Fishing updates

Tongariro at Turangi_2DNot enough rain to make much difference but the colder temperatures should initiate the spawning runs.

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

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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!!

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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.

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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

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Mike Hughes:

Some color does the trick.

Sun 15th May, 2016

The rain we’ve had over the last few days was nowhere near the amount forecast and the flows barely increased. But it did put some color into the river which has encouraged some fish to move up at last. Over the weekend the smaller less mature early running rainbows that have been such a feature for the past few weeks have been joined by some much bigger fish.I was on the river Saturday fishing between Neverfail and Judges and got busted off a couple of times. At first I thought they may have been browns because good rainbows have been few and far between lately … so it was a pleasant surprise when I finally got one in the net.Some of the hens I landed were fat with eggs and weren’t hanging around. And while fishing one run I spotted a couple of fish “porpoising” on their way upstream something you often see when the fish are moving through quickly.

Its always tricky trying to gauge how fast fish are moving up but for at least the next day or two I think I’d concentrate my efforts from the middle river down. I’ve done a couple of sorties further up since the last report and this time I found it tough, although other anglers may have had a different experience.This morning I called into Creel to see Grant, pick up some flies and compare notes and one thing of particular interest did crop up.Recently I treated myself to a new nymphing rod.I’ve always liked Loop rods and with new models superseding the older X grip Eveotech’s, they’re being discounted. So I grabbed a bargain and picked up a 10ft 8wt.

I prefer longer rods because on a big river like the Tongariro the extra length gives you better line control. My wife has been telling me for thirty years an extra couple of inches would help … but I digress. Anyway I’ve been keen to get hooked up to see how it handled while playing a fish. Regular readers of my blurb know that I always carry three rods, each one set up differently for nymphing. I’m going to pluck a figure out of the air here … lets say over the last three or four sessions on the river I’ve caught twenty fish. Despite using all three setups not one of those fish was caught on my shiny new rod rigged in the traditional way with indicator, bomb and nymph … food for thought!

Of course that breakdown will change once the runs are underway in earnest and the river takes on its winter look. But even then those other methods will still account for a lot of fish.

So the forecast was way off again and the rain never really happened in Turangi. It was more a case of heavy drizzle and at the moment although the wind has picked up the sun is shining. But they did get enough further up to turn the river that creamy green color and its been perfect nymphing conditions.

The overcast,damp calm days we had earlier in the week also kicked off some good afternoon mayfly hatches. And there were often dozens of birds intercepting the duns as they tried to make it to the safety of the foliage along the river bank.

The best hatches often occur in these condition’s.

As the nymphs begin their transformation into the sub imago they head towards the surface. At this time their mouth parts harden and no longer function … so cool, damp, cloudy days lessen the chances of dehydration.

The 10 day outlook is again for a really unsettled spell with wind, rain, thunder you name it. This weather pattern always has a beneficial effect eventually and now that we’ve had another good run of fish, more should quickly follow and keep coming.

I’ve found there’s been a dramatic improvement over the last few days with more browns and much better rainbows than we’ve had of late … hopefully this will continue … famous last words!

Tight lines guys

Mike

Nice bright morning after a  thunder storm last evening with enough rain to put a hint of colour in to the Tongariro.How ever like last Saturday not enough rain to put some serious volume of water in to the Tongariro.DSC01780Caught this nice hen at 10 15 this morning while having morning tea. I was swinging a wooly bugger and she could not resist.DSC01781She is back in the river to carry on with her spawning run. Still very few rods on the Tongariro and with the wind we have at the moment I doubt that there would be too many boats on the great lake.I would expect that there will be a some freshies sneaking in the river of Taupo over the next few day’s.