Last Thursday evening two keen novice student anglers (from The Norwegian Angling Academy, led by their teacher Eskil Roekke) went exploring up the Tongariro River to try to discover a pool to catch a trout by themselves.

The two young vikings were Borge Dreyer & Arne Hebnes –  That is their photo on right.  (Can you identify their Scandinavian Viking heritage?)

Eventually they found a promising spot where they thought they could see the trout feeding but the fish ignored their casting efforts.  How frustrating…

After a while an “old” (these kids are only 18 years old so anyone over thirty would be classified as “old”) local angler wandered along and checked on their progress.   The Norwegians welcomed his offer of help to show them what they might have been doing wrong and to see if he was more successful.  He demonstrated his casting style and of course hooked up immediately…

The Vikings were so impressed, so after the benefit of one-on-one lessons from him on how to improve their casting technique – firing out heavier nymphs and how to improve their presentation and mending to achieve a natural drift, etc. they tried again, but still struggled to interest the trout.

So the old angler then rejigged their lines and removed their nymphs to tie on his own hand-tied versions and they tried again.  Immediate success!  They were so pumped.

They reported back this morning that they were so thrilled and thankful for the tuition.  The “old” angler had spent about two hours with them so they were very grateful.

I asked around the motel in case it was any of TRM’s inmates that had been so helpful  So far five have claimed responsibility in the hope of a reward…

If that “old” angler recognises himself then we have a lucky TRM hat waiting for him.

Thank you for all the over-whelming response to the Sunday report – reluctantly commenting on the continuing falling fishing licence sales in the Taupo region explained by the demographic profile.  That is why the young Vikings’ visit was so important.  They confirmed the  Norwegian Government recognises the value and importance of attracting young people into fishing by offering interest-free student loans for their “study”.  NZ offers nothing.

The tragic statistics in Sunday’s report showed the bulk of Taupo fishos are now unfortunately well past retirement age and dying off faster than new young anglers are found to replace them.  It is the cruel inevitable reality.  If you think we might be going on a bit too much about this then you should hear what others have been saying to us – I only post the “edited” versions.  Based on the statistics the local trout industry appears doomed unless something is done soon to encourage young people into trout fishing?  That really is the responsibility of DOC and Taupo Council.

Historically trout fishing was the very basis of tourism in this region.  Even Taupo Council’s previous logo featured trout images and acknowledged the importance of trout fishing – see image on right.  Then about eight years ago they removed the signage – preferring to delete trout fishing?  Now, possibly due to the growth in tourism continuing strongly regardless, they don’t seem to care about the importance and deteriorating numbers of tourist anglers.

i.e. TRM was even attacked and fined by Taupo Council for promoting the same trout fishing message on motel signage.  Again, that indicates how they failed to encourage and promote trout fishing?

But why is this significant?  What will happen if the decline over the last decade continues?

Apart from the loss of up to 300 jobs and $29 million generated annually by the trout fishing industry, it means all the other infrastructure will diminish proportionately with falling licence sales.  TRM inmates are concerned that without the income from licence fees the fishery management will down-size resulting in fishing access tracks not being maintained.  (this is why TRM also promote trail biking to protect the existing access tracks and develop more…) Turangi’s three tackle shops will suffer with other fishy merchants and cafes etc. catering for the tourist anglers in Turangi.  Most desperate of all, TRM would get converted into rental flats…

As for SWMBO… She suggests Council should google and learn from TRM’s cool video: