Facebook quote:  When in gods name will people realise, that rivers are the threads that bind us all together – land, people, life. And when will agencies (supposedly) working on the environments behalf – and ours – take polluting these vital strands of life seriously enough to hand out fines so harsh, that people will REALLY think twice about destroying such precious resources. 

(On facebook today by Charles Jardine, author of 15 books – i.e. The Classic Guide to Fly-Fishing for Trout etc.)

What a wonderful time of the year when we are such lucky recipients of so much good cheer.  This is to sincerely thank all the readers out there in cyberspace for their continued support and encouragement for TRM Reports to keep them informed on all fishy matters on the Tongariro and from Turangi.

To maintain the TRM pattern of good cheer that has been followed for the last decade, those fortunate readers who devour the TRM Daily Report regularly but never stay here, usually donate a bottle of good wine (or six pack?)as their equivalent annual subscription.  This is entirely voluntary of course – just a few cents a day as appreciation.  The image below illustrates the good cheer received this festive season. 

Many anglers have holiday homes here or live in Taupo or where they can manage day trips but still rely on TRM Daily Reports to keep their passion for fly fishing alive and well throughout the year, or when their season is closed, to keep them up to date with anything fishy that may be of interest to them. 

Sometimes the fishing is slow so we have widened our reporting net beyond the Tongariro River to comment on many other tourist topics and good causes that need airing.  Many imagine this is all our work but we rely on so many other ‘ghost writers’ as well sending articles or their gripes to fill in all the gaps – particularly with the more contentious issues.

For the elderly scribe this is an arduous ambitious labour of love happily directed at TRM inmates, although we are aware of the wider interest out there by the surprisingly still increasing numbers reading facebook updates as well.  So your ‘annual subs’ are most appreciated and will inspire the content to continue to provide a daily mix of information and entertainment and fishy humour to start your day.  Just remember at all times to make sure you read between the lines as well.

This spirit of goodwill was apparent again today after receiving another generous “annual subscription” from a TRM Daily Report addict who commented on how much he enjoyed TRM’s Daily Reports.  He delivered two bottles of wine with an apology! (can you believe it?)  His reason was that earlier in 2016 he considered TRM had gone too far in pleading for action for maintaining clean rivers.  Ditto Fish & Game. 

He was so interesting.  He was a retired farmer from up Waikato way with a nice little trout stream running along one boundary.  Over the years their traditional  farming practice carried on over three generations was to remove any weeds and blackberry and scrub along the stream banks to be as efficient as possible – i.e. their aim was 100% pasture. 

We explained that sometimes the reports deliberately go ‘over the top’ to emphasise an issue and we apologised for any upsets we generated.  But now he conceded that erosion and run-off has been spoiling the water quality too much and acknowledged there is a wavy middle line – with some help from his son… 

So he sucked it in, confessed the farming practices back then were not in the wider interests, and had spent the last few years planting and fencing off the banks and rewarded TRM as well.  What a neat bloke.  We should be rewarding him with the wine…