Tongariro River surged to over 500 cumecs yesterday. The usual flow is 21-24 cumecs. It is now dropping steadily in time for the long weekend fishing and was back to about 70-80 by 1 pm Friday (see graph below) It will drop quickly when the Hydro Canal across to Lake Rotoaira is reopened. Providing the rain has gone (? it is dry outside as this is being posted) it should provide great fishing conditions for the long weekend.

So this morning Juno insisted we went walkies to inspect the pools to identify any damage. DD was keen to know if the flood had removed any of the weeds choking some of the pools. TRM have anglers arriving who were anxious about their long weekend fishing…

We decided Kamahi Pool would be a good indicator of any likely damage. There was none. The water had flushed through the broom and gorse and blackberry but the current was not strong enough to dislodge them They all got a good watering instead.

On the way we found zillions of caddis washed up along the shore. The pressure of the peak flow must have rolled all the stones over and dislodged the caddis and some got trapped on the edge when the river retreated. In the photo there are about one hundred or so spread over about 10cm of sand. OK?

Now multiply that by another 10 km of river bank and then double it for the other side of the river equals one hundred zillion dying in the sun. The ducks will love it but that was the main diet for the spawning runs of trout moving up river. Now they have mostly gone.

According to SWMBO, (She Who Must Be Obeyed is a scheming calculator as well as manager of everything) this means the trout will have nothing else to eat until the spring hatches start over again. It also means the spawning trout will get very hungry and anglers’ artificial flies will be attacked more voraciously.

The graph (Thank you to Genesis) indicates how much Autumn rain the Tongariro had had in the last three months – almost none.