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The wind and the willows.
Fri 7th March, 2014
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With autumn officially upon us, right on cue the weekend weather changed and temperatures dived overnight.
I was on the river early Saturday and Sunday and there was a real nip in the air until the sun rose above the trees and warmed things up a bit.
On parts of the river the foliage looks as if its already taking on its autumn colors but despite the drop in temperature its still a little too soon for that. In fact its a result of the spraying program as the willow clearance and flood management work continues on the Tongariro.
It must be pretty powerful weed-killer because
I was actually fishing this area when they first treated it and remember the contractor coming over to ask us if we were moving up or downriver, obviously so that he could spray in the opposite direction ... well away from us.
When I fished there again a couple of days later the leaves were already beginning to brown up ...
I could do with some of that stuff for my garden.
 
The weekend saw more fish moving up and as is so often the case when fish are moving through if you're in the right place ... at the right time you'll have a blast.
That's what happened to Chris Wilson a retired pilot on vacation in New Zealand. He had a great introduction to fly fishing hooking several nice rainbows as some small runs passed by on a chilly Saturday morning. A bit later he lost a brown which grabbed his caddis in only eighteen inches of water.
The next day it was a very different story for experienced American angler Bob Rigney who put in a lot of effort and fished several spots on the river to get his three fish. That's Bob in the lead photograph delighted with a fish he caught in the Upper Birch.
By Monday a cold fresh southerly began to pick up and remained a feature on the Tongariro until it finally eased on Thursday afternoon.
I've no doubt its one of the reasons angling pressure has been so light for most of the week.
These cold southerlies are probably the ones that give anglers most trouble on the Tongariro depending where and what side of the river you happen to be on at the time.
But there are a few things you can do to help out on those windy days.{scroll above}
First of all try not to be too ambitious and keep things simple.
I very rarely do much false casting, even on a calm day. In order to effectively nymph the Tongariro you have to use weight. But this combination of heavy bombs and trailing droppers is not ideal for conventional fly casting. This is why I water-load, use the Belgian cast or combine both when I'm fishing.
Concentrate on areas where you don't need to cast long distances. If you are able to fish a short line it will give you much better control and presentation. Mending effectively at distance when you're upstream nymphing in a downstream wind is extremely difficult.
Runs and riffles are great places to find trout and remember when they're lying in shallower water their view of the outside world is reduced ... making it easier to sneak up on them.
And if things get too bad, you can always move over to the dark side and dig out the wet-line. Its far easier to cast and control a heavy sinking line in the wind than an indicator set-up.
 
Above is David Marsh from the U.K who spent a couple of days on the river this time last week. Although he's been coming here since the nineties and this was trip number fourteen ... it was only the second time he'd fished the Tongariro.
David was another angler who did well, landing over a dozen rainbows and losing three browns. You can see by the angle of the line that the brown he's playing has just made an impressive leap on the opposite bank ... but unfortunately its about to throw the hook.
It all proved too much for David and he had to have a lie down to recover.
There could be a little blip in the weather for Sunday but other than that it looks as if we're in for a mostly settled week ahead with some warm autumn sunshine and light winds.
A few of the fish this week took the bomb but I'm still doing ok on small nymphs like the Cadillac.
I would expect things to keep ticking over much as they have done for a while now, with no real change until we get the rain forecast for next weekend.
See you out there guys.
Tight lines
Mike. |
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