There is no doubt that the fish are smaller this year - I would guess about a pound smaller on average i.e. I would guess the average to be just below 3 pounds. The only possible logical reason for this is lack of food in lake Taupo which would suggest that for some reason the smelt arn’t there in great size or abundance. DOC are trying to say that it is due to the fish spawning later and later but this does not make sence as the fish that were getting caught this time last year and in all previous years were a lot bigger. The fish have been around the same size for the last few months and I would predict the size to be quite small right up to September - the supposed new peak spawning time. How can you say the fish are getting smaller because they are spawning later and don’t have as much time to grow - 2 years is 2 years whether it is September to September or June to June! Either natural weather conditions will have caused the smelt situation or human factors like the posibility of fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides such as 1080 finally reaching levels that could be effecting algae growth in the lake or whatever smelt feed on. Noticably a lot of the fish arn’t exactly fat either!

Fished today with some friends from TALTAC all over the place and between us probably hooked around 15 or 20 for the day. Lots of other anglers around. Conditions are pretty good both in the Tauranga-Taupo and the Tongariro. I was disappointed to see other fishermen again fishing a lye that I thought no-one knew about - Oh well I guess I will just have to go fishing some more and look for some new lyes - its a hard life!