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.