How’s the fushin”?

Tongariro is fishin’ fine.

Tongariro River has recovered to normal winter flow level and is clearing nicely.  So we can hear you thinking, which pools are producing the best results?

After the overnight fresh, following a long dry, at this time of the season with fresh snow on the Kaimanawas, there had to be a spawning run?  Something to do with nature.

From the tongue-in-cheek reports received from inmates, trout were spread out throughout the river.

Several others planning their trips have been asking. Of course, we cannot admit we do not know.

We had two fishing clubs stay over the weekend and failed to report good catches. Strange?  But how do we know?

Typically, fishos sometimes have difficulty remembering how many, how big, and where they caught them.  That is a sure sign of achieving ultimate maturity at TRM.

That’s OK – SWMBO has become very clever at finding out all the info they do not want to reveal.

Women’s intuition even outscores AI.

For a start, we know from the evidence they left behind.  Every now and then, this motel turns into a fish factory.  i.e., for July, the usual weekend would produce about half a bin full of heads, etc., from the cleaning station.  By late Saturday, TRM’s rubbish collector, the old bloke you see sneaking around, had produced 2 bins of evidence.  So we immediately suspected someone was doing well.

Then add to that the evidence from the smoker.  They may not admit all the details but they don’t have to.  We don’t even need to see it.  SWMBO can tell. She can smell the beautiful woody scent from Red Oak chips.

You are warned, She is in Her element when we need to report on the highly confidential fishy location stuff.  The more secretive they think they are, the more they give away.  Female intuition.  She has no idea even where some of the pools are, but She does not have to.  She would be a champion at insider trading.

A warning:  Other fisho’s wives/partners are often Her usual source of secret inside information that they were sworn to keep to themselves.

Then there is other incriminating evidence.  i.e.  Paul Gandell took the photo above to warn of a pine tree straddling the Fan Pool – up above Boulder Reach.  Thank you, Paul.  He has been a regular inmate since 2008 and has even invented his own names for some pools to try to keep their location confidential.  Do you know where the Raglan Riffles are?  His photo reveals where…well almost.

Other anglers try to get sneaky and bring back their photos to show off their keepers, which can be just as revealing.

So now you know…