(.43 – .425) Fished the Tauranga-Taupo the river, my first time for a little while. It fished well for me this morning with 10 hookups and 7 landed – mostly 2 -3 pounders and mostly fresh. Still small but quite good fishing. Had a lazy start around 9am and returned early down river on my 1 man raft. Got them all on size 12 salmon egg glow bugs. Had most my luck down river. The upper reaches seemed to be taking a pounding from other fishermen. Reports were that the fising was better yesterday which was expected.

Fished the Tongariro today with famous New Zealand South Island guide Chappie Chapman, author of the New Zealand Fly Fishing book “Dancing Rivers”. Before lunch we had some casting practice at the Redhut pool where Chappie taught me about spey casting an I recipricated with the Tongairo Roll Cast. Later in the day we migrated to the hydro pool – my favourite muck around pool close to my house and had a good afternoon each catching several trout. I must say that casting with a large spey rod is quite good fun for a change and I am tempted to buy one to allow clients something different on multi day guiding jobs if they would like. I could sort of manage most of the casts to some degree except for the single spey – the double spey, snake roll and snap T weren’t too difficult though I was by no means much good at them either. Chappie is pretty good with the casts and can even do the single spey which I am guessing is probably the most difficult.

Guided the Tongariro with Linden and Judy Forest yesterday. Started early down low river area and Judy was quickly into a fish which basically blew her away in seconds – a good sized fresh run I suspect. Soon after Linden hooked and played a couple more and Judy landed one. We then went up to the middle reaches and battled it out in the freezing windy conditions. Judy made excellent work of her 3 chances there and landed 3 out of 3 on 4 pound tippet! Linden unfortunately continued with a run of bad luck with two more trout getting off (not broken just didn’t get a strong enough hookup) before getting a reasonable size one to the bank. Linden got 1 more to the bank there and Judy finished off down river again hooking 3 and landing one out of a small riffle. A great day was enjoyed by all despite the stong cold winds which would have made fishing difficult for most nymphos out yesterday. The fish size in general is still down at the moment with quite a lot of undersize fish (less than 18 inches) and a few of the better length ones being recoveries. We did get one nice hen that was released of course which others would have definitely kept. In all 12 were hooked and plays plus a couple of other likely brief hookups. 6 were landed. The top fly was again 14BSPT. Nothing on the bomb today, one on champagne and flame glow-bug towards dark. Conditions outside now are overcast and still. Expecting rain later in the day.

Tight Lines
Andrew

Another great day out on the Tongariro with 14 trout hooked between my clients today. Tried to go back-coutry in the morning but found the rivers up a bit out there and fearing further bad weather turned back and headed to the Tongariro for plan B. Plan B worked well with Charlie landing 5 out of 7 hookups, but Ian and Ed unfortunately had a run of bad luck with fish being dropped left right and center. Charlie and Ian had a little fly fishing experience and it was Ed’s first time out. In all the guys had a good time and may be back for more next week.

Went down river to the Reed pool for a while today. It hasn’t changed since last season, still a snaggy difficult place to fish in my opinion, nevertheless I hooked 6 in various spots. Hooked all over the place but basically over the far side against the bank which is a difficult spot to nymph due to the strong current through the center of the pool. Also fished the hydro in the afternoon a got one cracker brown the would have been pusing 8 pounds although slightly thin. 14BSPT was the fly.

Went up river Tongariro today for a quick look and a two hour fish. Hooked 3 though one was foul hooked. One pool I looked in when the spotting conditions were good was full of fish i.e. I could see around a dozen in a small area meaning there were probably 5 times this number in the pool. They weren’t easy to catch though and try and try as I did I still didn’t manage to hook any of these fish. This is not unusual with the fish beeing focused on breeding rather than feeding. It is strange and nearly unpredictable that some fish and in some pools the fish are completely non-interested in any flies, and yet in other pools that same day it can be all on. I suspect it also has a little to do with being first there for the day sometimes amongst other things.

Conditions have been difficult i.e. clear water but if you are using fluourocarbon (6 pound and under – I am sometimes using 4 pound) and small nymphs 14 and 16 pheasant tails then you are going to catch fish – the other ingredient of course is a good cast to the right spot and the right drift. I went out yesterday for a couple of hours in the hydro and managed to hook 6. 2 smallish ones, one nice rainbow about 3 and half pounds and one nice brown of around 6 and a half pounds. I then went under the main road bridge for an hour or so but got beaten by the wind i.e. couldn’t get a good drift because of the strong wind.

The Tongariro continues to improve. Fished around town yesterday, taking a friend out fishing the first time. He landed one, I ended up hooking 5 for the afternoon for a couple of hours fishing. Got one on a glow bug and the rest on pt’s. The majority of the fish are undersize still. Expected the river to come up in flood on Saturday given heavy rain over night but it didn’t happen.

Went for a brief flick on the Tongariro today around the middle reaches and managed 6. The fish were in the riffly water of these pools and not surprisingly were recoveries. Again the fish were taking pt’s. There is quite a bit of pressure but most peoples seem unable to catch the fish that are in a lot of the pools – which is great for the rest of us! There are one or two pools that I have seen a heap of fish in but am falling into the category of one of those unable to catch the buggers! I suspect they have been flogged as there interest level in flies isn’t high!

Guided Duncan Smith from Auckland today on the Tongariro. There were a few fishermen around early morning but by mid-morning most had given up. Duncan managed to hook his first ever trout nymphing early on but it got away. Eventually by around 1 o’clock duncan had hooked 4 and landed two. The first one that got away would have been the best fish, the others were comparitively small but Duncan was happy as this was his first time fly fishing in nearly twenty years.