A salmon fisherman at the Rakaia River mouth stops fishing for a few minutes to watch the sun come up from the Pacific Ocean. Shot with a Canon 10D and 400mm lens. I went with both fishing and camera gear - that was a mistake.

Tags:   Rakaia salmon sun Canon EOS APS-C 2004 Top 10 Canon APS-C 10D Canon 10D 400 400mm Yabbadabbadoo wonderful world Silhouette Photography 100% Canon EyeGrabber Unlimited photos wonderful word

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A Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) that has yet to go to sea and grow big took a liking to my silver/green Veltic trout spinner in the Rakaia River. Not the first time I have caught juvenile salmon - they seem to attach lures the same size as themselves! It was released with minor injuries and hopefully will travel the 35odd km downstream and go out to sea for a couple of years to grow big and return to the Rakaia River.

Scavenger Hunt 101 - SH45 (a fish)

Tags:   fish Veltic spinner salmon Chinook Salmon Quinnat Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha Rakaia River fishing Canon EOS EOS M 22mm STM 22mm scavengerhunt101 SH45 EF-M 22mm f/2 STM Canon EOS-M APS-C Canon APS-C E.V.I.L. Unlimited photos

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These little fish are very aggresive, this one falling to a Rainbow pattern Veltic spinner on the middle reaches of the Rakaia River. Released to grow bigger!

Tags:   Canon EOS EOS M 22mm STM 22mm Rakaia River Rakaia River fishing fish trout Brown Trout spinner Veltic Veltic spinner EF-M 22mm f/2 STM Canon EOS-M APS-C Canon APS-C E.V.I.L. Unlimited photos

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Chinook Salmon (top) and Kahawai (aka Australian Salmon) from the mouth of the Rakaia River.

The salmon was caught with the first cast after changing the lure to a Finnie lure (fish shaped Zed spinner) that is years old. I had replaced the treble hooks with an after market set, and was using my old 9'6" glass fibre rod (purchased second hand about 20 years ago) and a new Abu Garcia Rel Toro NaCl 61 reel with braid and a 2m flurocarbon shock leader.

The Finnie:
www.flickr.com/photos/johnstewartnz/13804895974/

Tags:   Canon EOS 24-105mm 1D Mark III 1D3 1D Mark 3 fish salmon kahawai chinook quinnat Oncorhynchus tshawytscha Arripis trutta Rakaia salmon Rakaia River salmon Chinook Salmon Quinnat Salmon Unlimited photos

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My niece's friend Mark was down from Auckland for three days to experience Chinook/Quinnat Salmon fishing on the rivers of the east coast of the South Island.

Friday we, along with my fishing buddy Wayne Morris spent the day on the Waimakariri River, but caught nothing (we did see a couple of salmon caught though). Saturday we started about 30km upriver on the Rakaia River (nothing seen there) before heading to the Rakaia mouth (south side) where we were into Kahawa (Australian Salmon) and I got a 5 kg (11 lb) salmon, my first for many years. Sunday we were back for another go, but Mark lost a salmon that would have been way bigger than mine, but we caught heaps (15+) of kahawai (kept one - released the others).

Tags:   Rakaia Rakaia River fish fishing salmon Canon EOS 1D Mark III 1D3 1D Mark 3 70-200mm 70-200 1D Mk 3 1D Mk III Canon 1D Mk III Canon 1D Mk 3 Canon EOS 1D Mk 3 Canon EOS 1D Mk III Canon EOS 1D Mark III Canon EOS 1D Mark 3 APS-H Canon APS-H

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