Fishing Diary

After working all day on my friends guiding web site I needed to get my daily fix of fishing so walked down the road to the Tongariro for a couple of hours fishing before dark. The fishing was fantastic, hooked around 14 or 15 fish of reasonable size, all bar 1 or 2 were legal size meaning over 18 inches. Most of the fish were fresh run with only a couple of recoveries in amongst them.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Fallen today

Cloud/Wind: Calm with a little wind

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Sawyers pheasant tail and black bead hare and copper

Four great days fishing came to an end yesterday a little after 5 in the Hydro Pool of the Tongariro as Philip hooked is 100th wild New Zealand trout. After being picked up at 4pm from work last Thursday by his wife, Philip got on a plane bound for Hamilton and was fishing here on Friday morning. Four fabulous days fishing came to an end as Philip was practising a new cast I had just taught him called a Snap-T which is a spey cast. Philip hooked 5 in the last hour or so at the hydro pool while practising this cast, not bad for an Aussie!

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Risen slighty over night

Cloud/Wind: Cloudy, raining, no wind

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Small glow bugs first thing in the morning and in the evening, sawyers pheasant tail the rest of the day – under a hair and copper tungsten bomb of course, early brown drys for rising fish in the afternoon and partridge spider truck and trailered to an elkhair or goddards caddis in the evenings

Yet another fantastic day with Philip today on the Tongariro, had hooked 20 by morning tea and then 30 by lunch. After lunch we hooked one more before I left Philip to do some fishing on his own and he managed another 1 nymphing and another one on dry fly in the evenings – this is hookups and not landed fish.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Steady

Cloud/Wind: Cloudy with reasonable amount of rain today

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Flashback pheasant tail, glow bugs.

Guided Philip Norman again on a Taupo tributary today and hooked 20 + 2 foul hooked, landing 9, averaging 4 pounds. Philip was rightfully stoked with the day as you can imagine.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rising

Cloud/Wind: Cloudy but should be clear tomorrow – clear and starie tonight, light northerly winds.

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Flasback pheasant tail

Had a fantastic days fishing with Philip Norman from Brisbane today. After finishing work in Brisbane at 4pm yesterday, Philip got on a plane and headed to Hamilton airport. He reached Spot X in the early hours of the morning and was up having breakfast by 9:00 and by 10am we were fishing the Tongariro. By lunch Philip had hooked 10 and by dark Philip had hooked 25 landing 14 of which the biggest was 4 and a 1/4 pounds ant the average around 2.5 pounds – about normal for this year but a pound under normal for the Tongariro. The photo here was of a fish Philip caught just before dusk weighing 3 and a quarter, unfortunately my new camera ran out of storage place and I couldn’t find the delete button in time to snap a few photos of his biggest for the day. Philip is a pretty good caster and can wack out a fair distance and this was cerainly advantage today.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Falling

Cloud/Wind: Cloudy all day with reasaonably irritating wind

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear though rain was predicted it hasn’t arrived yet!

Recommended Flies: Flashback pheasant tail and black bead tungsten hare and copper.

After catching up on paperwork this morning I went out for a fish with my mate Marcel Ryda another guide from Taupo. Marcel hooked 3 on the wetline in a spot of mine with my rod and my flies, while I had none on the nymph. Later we went up river and Marcel hooked 4 landing 1 on nymphs and I hooked 3 landing 1 old jack that had a few battle scars on it. Pictured here is Marcel.

Tongariro Report

Barometer:Falling

Cloud/Wind:Calm in the morning and windy in the afternoon, some cloud.

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies:Partidge spiders, size 14 to 18 pheasant tails – Marcel hooked two of his on 18’s. Saw a couple of rises and just like yesterday, deleatidium myzobranchia were coming off after 2pm.

