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Czech this out !
Sat 28th February, 2015
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  First up ... apologies for the lack of reports. Its been a busy few weeks and I've been trying to juggle fishing and the house renovations.
Hopefully this should be finished by April and we can sit back on the deck with a cold beer and enjoy our new views of Lake Taupo.
The fishing on the Tongariro has been excellent.
The old cliche that the summer fishing is the Tongariro's best kept secret has never been more true than this year.
Just look for instance at some of the browns that have appeared in the local reports over the last few weeks ... and remember not every brown caught has its picture taken.  
But it isn't only browns providing sport for anglers. There have been plenty of rainbows caught as well, with fresh fish continuing to move up.
At present most stretches hold fish and they're not difficult to spot if you're wearing Polaroids.
The past week has seen more good jacks landed most of them spraying out milt as you unhook them.
Its early days but it will be interesting to see if we get some big Autumn runs.
In recent years the traditional expectations of how the Tongariro will fish at a particular time of year have gone straight out the window.
Runs seem to happen at any time, often not even needing a fresh to kick start the fish.
This unpredictability is one of the reasons I love this river ... you just never know.
The big contingent of American anglers around this summer have had a ball.
The strength of the U.S dollar against the Kiwi has seen an influx of anglers from the States keen to take advantage of the great fishing and favorable exchange rate.
I don't think a day goes by lately without bumping into an American tourist somewhere in Turangi.
This has got to be good for the local economy and demonstrates how important a draw-card the Taupo fishery is to the area.
One visitor some of you may have come across is Roman Heimlich. Roman is an internationally known expert in the art of Czech nymphing and a member of his countries gold medal winning team. I've had the pleasure of fishing and socializing with him and watching him in action on the Tongariro brings home just how much more there is still to learn about trout fishing. Despite having fished with and against some of the best competition fly fishing anglers in the world Roman is one of the nicest most unassuming guys you'll ever meet and I'll be sorry to see him return home in a couple of weeks.
   
The Tongariro is one of his favorite New Zealand rivers and on certain stretches Czech nymphing will out-fish any other method. However Roman will be the first to admit its only part of the answer and won't work everywhere. Its most effective in fast moving water two to five feet deep and often involves "hard wading" to reach and fish some of these spots. He has an amazing sense of balance and effortlessly fishes above waist level in deep runs that us mortals would find distinctly uncomfortable and probably avoid. Watching him pull out fish after fish virtually under the rod is fascinating and its a technique I intend to learn and practice because it will open up a little bit more of the Tongariro. Next time you're in Creel ask Grant to put on the footage of Roman playing a big brown on the upper river. He's landed heavier fish since and all of them on his trusty 10ft 5wt.
I think I mentioned last time that the cicada action on the Tongariro this year could turn out to be a bit of a disappointment. Although anglers have taken a few fish on cicada imitations it hasn't been that good. The numbers around are well down on last year and its a bit late now. The funny thing is they seem to be making a lot more noise everywhere except along the banks of the Tongariro river.
Plenty of other insects around though and caddis have been been a good bet all week. I hear anglers fishing into dark have also done well but I haven't been able to stay on the river for a late session this week.
A few more days of warm settled weather then some cooler showery stuff for the second half of next week. Fish numbers are high and the Tongariro has fished well all summer, as we head into Autumn this should continue. Its been an exceptional year for browns and I'm sure they'll be delighted that the hoards of juvenile fish are still around. At this time of year we often see some of the best browns of the season caught and I'm expecting some great fish to figure in the reports over the coming weeks.
See you out there.
Tight lines guys
Mike |
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