Continuing anglers photo-journey up river… On Wednesday the TRM Daily Report showed images of the town pools that were hardly affected by the weekend 700+ cumec flood. At the time the river was flowing about 40 cumecs. Further up river through the “middle pools” are a few more surprises.
Arguably the prettiest pool on the Tongariro is Kamahi. No changes.
The force of the flood is evident in the flood debris flung up on the TLB and the flattened bushes along the banks.
It may be too early to judge but the diagonal crossing down to Never Fail Pool island looks more difficult although the cleaned stones should provide more grip. Make sure you take a wading pole.
Similarly the Admirals and up to Cicada look much the same. In the image above the gravel shelf in the tail of Cicada looks wider to provide easy wading in the tail. Last season there were two massive Browns lurking in the deep pool in the tail. I expect they will still be there. They were only usually seen at day’s end during the evening rise. Their role in life was to chase any Rainbows out of the pool into the head of the Cicada Pool under the cliffs – where they were easier to hook.
Looking down into the head of Cicada Pool the gravel bank appears wider to help wading. With the lack of much clarity – still settling and clearing after the flood – we could not see how many were waiting for anglers. Usually we can see exactly where they are on station and work out where to stand and cast. Then anglers can bike around to the Stag Carpark on the TLB knowing their chances of success are much better.
If they do that then they should always have a quick flick into the tail of Stag Pool from the TLB – just through the bush from the car park. From what I could observe, the angler in the image above hooked up on his first cast. Opposite him on the TRB the beach at Stag Pool has shrunk – where the rafter on a tractor tyre is floating – and the head of the run has changed.
If you can spot the sticks poking out of the river, that is where the angler access track down to Stag Pool used to be. Now it will involve a long wade through the snags – perhaps smarter to miss it out in favour of the next pool up river – Cattle rustlers and Barlow’s Reach.
Above is the track leading up to Stag Pool which now just drops off the edge.
Looking back down the TRB towards Barlows Reach in the distance and upper Birch Pool – all looks much the same except the big stone in the tail has gone. This always sheltered a couple of fish but they have gone too.
Looking up river from Birch Pool on TRB – also known as Sly Grog Pool – the confluence below the island from Silly Pool looks perfect. It appears to have moved further over to the TRB. The only problem is there were no trout in there. They are most likely all lined up along the TLB beside the Trout Centre being fed by the kids.
Looking up river from the cliff above Duchess Pool, the ledge below the bypass where we always could spot a dozen or so trout feeding appears to have moved. We did not spot even one, but that may have been due to lack of clarity. Shag Pool looks much the same.
The view down to Shag Pool below the Red Hut swingbridge is much the same. The stoney beach on TRB at the tail looks wider. Some anglers call this beach in the distance the Shag-Hut pool – it looks better than ever. Below the view above the bridge looks much the same with perhaps more stoney beach exposed to assist casting (?) into the run.
