Fishing Diary

Another good day guiding the Weights from Australia today. Fish size was not huge with around half a dozen fish hooked over 2 pounds and the biggest landed being a rainbow of just under 4 pounds and another at 3 and a half pounds. There were also another half dozen hooked around 1 pound and a few others I don’t really count. The guys ended happy of course as there skill level has increased dramatically over the past couple of days. The photo is of James with a beautiful brownie of around 2 pounds.

Tongariro Report

Barometer:

Cloud/Wind: Cloud with a bit of rain and wind

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Slightly colored but lowish where we were

Recommended Flies: Flashback pheasant tail.

Fishing Diary

16.5 -5 R4JB. A Good first days fishing for the first day of Chris and James Weight’s 5 day 6 night guided fly fishing holiday out of Spot X Lodge. By all accounts I would have described the fishing as a little slower than I would have liked with 10 reasonable trout hooked between 1 to 4 pounds, a little patchy but better than I had expected given the conditions. Chris has fly fished a little before but his son James showed him how it was done today hooking 8 and landing 3. It was James first ever day fly fishing (lobbing artificial pallets on the end of a fly rod into a mates stocked pond doesn’t count) and he took to it like a duck to water and should enjoy some great fishing through the week provided the weather holds – though a little more rain would be useful.

Tongariro Report

Barometer:

Cloud/Wind: Some irritating wind today

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Flashback pheasant tails river 4 due to a little colour from the recent rain

An early start had Jan Lindbergs line in the water at around 7:30 out on a smaller back-country stream which unfortunately by 8am was a raging unfishable chocolate brown torrent. In the pouring rain Elisabeth was happy to find that the waders and breathable wading jacket kept her nice and warm and after one of my special coffees and a muffin we headed off to river 4 which was in better condition. The fishing was OK but certainly not firing on all cylinders an Jan managed to hook 6 and land 2 for the day which included a 3 pound rainbow and a 2 pound brown. The best trout we saw which basically blasted him off was a 4 – 5 pound rainbow. The temperature in river 4 had dropped considerably and the slow fishing was predicatable and expected though the only option given the weather and conditions. In all the Lindbergs appeared to have a great time and made the most of the conditions. Jan soon got into the groove of casting our heavier weighted nymphs around there were plenty of smiles and laughter thoughout the day which in the end is what it is all about!

Tongariro Report

Barometer:

Cloud/Wind:

Water Temperature: 16.5 river 4 down from 21.5

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies:

Picked up Dave Beede from Creel Lodge this morning for a mornings fishing on the Tongariro. The day started a little slow and Dave missed a strike before losing 1 and then successfully landing his first New Zealand trout -which is my requirement for clients before I allow them a cuppa (tea or coffee).

Dave then managed to land another 4 out of 4 nymphing to make 5 landed for nymphing and landed a further 3 on dry fly, 1 busted off on dry fly and twice as many missed on dry fly!

Dave was pretty good at casting which helped a bit as there were some reasonable gusts of wind to contend with.

Tongariro Report

Barometer:

Cloud/Wind:

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies:

Just completed an an annual wilderness heli-fishing reconnaisance trip with my fellow guide friend Mike Burgin and his father Ron – a New Zealand Fly Fishing living legend.

We had a great time in there (helped along by three casks of red wine) and hooked around 100 trout from 3 lbs to 8 or 9 lbs – I only weighed one on the last day at 8.5 but we had a few other good ones earlier in the week. There were a few other helicopters buzzing around from time to time but we only bumped into one other group of anglers on the river the whole week. They were hiking way further upstream and kindly lost a bag of oranges which got delivered further down the river to us later in the day.

Wish I’d taken my rifle as we came across as a I heard a red hind bark at me a few times yesterday.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Falling

Cloud/Wind: A little cloud

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Pheasant tails, hare and coppers, parachute adams