By the time you’ll be reading this labour weekend will have passed and hopefully you had the chance to get out and explore our back yard. I certainly didn’t, labour weekends certainly bad timing as it clashes with exam time! I did take an afternoon off and explore the local river where I grew up. It’s always good to go walk up the river and see how its changed- through floods and nor’west winds it changes course. New pools are created, and old ones disappear. There’s a couple of resident trout usually there which I’ve never been able to catch. Its very open water and the fish are very easy to see. As they say, the easier they are to see the harder they are to catch. Chances are they can see me just as easy! There’s something about exploring up a river that draws me to them. Seeing what’s around the bend, and never knowing what you’ll come across. Although I’m not very good at it, river fishing is my favourite. Small stream fishing especially has intimacy about it. I can cover the whole water and need the utmost skill to not spook trout. It has more of an exploring feel to it as well. My home river used to hold trout but doesn’t anymore which my great uncle put it down to changes in land use. Cattle were commonly placed on the riverbed to graze what used to be flaxes and toe toe. Grazing has seen that disappear and now the river changes channel much more frequently in a flood. That isn’t good for the trout populations as they might have to relocate several kilometres in a small river to find another suitable pool. However now farmers don’t tend to graze riverbeds which is seeing broom, lupins and watercress growing on the banks. If left alone eventually natives will come back through. The rivers low which I think is common for most Canterbury rivers now, so some rainfall would come in handy (although at the time of writing we’re getting about 10 mm). The high-country opening is just around the corner, which I’m anticipating. Its my favourite place to fish, as the fishing’s generally better and there’s less crowds! The Lake Coleridge fishing competition is on November 7th so save the date; it will be a good chance to pick up some tips from pretty seasoned anglers! Remember to enjoy yourself and have fun and  results will follow

​Once I go on a hunt, and do it regularly, I’m more likely to fit it into my life. In an increasingly busy world, we can forget to take time out and enjoy it. The outdoors has more benefits than we realize, but the big one is it shows us how much country is out there. Walking places in the backcountry is often slower than it looks, and its very vast. There are many other places out there unexplored. There always is that area you want to look in next time- and it all makes you eager to get back to where we belong, on a mountainside somewhere high in the alps chasing game.
This then brings us back to the planning stages of our next hunt- hopefully, it’s not far away. With the last trip fresh in your head, it makes it a lot easier to plan for the next. You’ve got a much better idea about your gear, fitness and what can be improved. As Ryan Nicholson has said in our previous articles, any shortcomings as a hunter are quickly found out. The best we can do is improve on these for next time, and if we’re improving as a hunter, then hopefully we’ll be enjoying it a lot more. Once someone gets fixed in their ideas, that can be their downfall. Hunting tests us, from several different angles. The big one is mental toughness- this can be exposed straight away. Especially on walk-in hunts, this can force us to dig deep when we’re worn out and can’t go any longer. In those situations, you must tell yourself to keep going, and this is a true show of character. It teaches us to not give up easily. If we don’t test ourselves, we can’t improve. We need to take a while to reflect on our last hunt and what can we do better. Hopefully, your next hunt isn’t far away!