Fished the hydro pool on the Tongariro this morning and landed one smallish fish. Later on in the afternoon I was wet lining for a bit of variety when I noticed a hatch occurring and a few fishing rising. Not being ready for this I rushed home to grab my 6 weight as my 5 is away being repaired and I sold my other 5 recently because I didn’t like it. Couldn’t quite catch any of the mayflies coming off to see exactly what they were, but guessing from a distance and by the time of year deleatidium myzobranchia (should use an Early Brown dry according to Norman Marsh’s book “Trout Stream Insects Of New Zealand”). Caught one small rainbow pictured here with the fly still in its mouth – a size 14 Kakahi Queen named by the postmaster who created the fly years ago fishing a river not far from here and mainly designed to immitate collies (Coloburiscus humarlis) though I suspect the brought versions I had in my box arn’t really what the designer had in mind. Never mind fortunately there are normally one or two silly trout around here that will slash at anything when in the right mood and it wasn’t really the right fly for the situation anyway.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Steady and reasonably high

Cloud/Wind: Calm in the mornings of late with wind getting up around lunch time

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Most likely Deleatidium Myzobranchia coming off so take a few Early Brown drys with you as well as your normal nymphs i.e. sawyers pheasant tails and hair and coppers.

Tested some new water today, well actually down stream of a usual area and hooked 5 mainly smaller fish but good fun. Went to the hydro pool to practice spey casts later and landed one nice rainbow trout on the first cast and then nothing for the next hour. The photo here is of a gentleman fishing below me who caught this small but feisty recovering rainbow on a wet line. A recovering fish in normally thin and darker as it has done is spawning thing is basically had it but will hopefully recover enough condition to survive and make it back out to the lake.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rising

Cloud/Wind: Clear this morning with some cloud developing later in the day

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Caught one on the gold tungsten beaded hair and copper bomb today and one on a champagne and flame glowbug.

Had another good day out guiding Ernie Greatorex. Ernie hooked and lost 3 this morning before finally getting his first Tongariro trout to the shore in the next pool. Ernie then lost another and landed another before we changed tactics and moved to another area where in tight circumstances Ernie pulled three fresh run rainbow trout out in 3 casts including his personal best ever rainbow of just under 4 pounds and another one near his personal best at just under 3 and a half pounds. Ernie then hooked and lost another to end the day on 5 landed from 10 hookups. Not bad for an Aussie!

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Dropped again signifcantly and dropping further. The fish have realized and I have already noticed a lot of fresh fish in the lower reaches of the local rivers today.

Cloud/Wind: Overcast with slight wind

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Early on pheasant tails but as we moved lower down river then champagne and flame glowbugs were taking the fresh run rainbows, even in the clear conditions

Guided Ernie Greatorex today for his first go at fly fishing New Zealand and had a great day out. After an early 6am getaway Ernie kicked off with landing 1 of 2 nice rainbows hooked in the first pool and followed up out of the next pool with another. Ernie is a pretty good caster and should go well on the Tongariro tomorrow – fingers croseed though as fishing is fishing! By the end of the day, Ernie had his first ever brown trout caught on fly which was a little over 3 and a quarter pounds, a tough mark to beat back in his local rivers back home in Australia according to Ernie. We tried to beat his personal best rainbow of 3 and a half pounds but managed to land 4 ranging from 2 and 3 quarters to 3 and a quarter though Ernie did lose a few – 7 in fact so chances are his personal best rainbow was probably amongst them! Got to put the record straight though and state that he only lost one due to his error and all of the fish bar 2 were landed on 4 pound line so he actually did pretty well! Being an Australian though I preffered to rub in the landing ratio without mentioning that he only actually bust 1 and the rest just pulled the hooks – friendly sporting rivalry in all! In all 12 were hooked and played, 5 landed and two other brief takes that didn’t stick

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Dropping

Cloud/Wind: A fair bit of cloud today with a bit of sun occasionally and light but fishable winds

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Clear in the Tongariro, but fairly coloured where we were. 24

Recommended Flies: Kaufmanns size 14 flashback pheasant tail and partrige spider version also. Got one on Black Bead hair and copper but would have to say fish were more oriented towards mayfly nymphs today.