Adele with success on the Hinemaiaia River.
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, we have had generally a pretty good week weather wise except for a bit of rain earlier in the week which juiced up the rivers nicely. At time of writing (Friday), all the rivers have settled down again and fishing is probably not as easy as it was at the beginning of the week. Today was a glorious day which brought out a lot of anglers to the rivers. All carparks were quite full of at least twenty vehicles at the “TT” carpark. Today I took regular client, Adele to the Hinemaiaia River reasonably early in the hope of getting about an hour or so fishing in before it became too crowded. Fortunately, when we arrived even though there were a few anglers there were also a few spaces available.
I managed to position her in a top spot where I had had some good success the previous week. We fished for a while and despite some really good drifts, the fish were not being very cooperative. About an hour into the fish, Adele was hooked up on a Jack that had been in the river a while. We were fishing fast water and fortunately the fish decided to sulk and hold its position saving me bolting after it downstream with my net. As is typical with a number of Jacks in this river, it had some battle scars from fighting other Jacks. They must be a grumpy breed, the trout in this river, because I see a lot more wounded fish in this river than any other. By mid-morning the river was crammed with fishers, so we decided to have a look at The Tongariro. The river was in great nick and while there was plenty of company here there were also a lot more fishable gaps than the Hinemaiaia.
I had been on this river 2 days earlier fishing the Judges Pool just checking things out in very windy conditions. The day was fine, but the wind was certainly a challenge although the V Top 8wt rod as sold by I Love Fly Fishing, made casting quite easy. Needless to say, I had the whole pool to myself, clearly the wind putting a lot of people off. I had some success down the tail of the pool swinging a big woolly bugger, often a method overlooked on this pool. The following day I checked out the Tauranga Taupo River. There has been some extensive planting of native plants done at the entrance by the carpark by Project Tongariro Mahi Community Restoration and they have done a fantastic job. This will encourage more native birds etc to the area and I actually had a fantail follow me for a good kilometre which kept me company on my walk.
The Tauranga Taupo River is running at a level of about 0.3m at the moment and I always prefer it between 0.4m and 0.6m. It is still a delight to fish at any time as, even when there are twenty cars in the carpark, there are plenty of pools just around the corner where you can fish undisturbed. I like this river to have a bit of colour. This can trigger some superb fishing at times. Well, that is it from me this week so if you have a bit of spare time, the river is not a bad place to be.
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.
