Four brave souls ignored the dire weather forecasts and headed for the lodge on Friday night and four more arrived Sat morning together with two boats, a kayak and our intrepid guide the day John Thompson, who was going to teach us the ins and outs of trolling the lake.

Saturday started with a 5.30 am fish for those of us who stayed the night, the weather was overcast but very still and not a drop of rain, gorgeous conditions, but no fish on shore yet.

Following the arrival of the others and J.T., a few of us undertook lessons on trolling which proved to be enjoyable and very enlightening, culminating in the landing of a few nice fish. More fish were taken off the shore, and from a Kayak.

That evening was very sociable with plenty of stories, wine, food, food, food and culminated in a sing-song along with Mary's excellent guitar playing.

The rain set in that night fairly hard, and by next morning was looking to stay around all day. John enjoyed the company of eight ladies so much, he came back for more punishment on the Sunday, and gave another tour of duty in his boat, another nice 4 lb rainbow hen in very nice condition was landed, along with a smaller one, and the others landed some from the shore.

The rain was pretty settled in all day, but everyone still enjoyed the fishing
and the lessons on how to set up trolling rigs for Arapuni.

The lodge is now very user friendly and requires much less in the way of equipment to be taken. If you haven't tried it lately I really suggest you do, it's a very relaxing spot to fish. I think all that were present on the weekend are looking forward to another one.

The largest fish of the trip was caught by Mary Sandford at 5.5 lb. A lovely fat rainbow hen, altogether 14 fish were landed, all in very good condition.

Thanks John from all the ladies for the time and effort you put in for us.

Marianne