Fished locally yesterday and hooked 4 landing 1 in some newish water to me. Quite enjoyed the fishing. The conditions are low and clear and was able to site fish to the fish. The weather forecast predicted bad weather all week but the weather has been OK and we have had hardly any rain other than the odd brief shower. Went for a brief fish in the Tongariro’s hydro pool this morning hooking 3 and landing 2. They weren’t fantastic fish by Tongariro standards but pretty good by the rest of the worlds standards for wild rainbow trout – picture right.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rising

Cloud/Wind: Mainly blue sky, and relatively calm first thing this morning though if the past few days are anything to go by then the wind could get up this afternoon.

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Small champagne glowbugs hooked all my fish yesterday and today with none taking the hair & copper bomb, though I would still concentrate on sawyers pheasant tails for the middle of the day. I am in the midst of tying a heap of stonefly nymphs for the summer – something I don’t use often but they do have their time and place – have even gone to the extent of dying a heap of hare guard hair black!

Went for a brief flick on the Tongariro as usual today but found it basically windy and unpleasant so went home to tie flies ready for the busy summer ahead.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Dropped further from yesterday but appears stable and low at the moment

Cloud/Wind: Very little rain so far though a lot expected, not too cold today, in fact quite mild though a cold southerly shift is expected. Fairly windy today with some cloud.

Water Temperature: No thermoter until November

River Conditions: Clear and plenty of fish though small

Recommended Flies: Pheasant tails, hair and coppers, olive wooley buggers, glow-bugs – the standard!

Guided Brian and Dave on the Tongariro this morning. Dave has done plenty fly fishing for trout back home in England but it was Brians first go with a fly rod. By the end of the morning the guys had hooked into 11 rainbow trout, landing around half of these and were pretty stoked! After seeing the guys later in the day in the local supermarket it seemed that had had a fine afternoon celebrating the mornings fishing at the local pub! They had not expected so many after speaking to several people on the river on Saturday who had had none.

Later in the afternoon I went for a cast in the Tongariro’s famous Hydro pool and hooked 4 rainbow trout.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Dropping and bad weather expected

Cloud/Wind: Overcast with no wind here at present this morning

Water Temperature: Still waiting for my thermotmeter

River Conditions: Low and clear which is fine if you use light fluorocarbon and smaller indictators and flies

Recommended Flies: The fish we caught yesterday were on a mix of glowbugs and hare and copper gold tungsten beaded nymphs in the morning – also a couple on size 16 black bead hare & coppers tied with light grey possum fur – basically my Aoteaphsyce Colonica (grey caddis) representation that I use a lot over summer. In the afternoon at the Hydro I hooked 4 on good old Sawyers Pheasant tails.

Guided Jeff, Jim, and Chris from Auckland today R4B8F28Green/14fbpt. The guys hooked 11 and landed 4 including 1st ever browns for Chris and Jim. Jim also lost one good brown estimated at around 7 pounds. Broke my Sage SLT for the 3rd time since last October – but still had an enjoyable day guiding in great weather.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Risen slightly since yesterday and pretty high

Cloud/Wind/: Blue sky all day and a little nor wester wind at on the river later in the day

Water Temperature: Pretty bloody cold if you ask Jim who tripped playing a fish at the end of the day and got some down his waders

River Conditions: Clear

Recommended Flies: Sawyers pheasant tail and black bead hair and coppers – gold beads also working of course – but I noticed a lot of Hydrosyche Colinica on a stick the other day (olive free swimming net building caddis I think)

Fishing Diary

Went fishing yesterday with my mate Marcel (a Taupo Fishing Guide) and had a pleasant afternoon until the wind got up.
Marcel landed one smallish trout and I landed 1 as well. Met up with TALTAC
friend Peter Grange who caught a few during the day. It certainly wasn’t a slay
day but there were plenty of trout about that we could see.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rising Slowy

Cloud/Wind/: Mainly overcast with no wind

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Fairly clear and clearing more

Recommended Flies: Flashback pheasant tails, black bead hare and coppers, olive wooley buggers

Fished the Tongariro yesterday with my mate from TALTAC Peter Grange. We were down lower river and each hooked a few and landed a few with Peter landing one OK fish on the wet line. In general though, pretty much everyone now realizes that the average size this year is probably just under 3 pounds which is around a pound smaller than last year and is something that DOC really needs to research as to why. It could be natural or unnatural but will be in some way related to the predominant food source – smelt. In saying that the size is down, good numbers are still around and realistically in any other part of the world the fish would still be counted as huge – for wild fish. Its just that we are so used to being spoilt by large numbers of 4 and 5 pound plus fish on the Tongariro that 3 pounders dissapoint us.

