Took my mate Carl Sawyer to a river I havn’t fished so far this season. Carl has been doing the big OE and was hanging out for some good fishing and is a keen trophy hunter with 11 under his belt before today. Left a little late this morning and had a quick feed courtesy of Subway on the way to this river where we had a half hour hike down through the bush to the river which is pretty easy wading. We ended the day with 6 landed out of 10 hooked of which Carl managed to land 5 out of his 7 hooked. The high point was this cracker weighed 10.5 lb rainbow taken on a pheasant tail in a deep pool. This was Carl’s biggest wild rainbow. Amongst the catch which totalled over 40 lbs from 6 landed fish were 2 nice brownies weighing in at 5.75 and 6.75 lbs.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: High

Cloud/Wind: A little wind and no cloud though a smoke haze over Turangi this afternoon from a forest fire on burn off somewhere.

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Anything brown or black and small

Fished some sacred water today with Ross Novak and Ross 2 from Alaska. We trekked 4 hours up a river yesterday through deep crossings, around slippery banks and bush-bashed up a ridge and down again which we avoided with a short swim on the way back. Yesterday we camped in a beautiful spot by the river and experienced a great evening rise. We caught a few trout yesterday afternoon but were more focused on exploring as far up this river as we could. This morning after a breakast of porridge and a cup of tea we started to fish in earnest. At first the fish were a little smaller than we had expected in the 3 – 5 lb bracket but after lunch we hit the jackpot. My voice is croaky at the moment from screaming up the river for the Ross’s to bring the @#$%* ..ing net and camera as when I saw the fish flip on its side in the shallows in front of me I realized it was probably over 10 lbs. Not being able to weigh or photograph it was a shame, but it was good to see it swim away to be hopefully caught again by someone in the future. Shortly after in a pool a little lower down I hooked what appeared to by a nice 8 lb (approximately) brownie. I again screamed for the camera and net and the duly chastised Ross & Ross came running to net and photograph what actually turned out to be a rainbow they estimated at a distance at around 6 lbs in comparison to some bigger fish they had “supposedly” caught in a lake the other day. When the fish came in I guessed it to be 2 – 3 lbs lighter than the unweighed fish and guessed it to be around 7 – 8 pounds. The scales said 9.5lbs with the net which I assumed to be wrong until we checked the scales digitally later at home which said they were actually weighing a pound light which was the weight of the net, hence the photo I have is of a 9.5lb rainbow which was checked 3 times before release. The photo doesn’t do the fish justice though as it only looks around 6 or 7 – photo coming when I get it off Ross’s camera.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Falling

Cloud/Wind: Clear skies with a little wind

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Pheasant tails.

A top performance by Frank and Natalie out heli-fishing today meant 9 landed out of 14 hooked plus another 2 missed on dry fly. The biggest were Franks 6 3/4 rainbow and a brownie of the same size. There were several others not too far behind. There were several fish that we saw considerably bigger and one that was just over the other side of a same making it impossible to get a drift to – though we tried of course. Natalie did well hooking 5 and managing to land 2 nice rainbows around the 5 lb mark. The conditions were perfect and really the day could not have been any better!

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Fallen but steady now

Cloud/Wind: A little

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: 16 Burgin Sawyers pheasant tail

A reasonable day on the Tongariro for Frank Oliver and Natlie today though the fishin gwas a little slower than it has been. Natalie hooked and landed her first ever on dry and Frank managed to land 4 out of 5 hooked on dry and missed a further 5 takes while Natlie only missed 1 other take. Frank also landed 1 and lost 5 nymphing. The fishing was slower today in this area and the swallows were noticable by there absence as was the lack of presence of any mayfly duns coming off today. Frank and Natalie still had a great time though which will hopefully be topped off tomorrow with fine weather and good heli-fishing – which reminds me to get my travel sick pills out as I sometimes get a bit green sitting in the back of a helicoptor in bad wind.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Falling

Cloud/Wind: Increasing

Water Temperature: 16.5C

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Kakahi Queen dry

Guided Frank Oliver and his friend Natalie today for day 3 of their New Zealand fly fishing vacation. Natalie managed a 100% success rate today landing a nice 3 pound rainbow and Frank landed 2 out of 9 hooked in a smaller back country stream which included this nice 4 pound brown trout.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Hight

Cloud/Wind: Little cloud and small amount of wind.

