Field Report – Haast and the Cicada Symphony
When you drive from Wanaka and take Highway 6 over to Haast, it’s one of the great drives found within the country. The scenery is awe inspiring and so completely varied. One minute you’re driving past some of the best vineyards in Central Otageo, the next you are driving through a spectacular canyon gorge with views that are as gorgeous as they are frightening (heights). As we dropped down into the Haast Valley and its impressive Beech Tree forest, the roar of cicada’s was so loud that I could hear it from the back of the van, traveling at 60 miles an hour. It was deafening! And all of us in the group knew what this likely meant. Epic dry fly fishing!!!
Our first and only problem of the trip was on day one of fishing, out of Haast. Somehow, in spite of being on the books for over a year, the Haast Helicopter Service bounced us for other clients on our first day. This led our guides to have to scramble for Plan B and thank god I was with competent guides who put their feelers out in their guide community of friends for what we might do, having had our chopper space inexplicably given to someone else. The lady who ran the office of the Haast Heli Services lied right to my face, claiming that they could not take us out because of strong winds and bad weather forecast for the next day. A total load of crap. The weather was spectacular, without a cloud in the sky and virtually no wind. I was embarrassed for them and how badly they lied to us. Having traveled form a long way to fish and having our booking with them seemingly irrelevant, my two guides saved the day. At least for half of us.
Instead of choppering to a river we’d already booked and researched, we ended up driving to a river that none of us had ever fished before, including both of our guides. Myself and a client took the upper beat, while another guide and two friends took the lower beat. Us upper beat guys saw three fish all day and walked a good 6 km in the process of our first and only skunk of the trip. The guys below us had what can only be described as one of the great angling days in both of their lives. 15 Browns between 4-6 pounds, all taken on a Cicada pattern, with only one refusal all day. Most of the fish they found and all the eats they got were in between 18 and 24 inches of crystal-clear water. All site cast to. One of my clients described it as “mountain bonefishing with dries”. It’s incredible that we could have such divergent experiences while being on the same river and no more than 5 miles apart. Such is fishing and no one ever said was going to be fair.
Instead of choppering to a river we’d already booked and researched, we ended up driving to a river that none of us had ever fished before, including both of our guides. Myself and a client took the upper beat, while another guide and two friends took the lower beat. Us upper beat guys saw three fish all day and walked a good 6 km in the process of our first and only skunk of the trip. The guys below us had what can only be described as one of the great angling days in both of their lives. 15 Browns between 4-6 pounds, all taken on a Cicada pattern, with only one refusal all day. Most of the fish they found and all the eats they got were in between 18 and 24 inches of crystal-clear water. All site cast to. One of my clients described it as “mountain bonefishing with dries”. It’s incredible that we could have such divergent experiences while being on the same river and no more than 5 miles apart. Such is fishing and no one ever said was going to be fair.
I had to bite my tongue with the chopper company, as I didn’t want to say anything that might jeopardize our next two days of flying and it was not an easy thing to do so. Most heli services in New Zealand are reliable but this was my first time using the service out of Haast. It was incredibly disappointing to be lied to like that and while it did lead to a phenomenal day for two of my guests, that was 100% the work of my excellent guides, Steve and Anton, who stepped up for us big time.
