Guided Ian, Jeff, and Peter from Melbourne today on the mighty Tongariro and though the main emphasis was to learn single handed spey casting, the guys still managed a few good trout as well. I spent the morning teaching the guys the single handed versions of double spey and snap T and for the most part had the flies reversed around to not catch any fish – but forgot to reverse the flies on my own rod which Peter was using and managed to land a couple of good Rainbows with. After lunch the guys used the casts in a practical sense and hooked a further dozen Rainbows.

Went fishing today up the Tauranga Taupo with my good friend and colleauge from the South Island Chappie Chapman. We had a great day starting relatively late and getting back early and still hooking 13 nice rainbow trout beween us. The flow was still a little high so the fishing was pretty good really and the company superb. Catching trout and telling yarns with Chappie was a great way to spend my 35th birthday.

kkk 

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rising

Cloud/Wind: Windy

Flow: 64 Cumecs / .65

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Green

Recommended Flies: Glow Bugs.

Picked up Warren and James Walker from Turangi’s 5 star River Birches today for their first attempt at fly fishing in New Zealand. We were meant to go yesterday but a flood in the river meant fishing was delayed for a day. The guys managed a good morning landing 3 out 4 hooked. The fourth fish hooked by James was not going to come in and decided to head back down river to Lake Taupo over some rapids which I was reluctant to traverse with James in the high flow!

Heard mixed reports of other people on the rivers. Most were struggling or catching a few fish but one report was for quite high numbers which is a good sign!

kkk 

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rising

Cloud/Wind: No significant wind

Flow: 65 cumecs

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Green

Recommended Flies: Size 10 Salmon egg and flame glow bugs.

Guided Roger King today and conditions were pretty much perfect. Had a reasonably successful day with Roger landing 10 out of 13 hooked. There didn’t seem to be as many trout around as this time last year but the fishing was still OK with most people we came across having caught a few. Spent some time later after fishing showing Roger the “Tongariro Roll Cast” which I think he has picked the basics up of fairly quickly. Roger has been having some Spey Casting lessons with Chappie Chapman and I think this definitley helped a lot. I even picked up a minor adjustment to make on my Snap T from Roger.

Most reports on the Tongariro are for hard fishing. Several experienced anglers that I have spoken to have been catching far less and far smaller than they have in past years. I suspect the reason for the low numbers is that the season is probably even later again this year due to the long dry summer. I have noticed the fish in the past few weeks do seem to be smaller again than what they were a month ago for some reason.

kkk 

Tongariro Report

Barometer: No Change

Cloud/Wind: No significant wind

Flow:

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Sawyers Pheasant Tail and Hare & Copper.

Went for a brief fish up the Tauranga-Taupo river this afternoon with my friend Johan Kok and Johan managed two while I managed 1. Saw 4 others caught but certainly appeared to be slow up there. Most reports from the Tongariro are for fairly average fishing at the moment as well. Should be better when the flow drops away.

kkk 

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rising

Cloud/Wind: Frost this morning and windy this afternoon

Flow: .63 39 cumecs

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Green – clear

Recommended Flies: Glow bugs.

Picked up Ken and Carlee Paterson this morning from Turangi’s 5 star River Birches Lodge for their first ever attempt at fly fishing. Being a Saturday morning we did a couple of hours before breakfast where Ken managed to hook and land his first trout on fly. After a quick breakfast and coffee back at River Birches we headed to a new spot where Ken hooked and landed another 4 and Carlee hooked but unfortunately lost another 2 completely unaided making the 7 hooked and 5 landed between the two for the morning.

kkk 

Tongariro Report

Barometer: No Change

Cloud/Wind: Windy and cold with snow down to low level on Pihanga

Flow: 43 Cumes

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Clear green

Recommended Flies: Sawyers Pheasant Tail and size 16 Salmon egg and flame glowbugs.

Picked up Gerry Foster and Chris Poynter this morning from Turangi’s 5 star River Birches Lodge for their first attempt ever at fly fishing. Conditions were OK and Gerry soon hooked and landed her first trout shortly followed by Chris. In the end between them they landed 5 out of 5 which was pretty good going. Talking to some friends at TALTAC afterwards it seemed a few people were struggling yesterday though I do know of one or two who did quite well.

kkk 

Tongariro Report

Barometer: No Change

Cloud/Wind: No significant wind

Flow: 39 – 34 cumecs

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Green

Recommended Flies: Sawyers Pheasant Tail and small glow bugs.

Went for a walk up the TT this morning to see how things have been affected in the lower areas since the last flood. Never touched a fish myself but mainly walked rather than fished. Eventually came across another fisherman from Wellington who had caught a few – a landed a couple while I was watching and had already had a half dozen on his way up. Mixed results from others I saw. Am guessing the fishing was probably good first thing in the morning but with dozens of people walking by and hitting all the likely spots it was probably getting pretty thrashed by 10 or 11am.

Fished a couple of hours on the Tongariro yesterday and landed 2 from 8 hooked. Certainly no shortage of fish in either river. A few people are still complaining about the size of the trout not measuring up to previous years but to me there does seem to be some better ones around than last year.

kkk 

Tongariro Report

Barometer: No Change

Cloud/Wind: Strong winds from South

Flow: 33 cumecs

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Clearing

Recommended Flies: Sawyers Pheasant Tail and Hare & Copper.

Guided Allan Cliffe and Schalk today on the Tongariro. Both were experienced fly fishermen and Allan was an experienced Tongariro fishermen which made life easy for me – and learnt another good wet lining trick from Allan also. The guys managed to land some good fish amongst the 8 landed from 15 hooked – 5 of which were on the wet line. Allan also landed another which was foul hooked hence I didn’t count it and there were a couple of others hooked as I demonstrated as well which weren’t counted in the tally. So all in all the fishing was quite reasonable considering we probably didn’t start until somewhere between 9 and 10, and the Tongariro was still above 40 cumecs all day.

kkk 

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rishing

Cloud/Wind: A bit of wind making casting a little difficult at times

Flow: 43 cumecs

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Green

Recommended Flies: Sawyers Pheasant Tail and Hare & Copper.

Picked up Peter and Anne from Riverway General Store And Outfitters this afternoon for a few hours fly fishing the Tongairo. Peter claimed to have very little experience at fly fishing but soon prooved he was very modest about his “fishing” experience, never once getting in a tangle. There were a huge number of other fishermen out but fortunatley there were a few trout around and Peter managed to land 2 out of 5 hooked for the afternoon.

kkk 

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Just starting to fall a little

Cloud/Wind: No significant wind

Flow: 41 cumecs

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Green and clearing

Recommended Flies: Glow bugs and Hare & Coppers.