These publicity posters were displayed at the highest-traffic locations, such as railway stations, showing how previous Governments recognised the importance of trout fishing for tourism to promote NZ’s 100% pure rivers and trout fishing… through the old Tourism Department until the 1960’s.  Since then, in the Taupo region, promotional activities have been delegated to DOC, the fishery managers, and local councils, and have been neglected.  What a surprise!

Since then, as evidenced by declining fishing licence sales, the public image and popularity of trout fishing have continued to decline. That may have been inevitable, considering the increased time dedicated to television programmes, followed by the more recent explosive growth in kids video games.

The most effective promotion of trout fishing occurred during the same period, arising from a Robert Redford film adaptation of the 1976 book “A River Runs Through It” by Norman Maclean, which featured a new young star, Brad Pitt. Maclean’s book is one of those rare memoirs that can now be called a masterpiece. No work of fly–fishing literature has enjoyed more popular, critical, and commercial success than Norman Maclean’s novella, A River Runs Through It

The 1992 film precipitated a substantial, immediate surge in the popularity of fly fishing, with industry sales and participation increasing unbelievably by approximately 60% annually in the years following its release. It transformed fly fishing from a niche hobby into a romanticised, mainstream, and artistic sport, heavily boosting Montana tourism and the fishing tackle industry.

(A comparable appealing clever promotion may be all it needs to transform and spur a recovery in Turangi’s economy. Any ideas?)