Earthquake effects on trout?
Following the 4.5 earthquake at Turangi yesterday there was considerable speculation on how trout react? In our experience the trout seems to feel earthquakes more and lie ‘doggo’ and sulk for quite a while immediately after any small local tremors so the river fishing results suffer? So the following fb comment – thanks to Laurel Teirney – was of particular interest:
Sausage Roll snarls traffic:
Facebook also featured the giant sausage roll when 55 tons of sausage meat almost landed in Lake Taupo. SH1 at Bulli Point was closed for a day and everyone at TRM had a long restful day without the usual traffic. Anglers were hoping the trout would get a good feed to fatten them up for spawning?
Lake Taupo Trout Fishing Report For 26/03/2017
Shane French /
March 26, 2017
Hey all.
I’ll get straight into it.
The Waitahanui took ages to get some Browns in there but hey it happened so lets be happy. The rip has been strong for months now, coming straight out from the Bridge pool. This is great as it means no fish will be taken from the straight. The crap weather we have had all summer has meant that boats have not plundered the area off the Rip. This means more fish will come into the Nui in the first runs. I would say the Nui will fish better than it did last year. Although that should’t be hard considering how bad it was. I am going to be able to walk it’s banks on a regular basis at the start of the season, I hope to see DOC out there otherwise I will post about it.
The Hinemaiaia took ages to get its annual run of summer fish too. I think the weather had something to do with that too. The rip fired for Browns though so that was good. All I can say about the poor old Hine, is that if DOC put up the number of trout we can take, this river is toast. I am super interested in what this season will be like. When it does suffer, (and it will) all those people that have flogged it for years will start complaining. DOC certainly have their heads firmly planted up their collective butts over this river and considering it is so plain to see what will happen, I am gob smacked. Anyway it fished well with dry’s over the end of summer and some fun was to be had on the evening rise with very small dry’s.
Wow the Tauranga Taupo has been up and down like it should have been over winter with water volume. Honestly this summer has been a shocker. It’s not until you check things on a regular basis that you come to realize just how much rain we have had, don’t mention the wind. I haven’t fished the TT as walking that far would kill me, however it would have been interesting to walk it’s banks as the water levels dropped to see if any freshies had moved in, I bet they did. What will the TT offer this season. It didn’t fish great last year, the trout were in certain patches of water but not like the year before. I am not sure I want to put my neck out there on this one, lets wait and see. However what a magic piece of water!!
The good old Tongariro. God if you followed Ross from the Tongariro River Motel, (and you should), then there were masses of trout in there all summer. Dear old Ross, I do love him. However I must say that some great trout have come out of the Tongariro. A friend and I bought a commercial grade Raft, 3 man and rafted down from the top just after Christmas. Good grief I have never seen so many fish up there, bloody thousands of the buggers. So I am sure that over the summer period some of those would have drifted back down. I fished the Tongariro in early January and had a blast, I then fished it in late February and again did really well. In fact I probably had the best day of my life on there. The fish were not huge, being between two and 3.5 pounds but they hit hard and fought well. I didn’t touch a Brown, but for that I would have needed to have got on the water a little earlier than I did. So maybe Ross isn’t telling porkies all the time hmmm. I don’t know about the Tongariro for the start of Winter. In the past it has been slow to fire but has had a tremendous end to the season. Lets wait and see on this, however the only way to find out is to get out there and do it. Some massive Browns have been hooked swinging Wets and if you haven’t done this, you should!
The lake, when you can get out there is producing some nice conditioned trout. I am not hearing of anything slabby. Most of the trout are over 3 pound with good flesh. They are in big schools so if you get a hit, spin around and hit that water again.
Once again I am not guiding this season. My knee is crap and I need a further operation on it in the near future. To be honest I wont guide as in the near future I will be getting an artificial one and when that happens I will need to conserve it for myself, or I will wear it out and that will be no good!! I am still available for flies through my web site and I have two new patterns to put on that I have trialed all summer, when I got out. I’m not too worried about the guiding as some of you made me pull my hair out and grow older on the spot 
:0 .One thing is for sure, I enjoyed EVERYONES company on the water, you are all good buggers, even if some of you slashing hideous throwing buggers made me cringe.
Regards Shane
Sun 19th March, 2017
We may be well into March already but we’ve enjoyed some wonderful summer-like weather in Turangi this week. Mind you, if you’re on the river at first light the dawn chill quickly reminds you summer is over.
As a further reminder the first of the early autumn mushrooms are making an appearance and in a couple of weeks the tracks along the river will be dotted with fly agaric and white basket fungi.
Last weeks fresh kick started some excellent fishing, both for rainbows and browns but the brown trout fishing in particular has been extraordinary. Last year many of the browns caught were between five and seven pounds. So far this year they’re up in both condition and size and I’ve been lucky enough to land some crackers, especially the last few weeks.
There seem to be more browns around this year and although I’ve encountered them as far up as Big Bend all of the well known “hot spots” from the lower river up are holding these imposing looking fish. At the moment its still difficult to go past some of the town and middle river stretches and places like Judges, the Island Pool, Rip, Hydro, Cicada and Stag are all worth trying.
I don’t “wet line” but every one of the tried and trusted nymphing techniques are working. If you fancy using something a little different try spider patterns under the big dry.
These simple “nothing looking” flies have been around since the 1800’s and the development of the fly makes interesting reading North Country Spider
Before the old Braids was taken from us I sometimes used to fish them in the traditional way through the lovely runs and riffles that were such a feature of that stretch of river back then. The Oliver Edwards series of videos entitled “Essential Skills” provide an excellent insight into the set-up and technique of fishing North Country Spiders. Upstream Nymphing and North Country Spider And despite the fact that “the Braids” are no longer with us there are still plenty of places on the river where this method will work.
My fishing buddy Mike of Fransham’s Fancy Flies gave me a few of his spider patterns to try a week or two ago. But because I like to chase browns in the slower water at this time of year I’ve been dead drifting them under the big dry with great results.
Its the same setup that I’ve mentioned dozens of times before. But remember it has to be a fairly substantial dry fly because it has to hold up a 2 mm tungsten bead middle fly without sinking.
And depending where you’re fishing, sometimes the point fly may also have to be slightly weighted.
So … don’t be shy with the dry. {that rhymes}
I find a size 12 or 14 works best for the middle fly … which is always some sort of caddis pupa. With whatever you’re using below it generally tied on a size 14 or 16.
If you’re interested in giving “spiders” a go Davie McPhail is a great source of inspiration and this easy to tie pattern works well. Olive Spider
Right … that’ll do. The sun is shining and my darling is back from church so I’d better get outside and join her in the back garden for an hour or two.
More fresh running rainbows caught again this week with some nice fish amongst them.
The river looks fantastic and everything is working, I’ve even had a few take the dry.
With a better than average chance of clocking a good brown it doesn’t get any better.
The “summer weather” is with us until Wednesday, then more rain forecast for the second half of this week.
I’ll be after salmo trutta again in the morning.
See you out there
Tight lines
Mike
Tomorrow –
Special report on salmon fishing promised in Lake Taupo !??? Don’t miss it…