Fishing Diary

Mike Burgin, Anglers Anonymous other guide, took Simon from Australia on river 13 beat 1 today and had a fantastic day as expected. Simon hooked a mixed bag of around 15 or 16 rainbows and browns and landed about half of these ranging from 2 pounds to 4 pounds. Several were stalked and sighted and some taken on dry fly.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Falling

Cloud/Wind:

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Tongariro high due to dam release today

Recommended Flies: Size 10 Royal Wulfe, hare & copper and 16BSPT (16 Burgin Sawyers Pheasant Tail!!!!)

Another great day today guiding Chris who is a fisheries Biologist currently working out of Pago Pago in American Samoa. Chris wanted to chase some of New Zealand browns. Where he comes from 12 inches is a trophy and I assured him we could probably better that here. To be honest the brownies were a little thin today – normally the ration in the river we fished – river 4 beat 3, is around 3 rainbows per 1 brown but it took us until the 21st hookup to finally land a brown! The fish size and condition was excellent today averaging around 4 pounds with the biggest weighed at 5 and a quarter. The high point was the last fish landed, which was the 22nd hookup out of 23 which was a brownie feeding at the head of a pool in a few inches of water which we sight fished and took on a size 12 parachute adams dry fly. Chris is staying at Spot X tonight and has just finished a few beers while watching another great evening rise – though he is fished out!

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Falling

Cloud/Wind: Little wind or cloud

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Hare and coppers and sawyers pheasant tails

Fishing Diary

Had a chance to go exploring new water today. Couldn’t get hold of the first two farmers I wanted to speak to for access on one river so went to another river and spoke to farmer I know there. They told me of a couple more access points off their farm. The first one turned out to be pretty but left me gorged both upstream and down so after landing one nice rainbow I hit the second spot which took me to a fantastic rarely fished piece of water that wasn’t exactly easy to get to. Firstly I got gorged upstream after landing 1, then I manage to catch one in a small tributary after about half a mile of walking so turned back and went downstream of my entry point and hit the jackpot finding a lot of excellent water full of trout. Caught several, got busted on more than one occasion and left feeling pretty darn satisfied. Later on I went exploring further into another area on a different river again and will venture further in the next few weeks when I return with a slasher to cut away a little of the blackberry which stopped me going further today.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Steady high

Cloud/Wind: Little cloud or wind

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Black bead hare and copper

Fishing Diary

Had great fun today fishing with a couple of my mates out back-country. Fished some water I often fished and found it had been fairly well fished by many other anglers today and yesterday. Can’t be helped at public access areas but I still prefer to have the river to myself of course. Ross who is new to fly fishing did well hooking 4 and landing 3, Johan landed around 4 from 8 and me 4 from 6. The fish were mostly around the 4 to 5 pound mark and included a good mixed bag of Rainbow and Brown trout. Just got back in this evening from checking out some new private access water with Charlie at Spot X and it was pretty good. Without waders and just sharing one rod, in around half an hour and very little water I lost 1 on nymph and Charlie landed 1 on nymph, I then missed a take on dry and eventually got the fish which I suspect was taking delitidium vernale – caught on my new version of a parachute Dads Favourite.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rising

Cloud/Wind: Great conditions clear and little wind

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: A little colour river 4 and more river 3

Recommended Flies: Pheasant tail, hare and copper

Fishing Diary

Picked up Karen, Kate and Paul from River Birches this morning for a couple of hours fishing on the Tongariro. The guys and girls all managed to land at least one nice rainbow trout with Karen landing two and Paul loosing a couple as well. The photo here is with the Managers of River Birches taken in the Kitchen whilst having a gourmet lunch made by Marilyn of River Birches. Guiding was good fun today as usual but the highlight was definitely the lunch!

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rishing

Cloud/Wind: Cloudy now with no wind

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

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

All the rivers around Taupo are full of trout at the moment and providing great sport. Went fishing with my mate and fellow guide Mike Burgin this afternoon and hooked around 30 between us in the Tauranga-Taupo river. There were trout visible everywhere you looked.

Later in the evening I had a beer with a friend Andy from TALTAC down at the Bridge Pool and witnessed a fantastic evening rise with good sized trout eveywhere smashing emerging caddis. there was quite a few people down there fishing the evening rise which is great to see. It makes a change to see people using the Tongariro for dry fly.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rising

Cloud/Wind: Overcast with no wind

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Cased caddis, pheasant tails, elkhair caddis in evening, small glowbugs where fish won’t take pheasant tail, hare & coppers

Guiding Nick from the USA today on the Tongariro and had another cracker day. The conditions were fine but windy and the water was clear yet Nick who is quite an experienced fly fisherman managed to land 24 out of 38 hooked including several sighted, stalked, and taken on dry fly. The photo here was not the best fish of the day but was taken on dry, though the fish actually took it under the water after the fly had been sucked down in the swirly water!

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rising

Cloud/Wind: Clear skys but very windy

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Sawyers pheasant tail, cased caddis, black-bead hare and copper, size 14 Dads favourite.

Had a great few hours out testing the Tongariro today with Mike as we both have had a few days local guiding and haven’t been on the Tongariro for a few days. The fishing was awesome. The first pool, which is my normal beginners spot was fishing well and we each quickly hooked 3 or 4 within 15 minutes. We then headed down river a bit and were stunned so early in the day to see trout rising everywhere. I had my first cast at a rising rainbow and it quickly engulfed the Adam’s dry I had borrowed from Mike. From then on it got tougher – the trout were still rising but not to our flies. As there were a heap of Deleatidium Vernale mayflies coming off I will assume the reason for a lack of success was our lack of, or rather complete absence of Dad’s Favourites in the fly box since Mike borrowed my last one a couple of weeks earlier and left it in the mouth of a trout! Shortly after giving up on the dry, Mike slayed them and I caught a few. And one stage Mike was around 15 hooked from 15 casts.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Steady

Cloud/Wind: Clear and windy

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Sawyers pheasant tail as always but also a cased caddis pattern as shown here and Dad’s Favourite dry in size 14 or 16.

.52 – .51. Took the Murphy family from New Zealand out today for their first annual adventure. This was the first ever try at fly fishing for trout and a great day was had. In total 11 nice rainbow trout were landed out of 17 hooked. This is Ben with the nicest of the day at around 3 and a half pounds. A lot of the fish were recoveries but still great fun.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rising

Cloud/Wind: Sunny mostly but very windy

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Slightly green but clearing TT

Recommended Flies: Champagne and flame glow-bug

Ventured into some new terrain further up a river that Mike Burgin used to guide years ago. The fishing was relativey tough in the gorgey section and we found more fish lower down in the more braided section. Sighting them was pretty tough due to the recent rain but we could still make out a few feeding away hard. We each hooked a few and landed a few in the one to 4 pound range. The high point for me was seeing a hunter coming out down the track on horse-back with two deer strapped to the front. I commented to him that it looked like he’d had a great morning. He muffled something about it being pretty normal and continued on his way while I watched in awe! When I go hunting I am happy to shoot 1 in a week! I just wished I had thought to pull out the camera and snap a photo for this blog.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rising

Cloud/Wind: No cloud and wind receding but cold southerly

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Clearing

Recommended Flies: Hair and copper where we were rather than pheasant tail indicating likely preference for caddis over mayfly.