Last Saturday TRM’s ‘retired’ guide, Chris Beattie, called in looking for another guest angler to accompany him on a drift down the Tongariro to fish those pools which are almost impossible to access for most anglers. 

Jim Rowlands from USA immediately volunteered.  Jim was not a strictly a guest but qualified as an ex-inmate as he was still wearing his TRM hat.  They had a perfect day but the fishing was relatively slow considering the perfect conditions. They rowed or drifted down from Blue Pool to the Island Pool and landed about 15.  The next day Chris did a similar trip down the Whanganui – from Kakahi.

Which made us wonder why this method of fishing the middle Tongariro pools is not more popular?  Americans who practice raft drift fishing more often in their big West Coast rivers often ask the same question. 

In particular, this opens up new fishing opportunities for those ‘senior’ anglers (guess who?) who struggle to walk or wade to those more difficult remote spots where the trout are rarely spooked. 

Particularly on the TRB (True Right Bank looking down river) below the Blue Pool, TRB Boulder Pool, Big Bend, Fan Pool, Boulder Reach, Poutu Pool, Shag Pool, Silly Pool, Birch Pool, Stag Pool, Never Fail Pool, etc. are all easily accessed without effort by raft. 

So watch this space – we will test it more often on TRM’s raft fleet.