The Trout Man from Rotorua
He is such a good bugger, he deserves a TRM gong for introducing, encouraging and coaching so many novices to the joys of fly fishing.
So we are delighted to see Harvey Clark win the TRM peoples choice New Year Honour.
He has persevered with a series of injuries in 2025 that have slowed him down, but his determination to keep trout fishing is a good reminder of why fishing becomes more important as we all “mature”…
This is mentioned as at the end of another year we hear from so many regular inmates as they book to return again for their annual fix, to convince themselves of their immortality when trout fishing is involved. When they arrive, we usually review their updated medical report detailing how they have adjusted their tactics to accommodate replacement knees and hips. Then we appreciate how important the Tongariro therapy is to them.
Another TRM inmate , trout fishing author, Tony Bishop sharing war stories with Harvey back in 2016.
Harvey fully deserves all the gratitude and praise we can muster for planning to make the most of his retirement near Ngongotahahaha, and for sharing his knowledge and skills. After a few sessions with Harvey, they are qualified to head to the Tongariro River to test their new skills. As many of them have since graduated to become regular TRM inmates, he fully deserves all our thanks.
The earliest TRM fishing report by Harvey Clark from the NZ Herald was dated October 2003. TRM used to pinch his informative reports to keep inmates informed by a real journo and more reliable source.
The extract below is from a 2018 TRM report:
Harvey is a trout-fishing instructor known as “The Trout Man,” based in Rotorua, so he has forgotten more fishy stories than most fishos can tell. He was previously a journalist for the Southland Times and the Auckland Star and was well known for preparing the NZ Herald fishing report for about twenty years. His journalistic experience would be invaluable, as he has firsthand experience with the challenges novices face when learning fly-fishing. But just as important, he already has a huge following of trout fishing novices on social media, keen to buy his book. TRM have already ordered 12 copies – one for every unit.
We are waiting for Havey to write a book of his experiences. There are many technical trout fishing books available but very few composed by journalists and aimed at instructing newbies.
By far the most popular instructive book stolen from TRM’s fishing library is “the Trout Stream Papers” an excellent introduction to explain in simple terms all the theory and mystique – published many years ago by Tony Orman (another x-journalist from the old Tourist & Publicity Department) and illustrated so well by Daryl Crimp. We know how much it is appreciated, as we must be up to our tenth copy by now – they keep going missing!
To make sure of your copy of Harvey’s new book – you need to pre-order his new trout fishing instructional encyclopedia direct from the Trout Man to encourage him… harvtroutman@hotmail.com
The brief TRM video below was posted about 9 years ago.
A recent blog by Havey says it all:
The Trout Man
Memories … landed this brown at the Ngongotaha mouth on my 75th birthday seven years ago. I’m going after a bigger one for my 85th but I need to start preparing now. I’ve been too crook to fish all winter but I’ve got three years to recover and prepare. So as from today it’s press-ups every morning as well as the physio I’ve been doing for five months. And I need to keep the stroller well oiled. Might see you out there. I’ll yell if I get stuck and need a push.
