Fishing Report:
On the Tongariro River it has been a wonderful week for school holidays with bright sunny conditions, chilly mornings followed by clear days, no wind, the river has been clear and low – almost perfect Summer conditions in July? The anglers’ response has been mixed. On Tuesday several fishos from TRM patrolled through the Braids below the road bridge and returned tired and dejected with only one old black jack released amongst the lot of them. Not good for TRM’s reputation…
After a pit stop and refuelling they returned late in the day and struck gold. A small run went through the Honeypot and Braids with almost everyone returning with two or three trout. The most pleasing comments were how hard these fresh run silver trout fought with just as many mid river releases. These trout appear to have given up waiting for rain and move quickly through the pools up to their preferred upper river spawning areas. Talking of “upper river”…
Correspondence:
Several callers commented on AP’s letter posted yesterday, re opening up the upper Tongariro River, to mention that it is already open during summer. This region has immense potential for further development as mentioned often by TRM Daily Reports. The Tongariro River Trail project to provide tracks up both sides of the Tongariro River above the Fence Pool is still alive and is now progressing through the “Council approvals” stage.
Next Tuesday 20 July is another landmark in the project with a dvd and power point presentation to the full Taupo District Council. You can view the dvd and power point and a map of the trail route etc. on the TongariroRiverTrail.co.nz website.
When this trail is in use through the Rangipo Prison Farm it is almost inevitable that the existing winter limit will have to be reviewed. We understand that the selection for the location of the existing limit above the Fence Pool had nothing to do with trout spawning migration habits. It was only chosen as it was also the boundary of the prison farm and the authorities back then were concerned about possible effects that the sight of women anglers in waders might have on the prison farm workers… Now there are so many canoes and rafts floating down the river every day with many lovely young ladies showing their style that the Fence Pool location for the winter fishing limit has lost its relevance.
Lake O – Trophy Fishing Regulations?
So far the response to TRM’s survey is almost all for “Option 3″ – to keep Lake O as a trophy lake and introduce regulations to encourage the best possible trout condition, in terms of size and length, over volume. See TRM front page for the options. TRM will post your thoughts on the Daily Report – to share with other fishos. A typical response is as follows:
Hi Ross, I will choose option 3. I think if there are more trophies back in that lake more people are going to start coming back to Taupo and hence buying more licenses? Also would it be easier to have a set weight or a set length? Not everyone is going to have some scales with them, but i guess not everyone is going to have a ruler with them. I also think that they could have like a 3 or 4 year plan, increasing the size gradually each year until until they reach the 7 or so pound limit. This would probably increase the amount of trophies I reckon. All the best David
