Anthony Marks recalls with a laugh, the first time he tried fly fishing.
The retired psychiatrist from Wellington, known as Toni after a Sicilian namesake Antonio, was introduced to the sport in the mid-1980s by a friend while taking an annual holiday at the southern end of Lake Taupō.
"The first fishing I did was down at the Kuratau Spit. I initially went fishing for eels. Of course, there were no eels in the Taupō system but I didn't know that. The [DoC] ranger came along and obviously thought I was a bit of an idiot, so he didn't bother telling me off."
Undeterred, Toni borrowed a fly fishing rod and had a crack at catching a trout off the spit.
"I don't remember how long it was but I caught a fish there, a 5-pounder and of course, once I landed a 5-pounder, I was totally hooked."
So far, so standard for a person taking up fly fishing, and Toni has since gone on to become a proficient angler, with an annual pilgrimage to his favourite river the Tongariro, although he also has a deep love for the Whakapapa River near National Park.
What makes his story a little more unusual is that although he usually catches a good number of fish during his yearly holiday in Tūrangi, Toni does it all by feel. He lost his sight as a young man due to a condition called retinitis pigmentosa.
"Everything looks much like a cloud looks like when you look into it out of the window of an aeroplane," he explains. "It can be bright or dark depending on the time of day."
But Toni is a wet-line fisherman, a discipline largely conducted by feel, and he has help whenever he needs it, although he is also capable of fishing alone.
"People are marvellous. My friends are great, they're very used to me and know when to say something and when to shut up; and other people are helpful as well when they realise I'm blind.
"The main challenge is knowing what's where. I know the pools on the Tongariro pretty well, although they change each year. If I go to a new area, then I have to get the geography sorted, I need to know what's behind me, how far to the other side, where are the snags, so usually I'll lose a fly or two sorting out those things. Once I've [hooked] the bank on the other side or the willow trees behind me, I've got my distances."
The other challenge can be getting there, although the Tongariro River is reasonably accessible, Toni says.
"The person with me will say 'tree in the middle of the path' or 'hanging branch', and sometimes they forget, but I survive."
Tying hooks on is a challenge for every angler, especially as they age, but Toni has an effective technique. He locates the eye of the hook with his tongue and threads the line through the eye using reasonably stiff nylon, which can then be knotted easily.
"Those are the only challenges, otherwise it's quite straightforward. I seem to have quite good balance, I have got water down the front of my waders once. I stumbled on a log and I got a bit wet but that was the only time, touch wood."
Toni's retinitis pigmentosa was first picked up when he was only 5. But it wasn't until 1967, in his last year of medical school, that Toni's eye specialist informed him he would go blind in the near future.
"My parents didn't tell me when I was a child because they wanted me to grow up thinking I was normal."
In 1976, Toni's remaining sight disappeared within a week when he caught pneumonia. He had to learn braille and to touch type and he had people who used to read journal articles to him so he could keep up with his studies and stay abreast of developments in psychiatry.
As technology has progressed, with things such as text-to-voice applications, life has become considerably easier for blind people. But Toni says it has never been a hindrance to him in his work.
"Some people seemed to be more relaxed because they somehow saw me as easier to talk to. It wasn't a disadvantage. I spent most of my time talking to people or to my dictaphone."
It has never been a hindrance to his fishing either. He describes the sport as "the ultimate theatre".
"That anticipation mixed with uncertainty ... I'll think I've hit a snag and then all hell lets loose at the end of the line."
Toni has fond memories of John Milner, who ran the Angler's Paradise Motel in Tūrangi where he stayed in the early days. It was John who introduced Toni to fishing the Tongariro.
"He got me into a fish on the Reed Pool and he took me out there and taught me the technique of fishing that sort of water."
Toni's other influence was Jim Gosman, a policeman at National Park who went on to become a fishing guide.
"One of the highlights was going down the Whakapapa River on the Whanganui River side of the tunnel, beautiful fishing down there, glorious, glorious setting, utterly magic."
Every angler has a story of the one that got away and Toni's involves the Whakapapa River on a freezing winter's day when he hooked a huge brown trout estimated at 16lb. A monumental two-hour battle ensued.
"It was just marauding up and down the pool like it was a toy on the end of a bit of string. I was still a young fisherman and didn't know how to get it to shore. Eventually, we had to put an end to this so my friend stood in the rapids at the top of the pool with an enormous rock thinking he would throw it at it and scare it back. I put the pressure on the fish and it raced off up the pool. It saw Philip, Philip tossed the rock and it didn't care, it went right up the rapids about a metre high like a torpedo and snapped me off ... he [the fish] treated me like I was an idiot."
Toni and his regular group of angling friends have come to Tūrangi annually for the past 35 years, and he says only one year has been missed. The group always stays at the Tongariro River Motel where Toni says owners Ross and Pip Baker "look after us beautifully" and Toni's daughter Lucy McLaren, who has taken up fishing, also sometimes joins them. He says being able to go fishing with his children is "just magic", along with being out in nature and in the company of other anglers.
"The riverbank is very social and you chat to people and it's a lovely atmosphere, it's totally separate from the busy world and the city and work ... we tell stories and drink wine and enjoy our evenings, it's just fabulous fun."
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