Guided regular clients Lyndon and Judy Forrest and Robyn from TALTAC today on the Tongariro river. The morning was quite reasonable fishing with at least 6 hook and plays plus a few other possible missed takes and a couple of wriggles. Fortunately for all Judy was able to land this nice 4 pound Jack Rainbow trout ending a run of break-offs. In the afternoon the guys and girls hooked a further 3 and were able to see dozens of trout in the lower Tongariro though casting to them and getting a drift in the strong winds wasn’t easy.

An early start and it was it wasn’t long before Andrew Landed his first of around many for the day. The trout averaged around 3 - 4 pounds with a few bigger and a few smaller. We fished several different areas on 2 different rivers and just fished the edges as the water was still high after yesterdays rain.

Guided Andrew Mongeon on the Tongariro today. Most options were unavailable due to heavy rain over night and flooding but Andrew still managed to land 3 out of 7 nice rainbow trout hooked for the day.

Had a great mornings fishing with Justin and Ngawai this morning with too many trout to count! The new fly I tied up similar to another pattern a friend showed may immitatet the Colobriscus mayfly nymphs that were being taking well and for a period of a least half an hour not a single drift went by on Ngawais rod without at least a strike!

Been a little slack with the blog lately as have been desperately trying to get a few other things organised before the 1st October when the summer season starts - trying to move my new boat towards survey but have several sets of people to deal with to achieve this. Went fishing this afternoon for a couple of hours with Philip Norman in the Tongariro which was a little slow for us. Philip hooked and landed a nice fish and I lost a good one and landed 2 small ones.

Shot a red stag/spiker a couple of days ago - wasn’t able to tell as its antlers had only just started regrowing. Was out camping and hunting by myself and was highly surprised to kill the animal which was several hundred meters away - I aimed 6 to 8 inches above with my new SAKO 243 and using the ammo that Charlie Dixon from Spot X Lodge helped me load the other day. Had a mission carrying out the hind quarters, back steaks, rifle, and backpack with tent and sleeping bag etc. Got out of the bush just before dark completely exhausted and minus my sleeping mattress which got torn off coming through thick scrub somewhere. Will probably need to resight the gun in as it sustained a few knocks also on the way down.

Picked up Nick and Lisa this morning from Turangi’s 5 star River Birches Lodge where the pair are enjoying being pampered as part of their honeymoon. Lisa was first to hook up and was unlucky to loose here first two trout but landed a nice one later on in the morning to make her first trout ever and first fish fly fishing. Nick Landed 3 out of the 4 he hooked making a great mornings fishing with 4 landed for the pair out of 7 hooked. Unfortunatley my camera went flat so I will need to wait for the guys to send me a photo hopefully.

Picked up Scott from Turangi’s 5 Star River Birches Lodge this morning for a second attempt to land a nice Tongariro Trout. I guided Scott and partner Fiona yesterday for the morning also and Scott wanted a chance to the even the score with Fiona who had landed one yesterday while Scotts three hookups had avoided the landing net. He cleaned up in style this morning landing 6 out of 10 hooked which included mainly fat fresh fish of around a little over 3 pounds though the photo here is of 1 of 2 skinier fish landed. Scott also vastly improved his casting and general fishing skills and apeared to have a great time.

Picked up Fiona and Scott Towners this morning from Turangis 5 star River Birches Lodge for a go at Fly Fishing on the Tongario. After yesterday’s flood the water was still a little high but Fiona quickly got the ball rolloing by landing her first ever Rainbow trout of around 3 pounds. Scott was unlucky not to follow up with one of his 3 hookups - though one of them could not be stopped as it tore downstream towards a rapid.

Picked up Marty Sharpe at 7am this morning from Turangi’s 5 star River Birches lodge for his first serious attempt at fly fishing. The fishing wasn’t red hot but was still pretty good with Marty soon hooking and landing a 4 pound Rainbow which after being hooked legally in the mouth mangaged to slip the first fly and came in foul hooked. Soon after, Marty hooked and lost another before finally bringing in this nice 3 pound silver Rainbow hen. Marty missed two definite strikes a little later on before I took him to the main road bridge to look at all the trout underneath!

Went fishing yesterday and part of today with a local Turangi friend Damien and had a great afternoon yesterday with around 8 or 9 hookups but a slower afternoon today with 3 hookups for Damien. Fished with the Ausie guys I guided on Sunday this morning and explored a little new water where we did manage to hook a couple and successfully managed a deep crossing though Ian took a small involuntary swim before we attempted the crossing. The fishing is certainly OK at the moment if you are the correct spot but the clear conditions are making it hard for some people and most people would still describe the fishing as hard for this time of the year.

Am progressing with my friend Johan with a new set of instructional pages and videos for my site which will show demonstrations and tying instructions for several useful fly patterns for this area as well as slow motion single handed spey casting techniques - hoping to have some of the spey casting stuff sorted by the end of the weekend. It has been difficult finding a good day to get the filiming today in recent weeks.