Tongariro River has been enjoying cold frosty foggy mornings followed by brilliant days, no wind, bright sunny beautiful but challenging conditions.

Images were taken on Friday midday during my bike inspection, but similar to Saturday weather.

Some inmates report hooking up on first or second casts while others struggled. The best plan is not to have one and explore the locations between the pools. The no-name spots between the pools seem to be producing most hook-ups. Locate virgin undisturbed water is the winning recipe.

On my new bike trial up river some really big trout were seen but in awkward spots. The view above is from the true right just below the confluence of the Mangamawhitiwhiti Stream in the popular Hydro Pool. Even without polaroids you should be able to make out the huge log sunk across the lie. It is probably the combined weight of hundreds of woolly buggers that is keeping it anchored. Any angler managing to drift across the flow is sure to get snagged. So where were the trout? All lined up above and below the log with four of them really big koura crunchers worth risking some gear for…

Other pools which we often apply as barometers for measuring the trout in the river were barren – i.e. Admirals and Duchess! Admirals has changed since the last 300+ cumec flood at the end of May. The trout used to sit behind the shelter of the sand shelf at the top of the pool. That has now been washed away which may account for the lack of trout seen from the high cliff above the TRB.

Below is the 2014 short video of Duchess featuring Murray displaying how easy it once was…