TRM is in trouble again, so we should reveal the full drama. Last Saturday TRM’s blog commented on the lack of fishos in the town pools – that the total of seven anglers seen were all in the same pool and asked readers to guess which pool. One reader replied the: “Troll’s Hole”. (He was wrong – they were all in Judges Pool, but that is not the issue.)
That was followed up with another blog, explaining that the “Troll’s Hole aka Bridge Pool had not been fishable for a couple of seasons and provided some brief photographic history of why the Bridge Pool has been deserted by anglers. For many years the Bridge Pool was the most popular and productive and reliable pool on the river. That received good response from over a thousand fishos. OK.
Then this morning I discovered an irate nasty blog from a regular objector to TRM’s reports complaining that he had never ever heard of the term “Troll’s Hole” used before and that it was blatantly racist and I was a racist and blah blah blah… Accordingly, the delete button was my response.
Simply, TRM reports are not an appropriate place for that sort of diatribe. These fishing reports started in 2004. Since then we have tried to report on anything fishy on the Tongariro River in particular and included other tourist info that readers might find interesting or informative.
Sadly, the daily reports have been subject to similar abuse previously when the contents, often provided by others, do not concur with some protestors’ spurious narrow views. The issue of trout farming was a classic when TRM copied a press release from Fish & Game and some objectors demanded we remove it and made similar childish threats and accusations. We similarly deleted and banned them. What a sick old world…
To try to explain the misunderstanding by the objector, the term “Troll’s Hole” was not a racist jibe. It was originally from a nursery rhyme when – according to SWMBO – trolls hid under a bridge and only appeared to prevent people crossing over it.
In his enthusiasm to blame TRM, this regular objector has been misled once again.
Check Google: What is the origin of the trolls?
Scandinavian trolls emerged from ancient fairy tales and folklore in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. The word troll likely originated from the Norwegian words for witches and witchcraft, which were trollfolk and trolldom, respectively. There are also references to Trolls Hole from LOTR fans.
As for his claim that TRM invented it (?), the term has often been used before as confirmed by the following 2016 TRM report when the pool was so very popular:
Peak time at the Bridge Pool
Saturday morning 9 am peak hour rush – Turangi style…
This is a well known trout pool affectionately known as the Troll’s Hole or Bridge Pool on SH1 where it crosses the famous Tongariro River. Nothing remarkable about that except it is the most popular fly fishing pool in New Zealand…
But this is also at peak time – 9am on Saturday morning.???
Look at the queue desperately waiting to cast into this arguably the most successful pool in NZ. Not a soul to be seen?
A beautiful sunny day with a frost to start. The conditions are as perfect as it gets, river level is OK, still a bit murky after recent rains, flowing around 30 cumecs (m3/sec), no wind, but no anglers?
(SWMBO blames BREXIT?)
This is more like what it used to look like…
Meanwhile, thank you for all the feedback from over a thousand anglers who did not take exception to TRM’s pool description. A thousand to one is pretty good odds to show who is being a little paranoid?
For the many interested readers looking for something to really complain about (!) and to illustrate how the lower Tongariro River pools have been abused in the past, we provide more revealing photos below. The stone ramp they tried to build across to the Braids from Grace Road car park (used to be known as the Plank Pool) was dated June 2006. It was washed away two days later. The pipes are still buried in the river. They (WRC – Waikato Regional Council contractors) gave up quarrying the gravel but the trout fishing and spawning areas and nursery in the Braids never recovered. It may also be of interest to remind anglers that the Braids was originally formed from MOW (Ministry of Works) excavating the stoney gravels over fifty years ago for the Tongariro Hydro Scheme. The trout still survived!
The other photos are from further down-river in 2013 when the WRC works assisted the river flow to break through to cut out the DeLatours loop.
Above “Before” photo from car park dated 23 June 2006 Below “After” photo taken 26 June 2006.
Attempts to build a dam to prevent the river breaking through failed. Situation normal for WRC…
It is time that Tongariro River anglers negotiated compensation for their loss of fishing opportunities down river. These famous pools and the anglers access tracks were guaranteed to be protected and nurtured in the Crown’s agreement for the hydro scheme over sixty years ago. Their loss could be compensated by developing new access tracks up river to link with the Poutu Dam.
Now that is something worthwhile to complain about.
