Went for a brief fish up the Tauranga-Taupo River this morning. A few people were catching trout with a couple of people catching a half dozen or so. The lyes that I normally fish wern’t holding many and I narrowly missed blanking with a late catch of one trout. Later on I fished the Hydro pool in strong winds and landed a nice rainbow of 3 pounds before giving in to the conditions. I have heard of some people having some reasonable good success i.e. have heard of 18 hookups and 16 hookups in the mid to low river area. The numbers are definitely increasing but still far below peak.

Tongariro Report

Courtesy of Marcel at Riverway General Store And Outfitters Phone +64 7 3860501

Barometer: 1009.5hPa

Cloud/Wind: Very windy from South

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Green and clearing

Recommended Flies: Champagne & flame glow bug and Sawyers Pheasant tails.

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Sitting down in my friends fly shop accross the road from home today tying flies for the months ahead. It is freezing cold and very windy blowing from the South. Would recommend staying home by the fire today instead of fishing!

Tongariro Report

Courtesy of Marcel at Riverway General Store And Outfitters Phone +64 7 3860501

Barometer: No Change

Cloud/Wind: Blowing a gale from the South

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Coloured, clearing - good fishable colour

Recommended Flies: Tangerine and blood red glow-bugs - best seller and results so far this season! You may need to call River Way General Store in advance to ensure your supply as being a custom tie high demand means often sold out.

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After heavy rain and hail in the night it was surprising to wake up and find any rivers actually fishable this morning but fortunately the good old Tongariro was at a fishable level though pretty much nowhere else was. Driving to meet the Hills from Whangarei staying at Creel Lodge in Turangi for the second day of their second trip with me a little sleet was falling on the windscreen and I knew it was going to be a cold one.

In pretty tough conditions the guys did OK manageing to hook 6 or 7 and landing 3. Certainly not a high scoring day but OK given the conditions and we did move around a bit to keep things a bit interested. It appeared that most fisherman on the Tongariro were getting the odd fish or two but it certainly didn’t appear like any major runs have come through yet.

Later in the afternoon it snowed here in Turangi which can be seen in the picture here of Mark Hill in the Tongariro’s Hydro pool.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Low

Cloud/Wind: Cloud, wind, sleet and snow

Water Temperature: Freezing

River Conditions: Green, around 34 cumecs

Recommended Flies: Champagne and flame glowbugs

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Picked up Peter Hill and his two sons Mark, and Brian this morning hoping for a repeat of last years highly successful guiding trip. The fishing has been tough of a late but the guys still managed a great day hooking into a dozen nice fish including this one of Marks and a good Brown Trout also for Brian. A few fish were dropped and much advise was given on this to each other!

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Falling

Cloud/Wind: A little wind today but fishable

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Marcel at the new Riverway General Store and Outfitters accross the road has been recommending Green Stoneflies - a lot of his customers have been getting success on his custom tied Green Stonefly patterns.

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Picked up the Horn’s this morning from the 5 star River Birches luxury boutique lodge here in Turangi this morning for their first attempt at fly fishing for trout. The fishing has been very tough on the Tongariro lately and the weather was looking a little ominous so we were all very surprised and pleased when Peter had lossed one after a few tugs and then young 8 year old Thomas hooked a nice 3 pounder which with the aid of father Peter was coaxed to the shore for photographing before being released. A short time later Lisa hooked what would have been an excellent fish given how fast it was moving but the fish got off after a short fight. A little later Peter managed to hook and land a nice Rainbow Trout of around 2 and half pounds to make 4 hooked and two landed for the day which was pretty good really given the reports coming in from other experienced fishermen who have been struggling of recent. The trout will start showing in greater numbers from now on and there should be some good runs over the next month which will start to fill the river again.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Low

Cloud/Wind: No wind today

Water Temperature: 7C

River Conditions: Green and fishable - best color and conditions

Recommended Flies: Salmon egg and flame glow bugs

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Mark who has only ever done a little fly fishing before learnt in the first pool this morning how quick and powerful New Zealand’s Rainbow Trout are with an early bust off. Shortly after managed this his first New Zealand trout and also probably his biggest - which he did beat later on. It was a slow start for his father Roman who happily took up second position in the pools while his son learned to fish. By lunch time the total tally was Mark’s 3 hooked and 2 landed. After lunch the day got better and better with Mark hooking a further 3 and Roman landing a further 4 out of 5 legitamately hooked plus 1 other foul hooked to make 11 good legitimate hook and plays averaging 3 pounds R4BB8C.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Falling

Cloud/Wind: A little wind today but fishable

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Marcel at the new Riverway General Store and Outfitters accross the road has been recommending Green Stoneflies - a lot of his customers have been getting success on his custom tied Green Stonefly patterns.

