Went for a brief flick in the Hydro pool of the Tongariro this afternoon and had no luck – though I only fished from one position for half an hour. Normally I do pick up a few fish there. Talking to a few others and the fishing has been very tough on the Taupo tributaries. The unusually dry weather hasn’t helped.

On a controversial note I am wondering if people should be killing every trout out of the Taupo system they can get their hands on. I am not suggesting doing this – just pondering the merits based on the smaller than usual size and the possibility of this being caused by good high numbers of trout because of good breeding conditions over past couple of years. The smelt population in the lake is known to be down and this can’t be helped by high trout numbers. The high trout numbers certainly aren’t in the Taupo tributaries yet but give it a few weeks and they will be. I am looking forward to it. Please feel free to leave comments in response to this controversial pondering.

Spent the last few days adding a new photo gallery system to the site which will allow the display and download of all my client photos. I have been working though the photos and uploading them as has Charlie from Spot X Lodge. It will take a couple more weeks to get them up but will mean if I have taken photos of your trip you should be able to search for your name – or part of your name in the gallery and find your photos. You can then download them, get them cleaned up by a professional if you like and print them out in high enough quality to print a poster sized photo for your living room wall or office. I have a friend up North who puts photos on canvas prints for a living and the look fantastic! My new camera is 10 Mega pixel so pretty good resolution and photoshop can fix what my poor photography skills achieve.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Falling

Cloud/Wind: A little wind today but fishable

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Marcel at the new Riverway General Store and Outfitters accross the road has been recommending Green Stoneflies – a lot of his customers have been getting success on his custom tied Green Stonefly patterns.

This is the first post for a week as I have been changing web hosting for my site and would have lost any updates. Briefly the last week has consistied of fly fishing, duck shooting, and deer stalking today. My mate Ross Wilson who works for Northpower and myself were dragged out of bed at the ungodly hour of 5:30 this morning by our my other mate Johan the South African who doesn’t drink hence wasn’t suffering like Ross and I who would have preferred a couple more hours recovery after last night. We drove a short distance from home, hiked up a mountain and as we came over a ridge heard some rustling in the scrub 30 – 40 meters away. We thought it was a pig until some antlers emerged and we briefly saw the stag. Ross took the shot as Johan couldn’t get a clear site on it (I was just the guide) and we thought he had hit it. The scrub was pretty thick and it took a while before we found it. I prooved my manliness by carrying back down.

Tongariro Report

Barometer:

Cloud/Wind:

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies:

After arriving at the first farm yesterday morning to find the race that I drive though blocked by cattle I switched beats and went to another farm nearby which unfortunately is closer to a public access point. The day was slowest for the Wartons who still had a great time with Marge landing a cracker 5 and a half pound rainbow and a 4 pound brown. Bruce unfortunately lost his one chance for the day on a powerful rainbow. After lunch we were going to head back to the first spot to get Bruce a fish but the farmer needed a hand to carry out a stag from nearby bush that he had roared up and shot the night before in a small patch of bush on the other side of river. The farmer couldn’t carry the stag because of his bad knee. Being a few years younger and considering myself quite fit I vounteered to carry the animal which was just a couple of hundred metres inside the bush and around 100kg. I managed to carry it for around 30m and after falling over twice, carried the beast which felt as big as a cow on my back. We then had to drag the carcass for what seemed like 2km to the river where we floated it across and Bruce gave us a hand pulling it out. This completed the day and the trip for the Wartons who were most happy to enjoy a beer with the farmer and look at his hunting trophies.

I have come to the conclusion that in New Zealand the measure of a man is how far and how heavier stag you can carry. I think I may need to join a Gym before I test my manliness again!

Tongariro Report

Barometer:

Cloud/Wind:

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies:

Went hunting for red deer last week in Te Urewera National Park – well actually a private block that adjoins the national park – no boundaries though.

I never fired a shot all week but my mate Ross Wilson managed a good 7 point stag and his father Ian managed two. I had one in my sights but could only see its stomach area and head as its head was out one side of a tree and the body the other. The animal got onto me after a long minute as I tried exercising all my phsyic powers to get it to move into a position where I could make a good kill shot. A bad shot would have had the animal run straight into the bush injured never to be seen again hence I don’t shoot unless I can hit a high percentage area – the head is two smaller target for me at that distance without a rest.

Tongariro Report

Barometer:

Cloud/Wind:

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies:

Havn’t written a post for a little while due to being out of the area on holiday until a few days ago. Guided 3 Norwegions on the Tongariro on the 30th. We had 22 hookups with the majority being landed. The largest was 1.7k and average size just over a kilo. The fish were smaller than usual but it was still a great day out. Most fish beats 5 and 6 on glow bugs – slightly coloured water.

Guided Andrew And Ngaire from Auckland yesterday on river 4 beat 8 and river 3 beat 1. It was there first days fly fishing and they hooked 4 each and landed 1 each. Both Andrew and Ngaire picked up the art of casting really well and were able to be fishing completely unaided by the end of the day. Ngaire landed the biggest – a beatiful rainbow of around 5 pounds that took her several hundred meters down river on 5 pound tippet – a fantastic effort! The flow was up a little and a little coloured as well but the fish mainly took Burgin Sawyers.

Previous to these two jobs I had spent a few days up in the Bay Of Islands with my Uncle on my boat in a Game fishing competion. On the first morning we had two marlin strikes but they only stayed connected for a few seconds before coming off. Very exciting stuff!

Before the game fishing I was in the bush hunting for a week with another friend Ian Wilson. We had a scary helicoptor trip in followed by great hunting. Ian shot a yearling on the first afternoon and then two stags the following day – I missed 1. On the 2nd day I missed a great chance on a stag I stalked to within 20 meters before getting a glimpse of its backside dissappearing into the scrub. I shot a hind later that day. We came out a day early with as much meat as we could handle.