Patience pays

Several times a year the Capital Trout Centre runs a Childrens Fishing Day. Sunday was the second time Noah has been along, last time he went with Dad it was a bitterly cold southerly during October - our coldest  in about 60 years. Yesterday, although the sun wasn't really shining it was warm and definitely NOT wintry.

The fishing days are so popular with kids around the region that you have to book an hour's timeslot, ours being 12pm-1pm along with a few of Noah's other daycare friends. Once you have registered on arrival, you then wait till your number is called to take your place with one of the volunteer anglers who spends the day helping all the kids get their catch. They had recently brought in 400 new fish from Taupo, so there were plenty available for the day.

However, it really is a matter of luck, this catching fish business! Some children get their fish within a matter of minutes, yesterday they ranged in size from 500g to 2kg. Our fish however, proved to be pretty elusive for the better part of half an hour, but Noah never complained, he waited so patiently. In the end, it required two anglers working on our behalf to bring one in. They just didn't want to bite on the first line, and when we did get one on the second line, he made off with the fly. In the end though, our persistence paid off and Noah had himself a 770g beauty which we brought home and cooked up into trout sammies for lunch.

It is a wonderful experience for young kids who do not live near real trout fishing areas to enjoy. And it's also a great use for an otherwise nondescript piece of land at the rubbish dump. And it can only go ahead thanks to the generosity of the flyfishing club who put on each such open day. Nice one.