Taupo Fishing Report

Went game fishing with my mate and co-skipper of the Anglers Anonymous sportfishing boat today. The start of 6:30am was a little early for my liking given the few social drinks consumed yesterday evening at the Bay Of Islands Swordfish Club in Paihia at the finish of the Hoppin tournament we had just been in - but I dare not argue with Steve!

I was having a wee nap up the front of the boat when the right rigger rod went off and we both bolted into action. With Steve on the wheel and me on the rod the fight lasted around 20 minutes and though we are both fans of catch and release, I must admit that we did keep this one to christen the new boat and get a few photos for advertising - we did think it was a little bigger at the time and it would have been over 90 had we weighed it in straight away rather than trauling for the rest of day - weiged in the evening at 87.3kg.

We decided that it had been a great move earlier to remove the remaing bottles of Lion Red beer from the boat - which had evidently caused the hard days fishing yesterday - and that me staying away from the helm was also in the best interests of hooking fish so I was sent back below to have another nana nap. We briefly hooked - for a few seconds - two mahi mahi before heading back to Russell to weigh in the Marlin.

Later

It was a little slower today most likely due to the Bronze Whaler sharks that were around in too good a numbers. We managed to bring in three nice sized kingfish heads which was great because they were really giving us a workout when the had tails and bodies, but thankfully the sharks were able to skillfully chomp the bodies and tails off with one nice smooth rounded cut for us to save us from straining ourselves too much. Fortunately as well for our tired aching bodies the sharks were just into eating our fresh struggling kingfish and not our dead whole baits which they just swam straight past without even looking.

Had a great day out today with my Uncle Mike, Mike Burgin - my brother in law, and Stephen Rowe - my mate. We did great on the yellowtail kingfish today hooking around 20 or so reasonable sized fish. We lost a lot of these to the reefs and sharks and kept moving to try and keep away from the sharks. Eventually we got sick of the sharks and put out a whole dead bait which resulted in a 20 minute fight for me on game tackle before before the 100kg + (+ several kingfish) Bronze Whaler shark eventually broke the steel trace at the boat.

Guided the Wartons for their 3rd and final day of their fishing trip based out of Spot X Lodge with us. Today was a casting tuition day and the Wartons really improved their casting significantly with Bruce comfortably double hauling and managing the line and mending by lunch time. Marj also did well and each landed a nice fish after lunch when we started fishing with Bruce landing this nice 3lb brown trout to finish the trip off

After a frustrating start for the Wartons - it took until the 7th fish before one finally hit the shore just before lunch for Bruce. Not long after lunch Marj hooked a fantastic trout which she controlled well and finally landed a fantastic 5lb Rainbow that actually bought tears of joy to her! Thinking that this wouldn’t be beaten on this trip was a mistake as within 5 minutes Marj was hooked into another trout of a complete different character. The trout took off like a freight train when it realised something was wrong with the nymph it had inhaled and had the flyline plus 30 meters of backing out within a few seconds. Marj held on and let it run even when lying flat in the water after stumbling before I was able to lift her to her feet. As she was lying in the water on the rocks trying to regain her balance in a light rapid I asked if she was OK and she replied “I’ve still got it .., Ive still got it!” After recovering the line and playing the fish further downstream to the near side of the river I finally netted for her a cracker 6lb rainbow perfectly proportioned and with a lbs all going well).

Guided Bruce and Marj Warton from Australia today - back at Spot X Lodge after nearly a year since their last fishing trip with us. Had a good day with 7 good trout hooked, the smallest landed was a 2lb Rainbow and the biggest landed by Bruce was a 4.5lb fish that nearly had all the backing out and took Bruce 60 meters down river before coming to the net after a long battle.

Picked up Tom Schenkenberg from Turangi’s only 5 star lodge “River Birches” this morning and headed off for some back country fly fishing. I was going to take him to a small little wilderness river a couple of hours drive away for some dry fly but heavy rain en route changed my mind and we took the safe option of blind nymphing a nearby river instead. Not long after arriving at our destination Tom managed to hook and land a cracker 4lb rainbow trout that took him up a rapid around some rocks and had us dancing over boulders for some time before coming to the net. If I had remembered the camera then I could have taken a photo of it rather than of Tom back at the car showing how big it was. Tom then managed a smaller Rainbow of around a pound and a half before being bust off by another and then landing another nice 4lb Rainbow Trout that was very stubborn about coming to the net. Around lunch time Tom landed another nice 3lb Rainbow before being blown away by a 4 lb-ish freight train of a Rainbow that hit “like a ton of bricks” to quote Tom, before steaming off down a rapid and down river with us in chase for 100 meters or so before losing us. The final fish was a debatable one that hooked when I took the rod from Tom to show him why his cast and then mend wouldn’t catch a fish and what he should do instead - of course a trout grabbed the fly and hooked up a split second after he handed me the rod before I could even strip it in and then jumped a few times before spitting the hook on me. Tom thought that was a great way to end a fantastic days fishing!

Guided Jeremy Weitz for the last day of his trip today before flying back to Thailand. Had an easy relaxing day and worked more on double hauling than anything but still managed to hook and lose 5 good fish over 2lbs of which 2 were in the 4lb range. Jeremy also landed a couple of smaller 1.5lb rainbows. Jeremy’s casting which was already very good had a big increase in distance with the introduction to double hauling. Jeremy had a great time later on back at the lodge trying to target a large 6lb (approximately) brown trout out front that was extremely cunning! Had a great time guiding Jeremy and I look forward to his return next year.

Guided Jeremy Weitz out back country again today. The fishing was slowish as predicted due to conditions however Jeremy still managed to land 3 nice trout which included a 2 .5lb pound rainbow on nymph, a 4lb brown trout that was sight fished on dry fly and a nice 4.75lb rainbow sight fished on a nymph. There was also a 4th smaller brown of around 1lb landed. Jeremy thoughrouly enjoyed himself and his casting was in great form today

Guided Jeremy Weitz again today out backcountry to try and beat his personal best brown trout but alas his record of 5lbs previously remained unbeaten by the end of the day. Jeremy did however land 2 x 4lb browns and 1 x 2.5lb rainbow plus lost 4 other good fish unseen but felt and cast at 1 brown that would have been in the 6lb range. Jeremy had a great day and seemed to enjoy the scenery and pleasant relaxing walk!