Took my mate Ross Wilson from Northpower fishing today on the Tongariro. It is Ross’s 6th go at fly fishing and he is starting to get the hang of it. By that I mean I had to tell him to shorten up his cast so he could obtain a controllable drift through the hot spot rather than casting to the other side. He is getting to the stage where he feels the pleasure of casting nearly as much as hooking trout. Ross had his best morning on the Tongariro this morning hooking around a dozen good rainbows averaging over 3 pounds and he did this all completely unassisted. The photo here is of Ross attempting dry fly for the first time. Unfortunately we caught nothing as dry fly hasn’t really been starting until around 2pm which will now by 3pm with daylight saving.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Falling

Cloud/Wind: Very windy and cloudy with some showers

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Sawyers pheasant tail

Went fishing a few spots with Mike Burgin and Ross Wilson today. Caught a lot of smaller fish and Ross lost his first ever potential trophy rainbow that took the size 18 pheasant tail and just didn’t stop its deep run.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Falling

Cloud/Wind:

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Sawyers Pheasant tail, hare and copper

Went fishing today with Mike Burgin to some of his secret guiding spots. We had a great day though the fishing wasn’t as hot as Mike had experienced yesterday in the same area. This photo is of a nice 6 pound brown trout which I landed on a sawyers pheasant tail. Mike landed a nice rainbow and we each lost several more as well as landing, missing, and being busted by several others during the evening rise. We had a lot of fun on the evening rise switching flies around until we finally found the right one. For a while we had only had one touch and then with one more pattern change suddenly I had 4 strikes in as many minutes and when Mike put the same fly on we were both getting hit consistently. It is unusual to have to match the hatch so accurately around here.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rising

Cloud/Wind: A little wind with clear skys

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Sawyers pheasant tail. Still a lot of Deleatidium Myzobranchia about.

22CMGB. Guided the Patersons again today on the Tauranga-Taupo river and had 15 hook and plays plus one dink which James was counting but I wasn’t. The guys had a great day in good conditions and were both fishing very well unassisted by the end of the day while their guide had a snooze. I decided rather than just putting another grip and grin photo in of a client with a trout to show some reality with this supurb tangle here by James. I don’t know quite how he managed to get a tangle in the backing but the cheeky grin and tangle makes a classic photo to me!

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rising

Cloud/Wind: Clear skies with reasonably strong winds

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Kauffmans flashback pheasant tail.

Guided the Patersons from Australia again today and had another great day with 18 hookups which included one on the evening rise. James wants me to note that he did outfish his father today, 17 to 2, but Bill wants to say it was all down to him giving James the good spots – who do you believe? The photo here is of James’ best one landed today at 4 and 1/4 pounds.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Risen sigificantly

Cloud/Wind: Very windy and 50% cloudy

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Sayers pheasant tail, elkhair or goddards caddis on evening rise.

Fished different areas of the Tongariro will Bill and James. Spent time working on casting and sight fishing. Bill and James each landed 3 nice rainbow trout of which 1 each was on dry fly. We had around another half dozen missed takes on dry, and James dropped 2 others after short fights nymphing. A good hatch occurred again from 2pm till 4:30, this time I managed to catch one of the Deleatidium Myzobranchia imagas to confirm the hatch.

All in all a nice day out, and the guys are looking forward to some more variation tomorrow as I like to keep things interesting by visiting different rivers and sections of rivers. May even do a little wet lining and Czech nymphing.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Low

Cloud/Wind: Showers, litle wind, mainly overcast

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Sawyers pheasants tail, 14 adams

Started early this morning guiding Bill and James Paterson today from Australia on the Tongariro. Had great day, the guys had done a little fly fishing before but were yet to catch the first trout on fly until this morning that is! Bill kicked off with a nice fresh rainbow and then son James followed up with three more. We decided to head back around 3:30 as the guys had to be somewhere by 4:30 but encountered some rising fish which no fisherman in the their right mind could refuse. An hour later we had had 7 takes on the dry, hooking 2, landing 1, and missing 2 due to a broken Umpqua supposed Tempco hook! In the end the guys landed around a dozen out of 16 hookups I think. Not a bad introduction to trout fishing in New Zealand.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Steady low

Cloud/Wind: Cloudy and a little wind and odd showers

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Sayyers pheasant tail, Royal Wulff, Parachute Adams size 14

Went Jigging this afternoon with Gordon a friend of mine from Tokaanu and caught nothing but fresh air. Its getting to that time of year and rumour has it that the fish have been starting to get caught jigging but my guess would be the that it is still probably pretty patchy and you will either have to go way out western bays or fish the Tongariro Delta. It was a fanstically calm day though and the boat needed a run. There were a few small fish splashing around out off the old Tokaanu wharf that I thought would have been smelting but they may also have been after a brown beetle that is quite prolific at the moment – hard to know without dissecting one.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Fallen

Cloud/Wind: Overcast with the odd light shower but no wind

Water Temperature: 13.2 degrees celsius at the southern end of the lake

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Sawyers pheasant tail

Went exploring some new water with Mike Burgin today half an hour from Taupo. We hooked 3 smallish fish but couldn’t really get upstream or downstream so had to give up and write that spot off though there are a couple of other access points to explore and we did collect a couple of farmers details for a future mission.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Falling

Cloud/Wind: No wind with some showers

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Sawyers pheasant tail, early brown dry, elkhair caddis in the evenings.

Fished the Tongariro with Mike Burgin today and had a good days fishing. We eached pulled several out nymphing early in the day and then Mike landed one out of 8 takes we had on dry fly in the afternoon in a secret location not to be mentioned – but pictured here is Mike with the fish hooked on dry! Still getting a hatch from around 2pm to 3pm and still guessing at Deleatium Myzobranchia though couldn’t catch one. Hooked one on Kakahi Queen and another on an adams both size 14.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Falling

Cloud/Wind: Cloudy with no wind

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Sawyers Pheasant tail, early brown dry