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: A little coloured in our river

Recommended Flies: Kauffmans flashback pheasant tail. Noticed a few sporadic rises which appeared to be caddis hits.

A perfect second day for Frank and Natalie. Frank started with an unlucky streak fishing river 3 beat b2. Frank lost his first 6 while Natalie landed 2 of her first 3 which included this nice 4 – 5 lb brownie. Natalie nearly landed an 8 lb brown which got off at the net and then got blown away by a 7 lb (approximately] rainbow – though Frank thought it looked bigger than her big brown. Frank managed to land 4 for the day out of 13 he hooked and Natalie managed to land 2 out of 7. The average size was around 4 lbs and several fish got off unseen. The conditions were perfect. The fish took anything ranging from Hare & Coppers to pheasant tails to stoneflys.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: High

Cloud/Wind: Nil

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Anything

A perfectly calm sunny day was the recipe today for a great first days ever fly fishing for Natalie from Warkworth and Frank Oliver from the USA. Natalie hooked a few this morning including this nice 3 pound brown. The more experienced Frank hooked and landed several of which the biggest landed was a rainbow over 3 lbs – though he was taken to the cleaners on several occassions. About to take them out for dry fly off the front lawn at Spot X fly fishing lodge.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Hight

Cloud/Wind: Little cloud and wind

Water Temperature: 21.5 river 4

River Conditions: Medium low and clearish

Recommended Flies: Sawyers pheasant tail

Camera was flat so couldn’t take any photos. Had a typical day catching recovery rainbows on the Tongariro with my mate Ross Wilson. Ross started fly fishing this year and is starting to really get to grips with it. Ross landed around 6 or 7 nymphing before getting his first of 2 landed out of 4 on dry fly. The fish were a little more finicky today not really liking my flies which were the usual Parachute Adams, as well as a rough tie of my Kakahi Queen Wulf. The one fly that did get no hesitation or refusals was a size 10 Parachute Twilight Beauty I tied last night – unfortunately after 3 seconds on the water it was engulfed by a rainbow which I landed but my tie didn’t have enough hackle and wouldn’t float afterwards. Colobrisus sp. were noticeble coming off today and I did see a few dun’s taken by rising trout. As you can probably tell – I have a thing for tying parachute flies at the moment due to my mate Ross Novak showing me a couple of new tricks that make them better, quicker, and easier like tying off to the post rather than the head and cementing around the base of the post to make it stiffer.

Tongariro Report

Barometer:

Cloud/Wind: Clear skies

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Sawyers pheasant tail

Back country fishing river 4 beat 7 down with the Parsons from Singapore today. Mark and Ginger had a great day as usual today hooking 13 good trout between them but had an unlucky spell of trout getting off with just the one landed! This landing ratio is not uncommon in this river as the fish are extremely hard fighting wild trout – born and raised in fast flowing oxygenated cool water. This photo is of the one landed and is 4 and a half pounds. Ginger hooked the biggest two I think, one of which was a 5 pound rainbow that went nuts and the other was a good brown in the 5-6 pound range. Unfortunately there were other fishermen fishing this beat which is unusual but did limit our options a little. Mark and Ginger were great company on the river and I hope to see them back next year.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rising

Cloud/Wind: Clear skies

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Greenish tinge but good visibility

Recommended Flies: Flashback pheasant tail

Fishing Diary

Have left my camera to computer connections at Spot X Lodge so no picture from todays spectacular dry fly session on the Tongariro. Both Mark and Ginger Parsons managed a fantastic first day of fly fishing the Taupo area. Mark landed 11 nice rainbows and Giner landed 9. Most of these were on dry fly with my new Kakahi Queen Wulff pattern turning up trumps. Plenty of fish were lost and plenty more rose to take the fly but were missed. The were Colobriscus humularis as well as Deleatidium Vernale coming mayfly duns hatching.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rising

Cloud/Wind: Raining this morning but clear with slight breeze now

Water Temperature: 12.5 Celcius

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Sawyers pheasant tail, Adams dries and Kakahi Queen