Brian with a ‘horse’ from the ‘TT”.
Brian Willson, NZPFGA member, is a professional guide and I Love Fly Fishing close friend and Ambassador, brings us his weekly fly fishing report from Turangi for the Central North Island lakes and rivers. For up to date info, for what flies are working call Brian, 021667867. Euro/Czech, Dry Fly, Trout Spey, Nymph and Wet Fly.
Greetings fellow fly fishers,
Well, it has been an actioned packed week, and some superb fishing has been experienced by most fishermen. It would be fair to say that the winter runs are well and truly underway. After the rain last weekend there has been a lot more fish enter the rivers and also a significant increase in angler numbers. I spent a bit of time on the rivers this week and had good success on all of them. Earlier in the week I went to the Hinemaiaia and was surprised to see a lot of vehicles parked up. I say surprised because the previous week there was hardly anyone on the river and the fishing was good.
It is still good and will continue to be for some time now. If you don’t mind a bit of company whilst fishing, then you will have success here. You need only find an unoccupied spot and throw your line out. The fish will find you even if you are stationary (which sometimes can’t be helped on this river). I didn’t stay there long and decided to check out the Tongariro. While there were a number of anglers around, it is a lot easier to find a bit of space on this river compared to the Hinemaiaia. I did this and caught some lovely fish on the nymph. A little hint here, sometimes water that doesn’t look fishy, often is. This water is overlooked by many anglers as being too shallow and too fast. I mentioned this in my last report. If you look at the photo of the fast, shallow Tongariro River you can see a piece of white water in the centre of the picture. This is obviously the water flowing over an obstruction like a log or a rock.
For a considerable stretch below this water is a flat slick that is prime trout water and is worth drifting your nymph through several times. There WILL be trout in there. The faster water also disguises a lot of imperfections that may be present when you are casting. The next couple of days I spent at the “TT”. The height midweek was around 0.6m which gave it that milky green colour. Too high you say, no, this is when the wet line with a big woolly bugger or similar is king especially when the river is falling. I took both the wet line and nymph rig set up with me and there was no doubt that the fast-sinking line with a dark streamer (black, Olive, or combination of the 2) won the day. I caught several beautiful fish that gave me a great scrap and lost as many. I always find these “TT” fish to be a hard fighting strain for some reason.
Behaviour on the rivers appears to be good and I would ask that everyone exercise good etiquette. We don’t go fishing to have arguments. Sometimes people will jump in front of you and genuinely don’t know that they are breaking the ethical rule. Communication is key and if you are not sure what someone is doing, ask them.
While I am not selling, I Love Fly Fishing gear from the store in Turangi now, I would recommend you look at the products online, www.iloveflyfishing.kiwi and order what you need. Feel free to call Barrie, 021-925006. You will receive your goods in quick order and at a great price.
Well, that’s it for another week so get out there and do it, you won’t be disappointed. -Brian.
