Guided Mathew Smith yesterday morning on the Tongariro. Though I am far from an expert at wet-lining (I do a bit but mainly nymph) I had a spot in mind for Mathew who hadn’t fished for 6 years and had a medium sink line with a fast sinking polyleader. We went to the spot and had a strike on the 2nd cast and landed a nice rainbow on the 3rd. By lunchtime Mathew had landed 3 out of 6 hookups, a fantastic re-introduction to fishing.

After all the rain and bad weather the fish now seem to be spread though the river and the couple I caught yesterday afternoon were darkish fish. I would expect the fishing to move back to pheasant tails and more natural flies over the next few days. There are heaps of fish in the river and anyone persisting will catch a few though patience will be necassary.

Got an afternoon job to guide Rick and Cathy from Colorado. Unfortunately since leaving Australia on their way back to the States they have had two weeks solid bad weather and this afternoon turned out to be no different. After a slowish start in attrocious windy conditions Rick hooked, landed and released a beatiful fat rainbow hen of around 4 pounds and Cathy got hers – a nice jack of similar proporions that had us running down river 200 meters before coming to the net for photographing before release.

Day 3 for the Pete’s from Oz today and I decided to mix it up a bit rather than fishing the Tongariro for 3 days in a row. Though I knew the water was going to be high and dirty from the recent rain I deciced to take the guys to river 3 beat 3 and try our luck with dirty water fishing. Pete White hooked the first fish which got off after a short fight but I am guessing it was a reaonable rainbow by the way it faught – SJW. Pete Neil then landed a respectable brown of four and a quarter pounds that took a big black burglar. Pete White then followed up with a nice rainbow of around 3 pounds on SJW and another brown hooked on the fin with SJW. In all the guys hooked four, there were a couple of other probably brief takes that I won’t count. In all I would call the day a success given that the guys got to experience yet another river and another style of fishing. It was good also not to have to compete with the crouds on the Tongariro on a wet winter Saturday.

Started early this morning with a 6:30am pick-up intending a couple of hours on the Tongariro before heading back-country. By around 8:30 the colour of the water was getting pretty strong though Left handed Pete (Pete White) had still managed to hook 5 and land 3 nice rainbows out of slow shallow water on salmon egg glow-bugs. As we left the river to head for breakfast, a quick call to Charlie at Spot X confirmed the back-country rivers out west were clouding up and the decision was made to stay around Turangi. Fished two other local Rivers and was surprised to find the first one not very coloured, right handed Pete managed a nice one here on a 12BBH&C before left handed Pete missed a reasonable one Czech nymphing a 14 koffmans flashblack pt over the bank into a deepish little hole. I was surprised the glow-bug didn’t get more action here. We ended up the afternoon fishing a couple of lies up the TT and hooked and lost 4 – one of which gave left handed Pete no chance as it steamed off up river and bust him with just the drag of the fly line in the water. Salmon egg glow-bugs were the go here. The TT was coloured and probably getting more coloured when we left – brownish though and not green – level around .6 – .65 on the rise. The Tongariro never go above 33.3 cumecs today so we probably could have fished there all day though it appeared to be rising fast this morning.

Picked up the Pete and Pete from River Birches this morning and hit the Tongariro a little after 9. Right handed Pete started great landing a beaty on his second cast and soon followed up with several more. Left handed Pete lost one early on and took a little longer getting used to the heavey flies and long leaders but ended the day well with 3 lost and one nice rainbow landed. Right handed Pete landed 7 out of 10 I think including several nice fish up to about 4 pounds and and one brown of around 2 and a half pounds. The main fly was 14BSPT with a few on the GBH&C bomb and a couple on glow bugs too.

After a good aftenoons fish yesterday Mel, Mike and Bunty had converted to fisholasism and opted for an early start. We got to the river and parked up reserving ourselves 3 hot lyes and waited for the sun to rise. Mel was first to hook up in what turned out to be a stella day of 30 hookups which had me running up and down river between clients to help land fish, untangle a few leaders (my number one profession) and deliver cuppas to keep the troops going.

In all a fantastic day was had and I am looking forward to reading Bunty Bunce’s autobiography “In My Fathers’s Hands”, by what she was telling me on the river about things like being on crocadile watch for spear fishermen in Africa it should make a good read!

A late call in the afternoon due to another guide being double booked had me rushing down to a local Tackle shop to pick up Mel Mike and Bunty for a brief excursion on the Tongariro. After a slowish start Bunty got her first – a small brown trout to the shore and Mel followed up by loosing a good rainbow and then landing a good one to end a good brief afternoons fishing. The girls and guys enjoyed the day so much they re-booked for tomorrow.

An OK but slightly slowish day on the Tongariro doday for first time fly fishermen Tony and Janice. Tony managed a nice rainbow early on up river and Janice lost one but by the end of the day only one more fish had been hooked and lost. There were plenty of fish there just not really hungry or maybe to flogged by other fishermen. Tony and Janice both enjoyed the day though which was fine if not a little cold first thing in the morning.

Guided Captain Nick Sassic from Florida today on river 3 beat 3. Nick had a fantastic day managing to hook 14 and land 7 averaging around 3 pounds. This included a mixed bag of both rainbow and brown trout. This was Nick’s first ever day trout fishing but he took to it like a fish to water as you would expect from a salt water fly fishing guide specializing in Redfish, and Bonefish etc.