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:

Another great day for James Vanderhoof from California yet again today. To give some different scenery we went into a wilderness fishery targeting the big ones with the possibility of getting none. James however pulled though managing to land 1 out of 5 hooked. 3 of the 4 that got off were 8 pound + browns, one was unseen and then there was this superb rainbow at just over 7 pounds. The last brown took a dry towards the end of the day but then the bought dry fly hook broke!

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Steady

Cloud/Wind: Blue sky clouded over this afternoon

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Clear we we were

Recommended Flies: Hare & copper, Sawyers pheasant tail

Took Brett an Margarette up the Tauranga-Taupo river this afternoon for their first ever try at fly fishing. Brett and Margarette did extremely well each hooking 6 superb and landing 2 each for a total of 12 hooked and 4 landed. .51-

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rishing

Cloud/Wind: Clearing but fairly windy during the day

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Champagne and flame glow-bug, gold bead hare & copper

.54 -52 from .81. Incredible days guiding today taking the spritley young 70 year old Stewart from Newcastle in Australia fishing. Stewart has fished the Tongariro for 20 years but wanted a change and I was recommended to guide him for the day on the Tauranga-Taupo. After looking at the flows yesterday it was decided today would be the best time. We woke to a beautiful crisp spring morning with ice on the windscreen so I put on my gloves and headed off to pick up Stewart. Stewart managed to land 27 out of 53 hooked not counting a couple of foul hooked ones. Stewart found the walk a little tiring but not as bad as constantly playing angry Taupo trout time and time again. The photo here is of Stewart taking a break beween fishing or should we say today “catching”.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rising

Cloud/Wind: Great day, no wind or cloud

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear in Tongariro but nicely coloured in Tauranga-Taupo

Recommended Flies: Size 16 champagne and flame glow bug, size 10 gold bead hair tungsten 4mm hair and copper

Went Jigging this afternoon with Gordon a friend of mine from Tokaanu and caught nothing but fresh air. Its getting to that time of year and rumour has it that the fish have been starting to get caught jigging but my guess would be the that it is still probably pretty patchy and you will either have to go way out western bays or fish the Tongariro Delta. It was a fanstically calm day though and the boat needed a run. There were a few small fish splashing around out off the old Tokaanu wharf that I thought would have been smelting but they may also have been after a brown beetle that is quite prolific at the moment - hard to know without dissecting one.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Fallen

Cloud/Wind: Overcast with the odd light shower but no wind

Water Temperature: 13.2 degrees celsius at the southern end of the lake

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Sawyers pheasant tail

Havn’t written anything over the past week as I have been away up north near the Bay Of Islands where I am originally from, visiting my mother, doing some sea fishing and sorting out some things with the bach and boat. Took Will the X Club Habitat bar manager from Turangi up North with me and his girl Keri and had a great days diving and fishing on Monday. Took Will and Keri on a tour of the North on Tuesday up through the Russell state forest not far from the Bach to look at Kauri trees and then over the car ferry to Opua and up through the Bay Of Islands and up to visit my uncle in Mangonui and also to see Keri’s fathers bach at Taupo Bay. Stopped in at Keri Keri and the Bay Of Islands Swordfish club (where I am a member - though have never landed a marlin yet …) on the way back. Had un unsuccessful day on Wednesday - largely due to the strong winds disrubting the plans and were unable to get out after the Hapuka which was my main goal.

Having to tow my big boat - 23ft hard top aluminium down to Turangi tomorrow - mum wanted it off her front lawn in Whangarei. Hopefully not too much traffic - I get a little nervous towing it over the Auckland harbour bridge as some of the lanes are very narrow and the boat (often referred to as my baby) is maximimum width. Taking my mum down with me to hopefully catch a trout - and clean the house … though she doesn’t realize this yet!

There is no doubt that the fish are smaller this year - I would guess about a pound smaller on average i.e. I would guess the average to be just below 3 pounds. The only possible logical reason for this is lack of food in lake Taupo which would suggest that for some reason the smelt arn’t there in great size or abundance. DOC are trying to say that it is due to the fish spawning later and later but this does not make sence as the fish that were getting caught this time last year and in all previous years were a lot bigger. The fish have been around the same size for the last few months and I would predict the size to be quite small right up to September - the supposed new peak spawning time. How can you say the fish are getting smaller because they are spawning later and don’t have as much time to grow - 2 years is 2 years whether it is September to September or June to June! Either natural weather conditions will have caused the smelt situation or human factors like the posibility of fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides such as 1080 finally reaching levels that could be effecting algae growth in the lake or whatever smelt feed on. Noticably a lot of the fish arn’t exactly fat either!

Fished today with some friends from TALTAC all over the place and between us probably hooked around 15 or 20 for the day. Lots of other anglers around. Conditions are pretty good both in the Tauranga-Taupo and the Tongariro. I was disappointed to see other fishermen again fishing a lye that I thought no-one knew about - Oh well I guess I will just have to go fishing some more and look for some new lyes - its a hard life!

Not my favorite way of fishing for trout but it does have its moments - not today though. I prefer the more active form of catching trout i.e. fly fishing but a lot of people do find it relaxing out in the boat on lake Taupo jigging for trout so it is important for me to spend time out there doing it as I have my ticket and my boat is in survey. Normally the trout play ball but today was one of those days where they didn’t. We only tried for a couple of hours in the afternoon though and spent more time motoring around trying spots than sitting there dangling our lines in. We were hoping to get 5 year old Shinaia her first ever trout but it wasn’t to be on this occasion. Next time!