Tongariro update:

 TRM has many happy inmates rejoicing after their fishing yesterday.

Following the heavy rain and overnight flood on Sunday – briefly topped over 270 cumecs – all the anglers were full of optimism.  Understandably too.  That was the highest level fresh in over three months.  Monday the river was still dirty and the tide retreating.  Tuesday was full of promise with the odd catch but the spawning runs were still to arrive….  Yesterday TRM inmates were spread throughout the river.  First reports were from the upper pools where fresh run trout were being caught in small pockets but not quite the numbers they expected.  The guides report (they must have a direct line with the leading shoals?) was that the small pockets had raced through the town pools due to all the sand and ash deposits covering the gravels and were pausing to recover in the upper pools.   The Bridge Pool and Hydro produced as expected early on with some huge brown trout reported escaping capture in their last lunge.  Probably the best reported result came from the lower river where the spawning runs did not arrive until yesterday afternoon and then it was almost too easy to land a limit bag.  So by now there should be trout all through the system waiting for anglers.

The other good news is the fat condition of the trout.  Not huge but fresh hard fighting silver bullets in top condition.

Images are Jonte Auden practising his casting technique with his coach Dad – Noel Auden who sent the following images and comments: