Taupo Fishing Report

Guided regular clients Lyndon and Judy Forrest and Robyn from TALTAC today on the Tongariro river. The morning was quite reasonable fishing with at least 6 hook and plays plus a few other possible missed takes and a couple of wriggles. Fortunately for all Judy was able to land this nice 4 pound Jack Rainbow trout ending a run of break-offs. In the afternoon the guys and girls hooked a further 3 and were able to see dozens of trout in the lower Tongariro though casting to them and getting a drift in the strong winds wasn’t easy.

An early start and it was it wasn’t long before Andrew Landed his first of around many for the day. The trout averaged around 3 - 4 pounds with a few bigger and a few smaller. We fished several different areas on 2 different rivers and just fished the edges as the water was still high after yesterdays rain.

Guided Andrew Mongeon on the Tongariro today. Most options were unavailable due to heavy rain over night and flooding but Andrew still managed to land 3 out of 7 nice rainbow trout hooked for the day.

Had a great mornings fishing with Justin and Ngawai this morning with too many trout to count! The new fly I tied up similar to another pattern a friend showed may immitatet the Colobriscus mayfly nymphs that were being taking well and for a period of a least half an hour not a single drift went by on Ngawais rod without at least a strike!

Well, day 3 arrived for the Good’s this morning staying out at Spot X and we were greeted by rain. A quick examination of the flows and last nights rainfall on some nearby major rivers meant changing plans from going to a large river due to safety issues and having a look at a smaller stream. Alas when we arrived we found that to be in a raging flood so we headed back towards Turangi and the Tongariro. After looking at and testing a couple of spots near Turangi we decided to call off day 3 though if Glen is reading this then I would recommend he fish the spot tomorrow morning that I showed him later on in the day!

Met some friends from Oakura Bay near Russel this afternoon and went for a fish. Between us for the afternoon/evening we landed 5 out of around a dozen hookups - Glen will know the exact spot - we were just a little to early there earlier in the day as predicted!.

Guided Glen and Theresa today and had and had a good day though the fishing was slower than normal. Glen managed a beatifully coloured and conditioned 4 pound brown and Theresa managed a cracker Rainbow hen of 5 pounds out of the 5 good trout hooked for the day. In all the guys and girls were happy with the day despite weather conditions and other factors impacting the fishing a little.

Met Glen and Theresa this morning staying at Spot X Lodge for 3 days back country fly fishing. Had a reasonable start to the trip landing 3 out of 10 fish hooked mainly around the 3 poundish mark. Photos to follow!

Guided Collingwood supporter Philip Norman from Australia again today and had a ball. Philip managed to land 13 out of 26 fantastic trout hooked - mostly around 3 to 4 pounds with one or 2 over this and one or 2 under this. The fish pictured here was a typical 4 pounder for the day.

Picked up the Horns early this morning for their second trip of the year again staying at Turangi’s fantastic 5 star River Birches Lodge. Being October 1, we negotiated (I suggested and they accepted) an early start to take advantage of the fishing available as the back country rivers re-open after being shut for three months and were rewarded with some superb fishing. Each of the team landed a nice trout of over 4 lbs with 8 year old Thomas’s 5 lb brown being the biggest of the lot - which he cast and hooked by himself and only required minimal assistance (just supporting the weight of the rod a little sometimes) to land by himself! By mid afternoon when Alex, Mimi, Thomas and father Peter had had enough, the team had managed to land 4 out of 13 fantastic 4 lb plus trout hooked.

Though it was a great days fishing, I would like to point out to any other fishermen reading this that in order to avoid potentially ugly incidents - and there has been many in the past few years as not all fishermen are as civilized as me - to learn river fishing ettiquette! Fishing the back country in summer is not like the Tongariro or some heavily poplulated overseas rivers where you can just turn up and jump in the next pool above. In the back country ettiquette means first in first served and if you are not there first then you should either fish your way up behind the earlier arrivals or find another piece of river to fish where you will not interfere with the future fishing of the people there before you who will be making there way up river during the course of the day - not jump in the pool above. Back country water is normally fished in beats which are a days fishing basically and if you know someone is in the water downstream of you then you don’t go near the water up to one days fishing above!! Not the pool above as was done to us today by some hopefully unknowing persons. You should also aways ask the farmer before going through any farm, and don’t block the farmers gate with your vehicle - again happened today and my farmer friend was not impressed with these persons! This kind of behaviour is likely to have farmers denying access to ALL fishermen in the future! It is not every day that you find someone else on a back-country river but angler encounters are becoming more frequent. Today after the rude fishermen went above us, we had lunch and shifted down to a public access point where there was no-one and managed to hook a few of our fish there!

Been a little slack with the blog lately as have been desperately trying to get a few other things organised before the 1st October when the summer season starts - trying to move my new boat towards survey but have several sets of people to deal with to achieve this. Went fishing this afternoon for a couple of hours with Philip Norman in the Tongariro which was a little slow for us. Philip hooked and landed a nice fish and I lost a good one and landed 2 small ones.

Shot a red stag/spiker a couple of days ago - wasn’t able to tell as its antlers had only just started regrowing. Was out camping and hunting by myself and was highly surprised to kill the animal which was several hundred meters away - I aimed 6 to 8 inches above with my new SAKO 243 and using the ammo that Charlie Dixon from Spot X Lodge helped me load the other day. Had a mission carrying out the hind quarters, back steaks, rifle, and backpack with tent and sleeping bag etc. Got out of the bush just before dark completely exhausted and minus my sleeping mattress which got torn off coming through thick scrub somewhere. Will probably need to resight the gun in as it sustained a few knocks also on the way down.