Taupo Fishing Report

After heavy rain, the rivers are all flooded again. This is probably one of the most consistently bad spells of weather I can remember but fortunately it has only cost one days guiding so far. The Tongariro and Tauranga-Taupo rivers are both flooded as well as everthing in between and the back-country rivers. One or two spring creeks may be OK and not sure about the Hinemaia or Waitahanui rivers. The rivers are dropping at the moment and without more rain the Tongariro would be fishable in places - to a degree - tomorrow though I suspect we may be in for a bit more rain.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Low

Cloud/Wind: Windy

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: High and brown

Recommended Flies: Wouldn’t go out at the moment but if you were desperate then big black burglars - size 2 around the edges and back-eddies and bypasses - also size 8 salmon egg and flame glow-bugs.

Was given and extract from an article in issue 56 of the Target Taupo magazine by DOC from Didymo Dave. It offers a good reason as to the small trout size of last year and early this year though it seems to me that things on the improve. Have already had as many over 4 pounds as the whole of last year!

“However the phytoplankton concentration was unusually low in winter 2005. This low concentration was attributed to the incomplete mixing of the lake which usually occurs over winter when the surface waters cool. This reduces the density difference between the warmer surface waters and cooler bottom waters so that the agitation from winter storms with their high winds can mix the two layers. Mr Gibbs estimated that as a result of incomplete mixing as much as 50% of the nutrients (nitrate and phosphorus) remained in the bottom waters rather than being circulated up into the surface waters. The surface water is where nutrients can be used by phytoplankton (plants) and transferred through the food chanin to eventually reach smelt and trout. As a consequence the concentration of nutrients was lower in autumn 2006″

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Low

Cloud/Wind: Strong gusts

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Clear to green

Recommended Flies: Size 14 Salmon Egg and Flame glow bugs.

.53 -.52. Fished the Tauranga-Taupo river today and did OK hooking 17 and landing around half of these - fished from around 10:30am to 3pm. Most of the fish were in excellent condition and there may have been three that broached 4 pounds of which I lost 2. It seems to me that the fish are improving in size and condition and I wouldn’t mind betting that the smelt population is increasing in the lake again. Most of the trout were around the 3 pound mark and of legal size.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Falling

Cloud/Wind: No significant wind

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Medium with a hint of green - 33 cumecs

Recommended Flies: Sallmon egg and flame glowbugs.

Went fishing this afternoon looking for new lyes on the Tongariro and was introduced to a couple from a friend. Also found a couple of others by noticing the regular hookup rate of a couple of other fishermen. At this time of the year when there are other fishermen around you don’t necassarily need to be able to read water - just know what a bent pulsing rod means! Hooked around half a dozen while my mate hooked into around a dozen for the afternoon. Nearly all of the fish were fresh and in good condition averaging 3 pounds.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: No Change

Cloud/Wind: Windy from the North - awkward casting

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Green - 36 cumecs

Recommended Flies: Salmon egg and flame glowbugs size 14.

Guided a group of Australians on the Tongariro today and though the water was above 60 cumecs did fairly well hooking 9 or 10 fish. It was more of an exploratory mission for the group learning the river for there up coming week.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: No Change

Cloud/Wind: Windy from north

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: High and green

Recommended Flies: Salmon egg and flame glowbugs size 10 and 8.

Guided Tetsuya Tanaka from Japan on his final day of his 3 day fly fishing excursion to New Zealand. Again the weather was not fantastic but in the end we finally managed to crack a pretty good days fishing for Tet. First in the morning we went up the TT at just under .7 meters. The fishing was slow and appeared to be that way for the other fishermen up there too. Tet did manage a fantastic fresh silver rainbow in perfect condition around the 3 lb mark. In the afternoon we headed back to the Tongariro flowing at just over 50 cumecs - still high and managed to hook and loose 3 nymphing before landing a further 3 and losing 1 wet lining making 7 hookups for the afternoon which is quite good fishing in any conditions. The fish Tet landed were all good condition fresh silver rainbows and the biggest was around 4lbs. The fish appear to be a little bigger than last year and maybe conditions in the lake might be slowly returning to normal.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: No Change

Cloud/Wind: Windy but fishable

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: 53 cumecs

Recommended Flies: Olive Wooley Buggers.

Unfortunately no photos of Tetsuya with any trout (Masu) today as the 4 that he hooked all managed to get off! This is not unusual and it was a credit to his fishing ability and patience today that he hooked so many given the extremely challenging conditions. Apart from most of the Taupo rivers still being flooded (the Tongariro was still flowing at nearly twice normal flow) our plans to get an early start and beat other fishermen to the hot lyes was not really necassary as everyone else decided to stay in bed while we battled with extremely strong winds and a swollen river.