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Have been out nearly every day for an hour or on the Tongariro pracising spey casting and not seeing very many fish caught. There are a few around of course and I should imagine that numbers will be increasing at the delta. There should be a reasonable run up all rivers with the next rain. Its time!

This is my first entry for a few days as I have been sitting at home in front of the computer upgrading the web site to link this blog to a photo gallery progam so that clients can click on the photo like this one here and be taken to a photo album where they can download the full high resolution photos of their trips. It has taken a few very long days but the system is finally pretty much complete and looking good. If any one reading this has any problems viewing anything then please send me an email with the problem and your browser version i.e. Internet Explorer 5 or Firefox etc.

On another note, I have just sold my hunting rifle - a Ruger Model 77 243 stainless sythetic for a near new SAKO 75 Grey Wolf of the same caliber. Now all I have to do is find a new scope - probably a Leupold VXIII with 50mm objective lenz. Also considering a silencer for it. My new rifle should arrive today! Had to have a couple of things done to the rifle like lightening the trigger which was going to cost money so thought it was time for a new rifle.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Falling

Cloud/Wind: A little wind today but fishable

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Marcel at the new Riverway General Store and Outfitters accross the road has been recommending Green Stoneflies - a lot of his customers have been getting success on his custom tied Green Stonefly patterns.

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Went for a brief flick in the Hydro pool of the Tongariro this afternoon and had no luck - though I only fished from one position for half an hour. Normally I do pick up a few fish there. Talking to a few others and the fishing has been very tough on the Taupo tributaries. The unusually dry weather hasn’t helped.

On a controversial note I am wondering if people should be killing every trout out of the Taupo system they can get their hands on. I am not suggesting doing this - just pondering the merits based on the smaller than usual size and the possibility of this being caused by good high numbers of trout because of good breeding conditions over past couple of years. The smelt population in the lake is known to be down and this can’t be helped by high trout numbers. The high trout numbers certainly aren’t in the Taupo tributaries yet but give it a few weeks and they will be. I am looking forward to it. Please feel free to leave comments in response to this controversial pondering.

Spent the last few days adding a new photo gallery system to the site which will allow the display and download of all my client photos. I have been working though the photos and uploading them as has Charlie from Spot X Lodge. It will take a couple more weeks to get them up but will mean if I have taken photos of your trip you should be able to search for your name - or part of your name in the gallery and find your photos. You can then download them, get them cleaned up by a professional if you like and print them out in high enough quality to print a poster sized photo for your living room wall or office. I have a friend up North who puts photos on canvas prints for a living and the look fantastic! My new camera is 10 Mega pixel so pretty good resolution and photoshop can fix what my poor photography skills achieve.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Falling

Cloud/Wind: A little wind today but fishable

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies: Marcel at the new Riverway General Store and Outfitters accross the road has been recommending Green Stoneflies - a lot of his customers have been getting success on his custom tied Green Stonefly patterns.

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Had a fantastic last day with Phil Norman and Darren Bell today thankfully as I was a little worried after the flooded rivers yesterday. The river was still up and dirty but the trout were on the feed. Phil started of by site fishing a nice brown before getting bust off big time by a good rainbow which we also new the location of before casting as it had come up to take nymphs a couple of times. Phil then get bust off by the trout version of an unstoppable train. The day finished with 21 hookups of which a majority were landed. Darren had a fantastic day landing 5 out of 7 and Phil took care of the rest which included a beatifully condition Rainbow hen pictured here

Tongariro Report

Barometer:

Cloud/Wind:

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies:

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After a heavy downpour of rain in the middle of the night we woke to the back country rivers in our area being flooded. Moving to plan B we went over to fish the Tongariro and other Taupo tributaries where Darren managed to land a Rainbow Trout of around 2.5 pounds and Phil lost one nice trout. Around lunch time the Tongariro suddenly got dirtier and was flowing very brown so we shifted our attention back to the back country where the high waters were receding. Darren managed to add a brown of around 2.5 pounds to make the final talley for the day 2 landed from 3 hooked. Very slow - but difficult conditions.

Tongariro Report

Barometer:

Cloud/Wind:

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Low and clear

Recommended Flies:

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