Picked up Scott from Lake Taupo Lodge this morning and headed to a back-country river near Taupo. After a few minutes of casting tuition Scott hooked and landed his first ever New Zealand trout on a dry fly. This was followed soon after by another – both around 3.5 pounds. Over the course of the day Scott managed to land 3 out of 7 hooked and had 15 takes on dry fly of which only 1 trout would have been below 3 pounds. Scott did fantastically well and was a very quick learner with casting. Scott managed some great skillful casts in some tight situations in this small beatiful back-country stream.

Tongariro Report

Barometer:

Cloud/Wind:

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies:

Another great day out guiding today, this time with the Pillings from South Africa in River 4. After staying at Spot X Lodge, I picked the Pillings up early and we headed out. The Pillings managed to land 6 out of 16 hooked – quite a reasonable landing ratio for this river believe it or not. The landed trout were all in the 4 to 5 pound range and mainly rainbows.

Tongariro Report

Barometer:

Cloud/Wind:

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: A little coloured and highish flow in river 4

Recommended Flies: Flashback pheasant tail

Stayed at Home most of the tying dry fly’s as it is that time of the year and I have little faith left in the strength and floatability of the brought ones. Went for a brief dry fly flick on the Tongariro and missed one take and landed the smallest fish that could possibly suck down a size 10 parachute Adams – around 4 inches long!

Tongariro Report

Barometer: High

Cloud/Wind: Little of either

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Seemed to have a color

Recommended Flies: Parachute Adams, Green humpys, Royal Wulfes

Went exploring today with Mike Burgin. Mike showed me a few access points of his near Taupo, I will show him mine later – access points that is! Increased our tally on one river to 5 access points from 1 giving far more scope if their is other fishermen in the top beat. Finised up with a little lake fishing where we each had 6 takes and Mike landed 1 small one and myslef one small and one of around 5 – 6 pounds.

Tongariro Report

Barometer:

Cloud/Wind:

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: 16 flash back pheasant tail

Guided Chad and Brenda today from Oregon. Picked up Chad and Brenda this morning from the 5 star River Birches Lodge as the rain continued to pour in much the same manner it had over-night and for the rest of Chad and Brendas New Zealand holiday. The weary couple from Oregon had arrived in New Zealand a week or two earlier and had managed to have a bad spell of weather following them around the country which had put the Tongariro Crossing plans in Jeopardy and forced them to fly fish a day earlier than planned. All the rivers were coming up in flood so we fished a couple of other options which for the first hour or two saw the couple get very wet. Around morning tea time we dropped Brenda off to warm up a bit in the hot tub at River Birches and headed to a spot not affected by rain where Brad managed to pull in his first New Zealand Rainbow trout on a dry fly. Later on the fishing picked up as expected and Brad manged to Hook another 5, landing another two including this one at just under seven pounds!

Tongariro Report

Barometer:

Cloud/Wind:

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies:

Drove for a considerable amount of time and found several other rivers to explore, but the one that my anonymous friend wished to explore turned up trumps. Though we only landed 2 each due to the difficulty of the fishing, the fish numbers were incredible. I would guess we encountered around 30 – 40 trout in around 500 meters of water in a relatively small stream. In fact my friend made the comment that you would only normally expect this higher fish numbers in a hatchery. The fishing was extremely challenging due to the clear shallow water – but then the challenge is what it is all about!

Tongariro Report

Barometer:

Cloud/Wind:

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: 16 Sawyers pheasant tail, 14 Parachute Adams

Went out on Lake Taupo with my friends today to take the boat for a run. After traveling up to the western bays and Waihaha, we found very little action with Johan catching a couple of small ones stripping smelt flies. There did not appear to be trout or smelt in any of the areas we were in.

Tongariro Report

Barometer:

Cloud/Wind: Calm, little breeze

Water Temperature: 18C on Lake Taupo at Western Bays

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies:

Fishing Diary

Another great day for the Weights. I gave the guys a few options and it was decided to attempt to get a trophy despite the possibility of not hooking a fish all day. In the end 5 nice rainbows were hooked and 4 landed weighing 6.33, 6, 5.75 and 4.25 pounds. The high point for me was finding my sage rod that got accidentally flushed down a rapid. We found it 50 meters further down below a rapid later – lucky!

Tongariro Report

Barometer:

Cloud/Wind: Cloudy but little wind

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Sawyers pheasant tail

Fishing Diary

A great day today for the Weights from Australia. With both James and Chris’s skill levels now reaching a pretty handy level. The day got off to a slow start with both Chris and James loosing a couple including Chris loosing a rainbow over 8 pounds and quite possibly a trophy over 10 pounds. We had the fish inches from the net before it made one last attempt to get away and succeeded. In the end the guys managed to land 7 out of 14 hooked + missed a couple of definite takes (not the bottom). The average size was around 5 pounds with only one fish below 4 pounds at around 3 and a half being the only non weighed fish landed. The next smallest was 4 and a 1/4 and the biggest landed was a 6 and 1/4 brown. The photo of James here is with a 5 and 3/4 rainbow.

Tongariro Report

Barometer:

Cloud/Wind:

Water Temperature: 14 in river 3

River Conditions: Some color and above low flow

Recommended Flies: Pheasant tails

Despite a lot of walking getting in the morning to get to a wilderness beat, the guys actually ended up with quite a bit of fishing time and thanks to their fast improving skills managed to land 2 out of 9 hooked which included hooking several rainbows sight fished on dry fly averaging around 2 kilos. James managed to land 2 that each weighed 4 and a half pounds.

Tongariro Report

Barometer:

Cloud/Wind: Cleared during the course of the day, a little wind

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: 10 Parachute adams