Tetsuya still seemed to have a lot of fun out there today. And seems to be getting amusement out of my attempts to learn a little Japanese. I have managed to finally learn “Yubi No Shita - under your finger”, “Masu - Trout”, “Maku - wind in”, “Tsuri - fish” + a host of others to add onto my 3 years of Japanese classes at high school which I can still remember a little about. I also like to use “Ro Kai” quite a bit which I think means 6 more times and to me means - give it another half dozen casts then Maku.

Tongariro Report

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

Barometer: No Change

Cloud/Wind: No significant wind

Flow: Around 50 cumecs

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Green and cloudy

Recommended Flies: Size 10 salmon egg and flame glow-bugs.

Conditions were a little tough today after a 220 cumec fresh through the Tongariro last night most other Lake Taupo tributaries being flooded this morning. We managed to find a little space on the Hinemaia river and Tetsuya was able to bring to the shore his first New Zealand trout. From there we continued back to the Tongariro which had receded to below 70 cumecs but was still extremely cloudy and turning green from brown. Tetsuya managed another nice Rainbow Trout from the Tongariro and we spent a little time like though the Tongariro National trout centre while we waited for conditions to improve a little. There is still the odd shower outside but I am hopefull that the clarity will have improved sufficiently for some good fishing tomorrow on the Tongariro.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Low

Cloud/Wind: A bit of wind - cold this morning but warmer later in the day

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Cloudy

Recommended Flies: Size 10 orange glow bugs.

Picked up Doug Cowper this morning from Turangi’s 5 star River Birches Lodge for his first ever attempt at fly fishing. I took him to a small lye formed by the flood last week and it was only a short lesson on casting and mending before Doug was into his first ever trout on fly. Doug had a fantastic introduction to fly fishing by landing 3 fine rainbows and possibly missing one other.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Fallen

Cloud/Wind: Wind and rain

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Dirty by the afternoon

Recommended Flies: Salmon egg and flame glow-bugs.

Went out this morning for a few hours of exploration on the Tongariro. Though I have lived here for a few years and obviously guide and fish the Tongariro a lot, things are constantly changing. At the moment the town area seems to be fishing better than other parts of the river which is typical of early season but given a few more weeks the trout will be more evenly spread. Not sure what causes this but particlarly in times of low flow and early season the fish seem to congregate lower. Managed to hook a couple in a lye up river that was in similar shape to last year and found a few trout in a small bypass - to be expected after Saturdays’s flood.

There have been a few good browns been getting caught - even a few in the 10 pound range coming out.

Had a good talk with DOC’s Didymo expert -Dave - today at the hydro pool on the state of the fishery and he gave me the most feasible explanation yet for the smaller than normal trout size over the past year and it actually sounded pretty positive for the future. Evidently due to lake conditions in 2005 the phydo-plankton (probably spelt wrong) that the smelt feed on didn’t do well due to something to do with the lake conditions for that year not allowing the algae in there to come up - something like this anyway. This created a shortfall in food for the smelt which would have already been depleted by a bad spawning year in 2004 due to the Feb flood where the Tongariro hit somewhere around 1500 cumecs and flooded parts of Turangi. If this is correct and it certainly makes a lot more sence than any of the other theories out there, then the trout size should return to normal over the next few years. Though people are saying that trout numbers are down as well, I certainly haven’t noticed this. The runs are definitely getting later which is why the fishing had been a little tough until now, but I had several huge numbers days with clients last year including 1 morning of over 40 hookups and several other days with around this and more.

Seeing an article written in the Taupo Times where a local politician critized the fishery and stated that we should no longer call ourselves the trout fishing capital of the world was a little dissappointing considering these people should be promoting the area rather than the opposite - sour grapes for inadequate fishing ability woud be my guess. I would suggest that he should get himself a decent guide as it appeared from the article that he had been struggling to catch trout lately. The reality is that although the fishery this month and this year may not be as good as it was 20 years ago, it is still probably one of the worlds greatest trout fisheries - arguably the best. Aside from just the Lake Taupo tributaries there are a multitude of other fantastic rivers and lakes around. I believe that the smaller size is just a cylical thing and as with any fishery you have good years and bad years. Our worst years are still far better than most places best years. This is a completely wild fishery. Next year may very well be the best on record - who knows and who can predict these things. Certainly there is enough evidence through history to claim this is the trout fishing capital of the world and will continue to be.

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.