
Local Trout Fishing Reports
Sporting Life report
Monday 16 May 2016
Overcast with light drizzly rain falling at present. No wind first thing this morning. The Tongariro is highly fishable. No reports on the other rivers at this stage but should all be fishable.
Might be worth a look giving a glo bug a burn with the lower light conditions. There remains plenty of caddis life in the river at present. The wetlining has been quite effective over the last week in the Tongariro.
It is still early days with rainbow runs at present and exploration is needed to find where fish are most likely to be. If you fish an area of the river one day and catch very little, it may still be worth a look in a day or two as the fish may have trickled in.
A cooler and wetter change to the weather looks to be on the way from today which are usually good indicators for runs to occur. Snow is forecast for Mt Ruapehu for tomorrow and Wednesday. This should also cool off water temperatures.
Dust off the beanies, jumpers, fleeces and gloves as you may be needing them !
Taupo Trout Fishing Report
Shane French
May 17, 2016
Hey all.
Bloody hell its well into May. This time last year we were slaying them in all the rivers!! This year it is different, we just haven’t had the rain and the cold, together. The trout have been stacking up out the front of all Rips going into our Lake. If you were a rip fisherman I bet you have been doing well. The still weather we have had for about 6 weeks now has meant a few of the trout stacking up out the front decided to run, about ten days ago. Most of the river got a run of fresh silver trout, even though the water levels were low and clear. I guess they really just needed to get into a river, no matter what. I have seen this before many times. What I find is that the trout are pretty spooky with the low water levels. I fished to as group of about 8 nice fish on the Waitahanui the other day and they were just soooo spooky its not funny. When I tried a Glo Bug you could almost hear them scream!!
The water levels have gone up and down a wee bit over the last three days, not too much but certainly enough to make a difference. Last night however we really got a drenching here in Taupo. I see from the river level readings that further South didn’t quite get what we had but it was enough to raise the levels a bit. I am sure fish would have gone into every trib of Taupo. This should be our first taste of what the trout are going to be like for this season, so fingers crossed.
This is how I see it.
I fished the Waitahanui a few times last week. There are trout in there and they are getting past the bombardment but when I fished it on Sunday it was pretty empty of running trout. The straight down from Snag was empty. The spawning beds above Reids were empty. The trout I did pick up from the Nui were in spectacular condition
The Hinemaiaia is getting smashed already, well as soon as it gets a bit of rain anyway. I heard the cars in the car park this morning was horrific.
The Tauranga Taupo has had three peaks to .5 in as many days. This should have pushed trout into the TT. I bet they move fast up into the top pools, as the water drops quite quickly on the TT when the lake level is low, like it is.
TONGARIRO REPORT:
I fished the Tongariro a wee bit last week as well. God what a magic river that is. Every time I go there I get inspired to fish. It just looks and feels fishy. I fished both the lower, middle and upper pool last week. I actually found it hard going up until you found a small group of the silver suckers. Then I pulled a few! If ever there was a river that applied to the ” If you ain’t getting them move” rule, the Tongariro is it. I found the group that had come in a few days earlier in the top pools, they had probably done 15 km in 6 days, just slowly moving up. I took all my trout on the Tongariro with either my Black Bodied Reaper, (3.8 ml) or the Red Bead Reaper. The fact I was using light Nymphing gear meant my drift was uninhibited by rocks or weed. I was casting a fair distance and getting good long drifts. The Red Bead Reaper will get interest because of the Red, buggy look it has and it certainly worked.
I am due to go for a fish tomorrow and will check out the state of the rivers then. Until the next time, tight lines to all.
Regards Shane