, one of which ended up helping to feed the family for Christmas lunch along with half a kilo of whitebait that I got at the mouth in the last week of the season. It was good to see that there are plenty of fish in the 2 -3lb range.