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.

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