Revised updated Fifty Pools to Fly Fish Before You Die is at last available.

After months of promises to update the Tongariro River Pool Ratings, it has now been completed. It was delayed several times as the river pools changed after minor floods.

Thank you to the better-informed experienced regular fishy TRM inmates who contributed. Guess who are now TRM’s pin-up stars. Several regular Tongariro fishos ran their beady eye over the pool ratings changes to provide the over-due up-to-date revision.

Visiting anglers in particular value the pool ratings for scheming from their armchairs – to plan and allocate their limited holiday time on the river. Whilst there are about fifty pools to choose from, any assessment of the lower river pools has again been disregarded as they are subject to change more often after minor floods and WRC (Waikato Regional Council) flood protection (?) works. The last major flood which made the previous pool ratings obsolete reached 615 cumecs in August 2022. Several other minor floods since contributed more to moving some pools by changing the riverbed contours and holding ability.

The aggradation in the lower river is now so severe that many of the pools below the Braids have disappeared. The construction of a bypass canal by WRC, which resulted in the river breaking through at the Bends to bypass De Latours loop (see 2012 photo above) added to their demise. Anglers deserve compensation!

(Above photo in 2006 of SWMBO inspecting WRC ‘flood protection’ works – access formed across the Braids from the Plank Pool to remove aggregate from the Braids. Photo below of the flood three days later that swept it away. The pipes are still visible…)

Below the SH1 road bridge the original wild river changes in character and spreads out to form the braids created fifty years ago for the Tongariro Hydro Scheme. They were formed by the excavation of about 1.5 million cubic yards of aggregate river bed dredged for the hydro scheme. Since then the dredging has continued, under the more politically acceptable heading of ‘flood protection works’, as illustrated in the photos.

The Tongariro Power Scheme was developed in several stages and took almost 20 years with the damming of the Tongariro River in 1966. This effectively halved the natural river flow at Turangi from over 50 cumecs to below 30 cumecs in normal climate conditions – pre-Global Warming. The jury is still out on the verdict of whether the Tongariro River trout fishing is now better than before the power scheme changes.

(Above photos – 2018 ‘flood protection’ works below the Bridge Pool)

There is now a strong case for all trout fishing interests, clubs, councils, Advocates for the Tongariro River, DOC (Department of Conservation are the fishery managers) etc. to combine their historic knowledge and skills and prepare a legal compensation claim to the Government to replace the loss of the lower river pools. The original empty promises, to ensure the lower river fishing pools would not suffer from the hydro scheme, were mainly ‘political’ commercially inspired and ignored.

To replace their loss, it is time the allowable fishing limit was extended upriver beyond the existing Fence Pool by the development of anglers’ access tracks up both banks to link with the Poutu Dam. Any questions on the financial viability would be easily overcome if the trail was suitable for tourist bikes as well.

But back to the pool ratings…

The named pools are rated out of 20 in category descriptions as follows:

ACCESS: good car or foot access scores 3, poor access scores 0.

DIFFICULTY: Reported difficulties in casting to the fishy spot or finding the lie – scored out of 2.

SETTING: Scored for natural beauty and pure enjoyment of fishing – scored out of 3.

RELIABILITY: Indicates reliability as a top producing pool all year round – scored out of 9.

SNAGS: No likelihood scores 1; known snags scores 0.

WADING: Waders not needed scores 1; difficulty in wading scores 0.

PRESSURE: Refers to angling pressure – a popular regularly crowded pool scores 0.

TOTAL: The closer to 20, the better the overall pool rating.

This is the third revision of the original 2011 map. It is overdue following more recent flooding which altered so many pools. i.e. Previous top-rated pools, such as the Bridge Pool previously well established as the most popular river pool in New Zealand – see photo below – have slumped to a revised rating of 10 out of 20. Others have improved considerably with the town pools in particular regaining their previous reputations.

The new revised Bucket List maps are now available at TRM reception.