Thank you to another TRM inmate for his report from last week on the Tongariro River fishing…

Tongariro River Report – Jan 15th.

It was a true delight to return once again to the Tongariro River Motel, a favourite of mine. Ross & Pip have set it up perfectly for anglers… the rooms are spacious, well equiped, comfortable & extremely affordable… and it feels ‘genuine’. 

And Ross is always happy either to lend or rent out his equipment – and offer experienced advice on how & where to target the fish. At various time in the last 10 days I have been on & off the river… visiting numerous pools & runs.

Here’s what I found after about 5 days on the water – on & off – 8-14th Jan. My catch rate was been about 1 per day. (At least 2 days I got nothing – as I was ‘off-games’ with back & knee issues so only cursory outings). Overall, there has been very, very little surface activity … in all that time, I only saw one fish taking off the surface – only one! – yesterday, 14th Jan – in a quiet back-swirl in the Pouto Pool. He succumbed to a self-tied size 14 Klinkhammer with a segmented light body. A thin male with a pronounced hook jaw, but only about 3 lbs.

On the famous Judges Pool, Jan 10 or 11th…  I set myself up for the evening rise after a warm day (?)….from 7.30 until 9 pm, I observed no rises, maybe 2 insects rising from the water & four swooping birds momentarily… nothing more.

I should admit that I never once opted for a dual nymphing rig (for bottom-hugging fish). Instead, I opted for a ‘mixed grill’ — dry fly atop a nymph a loooong way back – because I wanted to test when and if they’d rise to a dry fly (being summer!).  

The river itself is looking great.

My advice would be to set your exceptions low, and if you can’t see anything, just accept it… slow down & cover the water with careful, unhurried & diligent drifts. Alternatively, keep moving… covering large sections of the river… only slow down once you see a feeding fish.

Guy Faber. 15/1/26