Taupo Fishing Report

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.

Picked up John and Selena this morning from Turangi’s 5 star River Birches Lodge for a day out fly fishing on the Tongariro. Pictured here is Selena with a fantastically conditioned 5 pound Rainbow Jack. Between the husband and wife fishing team, 7 fine Tongariro trout were landed out of 15 hooked including one large Brown Trout which was the biggest of the day and John will be sending me a picture soon as I unfortunately was instructing Selena at the same time who was hooked up on a good Rainbow further up river!

Guided Ron Brown today and had a good time out back country. The fishing wasn’t fast and furious but was fair for this time of the year with Ron managing to land 5 out of 6 hooked with this fantastic Brown Trout, another Rainbow Trout of around 4.5 pounds and 3 others around the 3 pound mark. Ron has fly fished a lot before fortunately which helped cope with the strong head winds that plagued us all day.

Guided Ian, Jeff, and Peter from Melbourne today on the mighty Tongariro and though the main emphasis was to learn single handed spey casting, the guys still managed a few good trout as well. I spent the morning teaching the guys the single handed versions of double spey and snap T and for the most part had the flies reversed around to not catch any fish - but forgot to reverse the flies on my own rod which Peter was using and managed to land a couple of good Rainbows with. After lunch the guys used the casts in a practical sense and hooked a further dozen Rainbows.

Went fishing today up the Tauranga Taupo with my good friend and colleauge from the South Island Chappie Chapman. We had a great day starting relatively late and getting back early and still hooking 13 nice rainbow trout beween us. The flow was still a little high so the fishing was pretty good really and the company superb. Catching trout and telling yarns with Chappie was a great way to spend my 35th birthday.

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rising

Cloud/Wind: Windy

Flow: 64 Cumecs / .65

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Green

Recommended Flies: Glow Bugs.

Picked up Warren and James Walker from Turangi’s 5 star River Birches today for their first attempt at fly fishing in New Zealand. We were meant to go yesterday but a flood in the river meant fishing was delayed for a day. The guys managed a good morning landing 3 out 4 hooked. The fourth fish hooked by James was not going to come in and decided to head back down river to Lake Taupo over some rapids which I was reluctant to traverse with James in the high flow!

Heard mixed reports of other people on the rivers. Most were struggling or catching a few fish but one report was for quite high numbers which is a good sign!

Tongariro Report

Barometer: Rising

Cloud/Wind: No significant wind

Flow: 65 cumecs

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Green

Recommended Flies: Size 10 Salmon egg and flame glow bugs.