There is some speculation from people that it is because with the 45cm limit we have been selectively culling the best breeding stock and leaving the smaller ones to breed. Whilst I agree that this could have an impact in some fisheries, it is unlikely that this would be the main cause as the drop in size would be a gradual thing over many years and not a sudden drop of around a pound on nearly every fish like we have had this year. By the way – in case any people reading this are against the killing of trout – I don’t kill or allow clients to kill fish in some rivers – just Taupo and Rotorua tributaries which are proven sustainable fisheries. I always feel that in wild fish environments trout will reach a balance in size more dependant on available food sources than on competition for that food source from other trout – though obviously an over abundance of trout in certain conditions could harm that food source. I don’t feel in most un-stocked rivers that over abundance of trout is a problem as floods and other predators keep numbers down.

Guided Lynn and Neville this morning on the Tongariro and had a pretty successful morning. Lynn and Neville own a holiday home here in Turangi (NZ$100/night if anyone is interested) and have done a little fly fishing before but not a lot, and this morning they both got off the mark each with their first good sized trout caught fly fishing. In the end 10 were hooked and around half were landed leaving Lynn and Neville very happy. I was using my new technique for training people to ‘double haul’ from the beginning and it was going pretty well for both of them. I will add details of this technique for getting people to ‘double haul’ soon to my site.

Fished myself yesterday – very briefly and hooked 0 – though it was really just a click flick in a pool that I never normally catch a lot in with a friend. Fished briefly a different river in semi flood the day before and hooked 2 on SJW – though was pretty slow. Heading out for a bit of a casting session myself now – hopefully to hook a trout or two as well.

Stayed home and caught up on paperwork and emails today and had this arrive from a friend June Duff whom I used to work with selling Real Estate:

A man was fishing.

He began his outing with a 25lb Kingfish on the first drop and a 20 lb
snapper on the second.

On the third drop he had just scored his first ever King Terakihi when
his cell phone rang.

It was a doctor notifying him that his wife had just been in a terrible
accident and was in critical condition in ICU.

The man told the doctor to inform his wife where he was and that the
he’d be there as soon as possible.

As he hung up he realized he was leaving, what was shaping up to be,
his best ever fishing trip.

He decided to get in a couple of more drifts before heading to the
hospital.

He ended up catching several personal bests, limited out on three
species and all in all, had his best days fishing by far.

He was jubilant….

Then he remembered his wife.

Feeling guilty he dashed to the hospital. He saw the doctor in the
corridor and asked about his wife’s condition.

The doctor glared at him and shouted, “You went ahead and kept fishing
didn’t you!

“I hope you’re proud of yourself! While you were out for the past four
hours enjoying yourself on the ocean, your wife has been languishing in
the ICU!

It’s just as well you went ahead and finished the fishing because it
will be more than likely your last!” “For the rest of her life she will
require round the clock care. And you’ll be her care giver!”

The man was feeling so guilty he broke down and sobbed .

The doctor snickered and said, “Just f*cking with you. She’s dead.
What’d you catch?”

Guided Chris this morning (working in Wellington for a few years). It was Chris’s first attempt at nymphing and he took to it like a fish to water. The new technique I am trying for getting peoples casting up and going with double hauling from the start seems to be working quite well. Chris managed to hook 4 and land 3. The flow was 33 cumecs.

Later on I fished the Hydro pool and hooked and landed 3 – an unusually good landing ratio for me. I would have said the fishing was slow but others I have spoken to have said that its actually pretty good. In fairness I ownly fished for an hour or 2 in one spot – more for the sake of just having a cast than to seriously look for fish. Went back to the house to see how much cleaning and cooking my mum had done.

Havn’t written anything over the past week as I have been away up north near the Bay Of Islands where I am originally from, visiting my mother, doing some sea fishing and sorting out some things with the bach and boat. Took Will the X Club Habitat bar manager from Turangi up North with me and his girl Keri and had a great days diving and fishing on Monday. Took Will and Keri on a tour of the North on Tuesday up through the Russell state forest not far from the Bach to look at Kauri trees and then over the car ferry to Opua and up through the Bay Of Islands and up to visit my uncle in Mangonui and also to see Keri’s fathers bach at Taupo Bay. Stopped in at Keri Keri and the Bay Of Islands Swordfish club (where I am a member – though have never landed a marlin yet …) on the way back. Had un unsuccessful day on Wednesday – largely due to the strong winds disrubting the plans and were unable to get out after the Hapuka which was my main goal.

Having to tow my big boat – 23ft hard top aluminium down to Turangi tomorrow – mum wanted it off her front lawn in Whangarei. Hopefully not too much traffic – I get a little nervous towing it over the Auckland harbour bridge as some of the lanes are very narrow and the boat (often referred to as my baby) is maximimum width. Taking my mum down with me to hopefully catch a trout – and clean the house … though she doesn’t realize this yet!