Just got back from an over-night trip to the Cavalli Islands with my soon to be brother in law. Rather than the traditional stag night of getting drunk and handcuffed naked to a flag pole, Mike opted for the more exiting and less embarrassing option of a fishing trip. Conditions were a little windy overall but we managed to locate several new pins holding fish. North of the Bay Of Islands the water was alive with kahawai schools today. We hooked into several nice Kingies over the two days, landing 2 of around 15kg and one of 20kg plus numerous smaller ones. Mike also managed a good snapper whilst Mechanical Jigging. In the evening anchored up in the lee of an island we were stunned when without berley and just one bait over the side and the rum and whisky just opened – Mikes line screamed out and he managed to pull in a nice snapper of around 8lbs. We thought this was a great omen of things to come for the evening when we deployed burley, but with phosphorescense in the water after dark the fishing slowed and when managed only another half dozen nice pannie snapper and 2 or 3 bust offs.

Fished the Tongariro today with the Phils and it wasn’t long before Phil Norman had landed his first trout of many for the day. We fished one main pool concentrating predominantly on casting tuition for his uncle Phil who did fantastically and was already an expert and mending after 3 days fishing. After lunch we moved up river and hooked and lost 2 further trout out of different lies before hitting a couple of lies back near town resulting in another 5 hookups for Phil Norman and one for his uncle to make 7 landed from 13 hooked for the day.

The condition of the trout did appear to be better than last year and there didn’t seem to be a shortage of numbers either so it seems the fishing is on the mend and I look forward to seeing how the size improves over the next couple of years – hopefully back to a normal 4 lb average.

River levels had receded a little from the previous day so I picked the Phil’s up and headed out to a back-country river which was still a little high and coloured but fishable. It wasn’t long before Phil Norman managed to hook and lose his first trout. Then another 3, and then Phil Norman managed to lose one before placing a perfect cast to hard feeding Brown Trout that refused a dry several times before taking the nymph offered to him after just a couple of casts. Phil Normans uncle Phil then managed a nice brown, and Phil Norman another Nice 5 lb brown and a smaller 2 lb rainbow to make 4 landed from 13 hooked for the day.

Picked up Phillip Norman and his Uncle Phillip (by marriage) this morning to fish flooded conditions. Phillips Uncle hereby referred to as Phil managed his first New Zealand trout on the second cast – it was an awkward spot to cast and unfortunately I had to assist with the casting in the morning due to the difficult spot we were fishing. It wasn’t long before Phil had landed most of the 6 or 7 trout he hooked for the morning with Phillip Norman not far behind.

In the afternoon we fished a different river which had receded a bit after the previous nights flood and hooked another 5, landing 3 of these to make a total of 16 hookups for the day.

Picked up Peter Neil this morning from Turangi’s only 5 star Lodge – River Birches – for a day of fishing. Conditions were a little off with a lot of rain over-night – something Peter is completely familiar with after numerous trips to New Zealand. We did manage to find some back-country water that was fishable and while the fishing wasn’t ‘red hot’, Peter did manage to land several nice trout in the 3 to 5lb range after hooking ten. I would guess that Peter is fast becoming one of Australia’s foremost experts in fishing flooded New Zealand rivers!

Went out back-country fishing today with fellow Turangi/Taupo guide and friend Bryce Curle. Conditions were a little flooded around the areas we went to explore so we fished a bit of water that we guide – normally we don’t fish over guiding water – and had a ball with 14 hookups on good sized 4 to 5lb trout out of 2 pools over 3 hours in the afternoon!