Ben with his rainbow jack after some frustrating earlier action in which we had some just plain bad luck and stage fright from Ben on some big feeding rainbows. The day started by picking Ben up from Seasons camp ground here in Taupo. Ben is here for 2 months living his dream of fishing in NZ. He wanted a heads up for the start of his flyfishing adventure so we decided on the quadbike trip..A bit of everything in this day out. Some big thunder and lightening storms had been about the last couple of days,bit of a concern but off we went. The river was in good shape,a bit of volume but clear. First couple of pools we didn't see a fish,unusual for sure but we did come accross a couple of large feeding rainbows and a big brown a few pools up. Trouble was they were all over the place, a bad timed cast and we could put all 3 of them down. A few trees we behind us as well as tall grass and pampas made an akward stage.We lost a few flies in the trees for a start but did get in a couple of good casts only to have a close inspection and refusal form the big bows. Half a flie box later we tried a nymph but missed the strike and had to admit defeat. Upstream we came accross a big bow feeding happily in a slow run. Ben put in a nice cast only to have the big bow high tail it out of the run ! This was getting frustrating. Upstrem we came accross another bow, had a take only to miss the strike, the fish bolted and came right back to where it had just been ! We changed flies and had another take only to miss it again ! This time it bolted. Upstream we went, found another, put the big terrestrial dry over it, up came the fish and inhaled the big dry, 'god save the trout" Ben lifted the rod and out sprang the dry !@#$%^&!! We were both about to give up at this stage. One more pool I said to Ben. As we were walking up Ben spotted a rainbow in the still water virtually at our feet ! Off it cruised up to the head of the pool. We swaped to the nymph, a good cast and down went the indicator, Ben lifted the rod and this time it stuck,a nice rainbow jack to finish the day.Thunder started rolling over the valley, lightening was flashing and down came the rain. "lets get the hell out of here". Good idea said Ben. By the time we got back to the quad bike we were drenched. The ride out was an experience, water coming half way up the quad, torrential rain and wet branches slapping us around to cap it off. We did get our fish, some times you just have to work really hard for them. I guess that is why we call it fishing.