Taupo Fishing Report

After what could be labelled a late start due to excess (fishing with Andrew) the boys hit the river running at about midday and managed to secure 10 good fish. This is something of a payback according to Matt who reckons he cast more than a thousand times during the previous evening rise and didn’t land one.They then had a short fish up river and got two more fish and retired to the local restaurant for sustanance. They head back to reallity today having had a fantastic week with lots of fish and humourous memories one of which was Matt trying to turn our guide boat outboard into a surface drive unit by not locking it down and booting it backwards only to have the outboard leap out of the water and try and attack their flash flyrods.

Guided Peter Neil And Matthew Kennedy today and though conditions were less than ideal the guys still manged to hook 10 or 11 good trout - and possibly more on evening Rise at Spot X Lodge. There were also 2 or 3 smaller ones but most of the trout were around 4 pounds or more with the biggest being Peter Neils 7 pounder that Matt spotted at the head of a pool and took just two casts to catch.

Just got back from a 5 day wilderness heli-fishing adventure with Peter Neil and Matthew Kennedy from Australia. The weather played along pretty well until last night where it flooded the river and gave us an extra sleep in before the guys managed to use their expert dirty water techniques to land 1 and loose two more nice fish. On the first day the guys managed to land most of 17 nice trout hooked, on the second day the guys managed to hook 9 of which 3 were on dry fly - 2 on the evening rise were Peter Neils first evening rise fish. Day 3 resulted in 14 hookups of which 1 was for Matthew Kennedy on the evening rise. Day 4 was more challenging again fishing to very spooky fish Matthew managed to 4 from 4 of which one came to the dry but was taken on nymph and Peter managed to hook one and miss another on dry. Day 5 was today and was a washout but still managed to get a trout and loose a couple in the high flooded dirty water. All in all a great trip with 47 hookups of which around over 80% were sight fished. The fish ranged from around 3 pounds up to Mathews biggest of 7 and a half pounds with 2 or 3 nice 6 pounders thrown in there. There were some great acrobatic fish on day 2 with three of the trout clearing around 3 feet in a small stream - no exageration! One trout on day 2 also came to sniff the dry turned away then saw another trout heading for the dry so turned and hit it like a killer whale hitting a seal - to quote Matthew! In all one bottle of whisky, 5 bottles of wine and a dozen beer helped get some great nights sleep in for some excellent fishing.

Took Anthea who manages the 5 star River Birches Lodge in Turangi fly fishing today for the first time in life - despite living in the Taupo area since age 11. The fishing was a little slow to begin with but Anthea is a quick learner and was soon able to hook but unfortunately loose her first trout after a very brief struggle. A little later Anthea managed to hook and land a nice Brown trout and then cast, mend, hook, play and land a nice 3 poundish Rainbow.

Guided Matt and John Pyle today on the last day of their 3 day trip and had a ball. The guys each managed several fish around half of which were in the 4 - 5 pound range. The most interesting event was when John hooked a nice 3 - 4 pound brown and we saw a Rainbow jump not far away. Eventually after a bit of a batlle he landed a nice 2 and a half pound Rainbow!

Found the river I wanted to fish today a little dirty but John still mangaged 2 land 1 nice brown out of 2 hooked and Matt also landed another nice brown. We left early and went to fish a piece of water I had been meaning to explore but hadn’t had a chance for for the past couple of years and found a nice piece of water that looks good for dry fly. Didn’t see any trout inside 10 minutes but only through two casts and then headed on to a little last resort spot and hooked another 7 to make 10 solid hookups for the day and 7 landed - only one of which was under 2 pounds. The photo here here is of Matt - a typical Australian - who we had noticed had his waders on inside out.

Guided John Pyle again today for the second time this year - this time with his son Matt who has never caught a trout before. Had a great day with Matt taking naturally to casting and John retaining well what he had learnt last time. In the end the guys managed to land a majority of the 16 good sized trout and several smaller ones - 12 of which were in the 3 - 4 pound range.

Picked up the Blackmans at 7 this morning for a day out fly fishing with a bit of tutoring on nymphing thown in. While Sam was still practising casting he managed to hook a couple of Rainbows and followed this with only the second double header I have ever send landed fly fishing - 1 on each hook (photo in the gallery). Ian managed to hook a couple before landing his first ever on dry fly. Sam also mangaged this fantastic Brown Trout on dry. In all the guys managed to hook and play 14 good trout - 5 on dry, + 1 small brown on dry, - excluding 1 further foul hooked fish.

Guided Nick Dunn again from England - on a different river to yesterday and had pretty good day. Nick managed to land 4 out of 7 solid hook and plays but also briefly hooked 4 others of which 1 broke off and 3 wriggled free after a short time. There was also one nice take on a dry fly where the big brown trouts mouth came out of the water to engulf the dry fly and Nick cleverly snatched it away hence saving a fight with the trout which could have resulted in another break-off and cost me another fly! There was also one other fish in relatively deep water that we brought in foul-hooked which had obviously gone for the fly and missed given it took the fairly light nymph soon after it hit the water.

Met Nick Dunn this morning at Spot X Lodge to take him out for a fish. The day was a little slow but fortunately with Nicks excellent skills he was able to make the most of the day and land 7 out of 8 trout mainly in the 3 - 4 lb range. Nick hooked 11. Previously the night before when he arrived Nick had manged to hook 6 on dry fly fishing near the lodge. I tried last night but to no avail. Seems a yellow clink hammer fly did the damange for Nick the night before.