Just a quick update because its going to be another busy month.
Another couple of days of good fishing on the Tongariro but its often been a case of right place, right time as more fish moved through the lower river and town pools.
I was lucky enough to drop on a couple of small pods on Thursday and again on Friday when I fished with Jon Lindsay. And as we fished in heavy showers Jon got stuck into some nice fish, losing four and landing five including his first ever brown from the Tongariro.
Despite that rain the flow graph only increased by four cumecs but I suspect that was enough to trigger a few fish to move.
There have been some really nice conditioned rainbows caught but some of the jacks I've landed since the last report have looked pretty beat up. Male rainbows have a tough time during spawning because unlike the female they'll seek out more than one partner.
When the hen finds a suitable spawning site she will make a nest, a depression in the river bed, usually by turning onto her side and flapping her tail quickly back and for to disturb the gravel.
A ripe female will be carrying roughly two thousand eggs for every kilo she weighs but won't drop them all in one nest. As she deposits the eggs the male at her side will fertilize them with a cloud of his sperm. She will then move a little further upstream and excavate another nest, covering the one created downstream as she does so. The whole process might be repeated three or four times creating the group of nests that we call a redd.
When the hen has expelled all of her eggs, her spawning run is over. Eventually she will leave the area and start to feed again, regaining strength and condition as she makes her way back to finish the job feeding mainly on smelt in lake Taupo.
For some of the males its a different story.
Once they've helped out one lady they're off to find another and with plenty of other males around intent on doing the same thing, things can get rough. Sooner or later it all begins to take a toll and often when you see a rotting carcass on the river bank or a dead fish in the water it will be a male who died in the line of duty.
I've noticed a few more anglers around lately wearing boots fitted with the Boa lacing system. Simms started using it on some of their wading boots a few years ago after Korkers became the first wading boot manufacturer to adopt the system and I bought a pair of Simms Riverteks' at the time that had the Boa system fitted. If you're not familiar with the product click on the link. www.boatechnology.com
I quite like the system. Its easy to use especially on cold winter mornings and there's no denying the steel laces are far more durable than conventional laces. Once you put the boots on it takes about ten turns of the dial to tighten everything up and they don't come undone, which can sometimes happen with ordinary laces.
When you get back from the river the wading boots are a breeze to take off and with a pull of the dials the lacing system opens up, although I find mine sticks occasionally if Ive been wading anywhere there's silt.
One thing you can't fault is the excellent after sales service. The product comes with a life-time warranty. When one of the steel laces on my boots eventually frayed and snapped I contacted the repair center www.boarepaircenter.com with the relevant information. The parts I needed, complete with instructions were dispatched free of charge, arriving in the post around ten days later.
I found the written instructions and diagrams a little difficult to follow but You Tube has several demo videos on how to re-lace all types of foot-ware fitted with the Boa system and this one is as good as any. Although the dials differ slightly and the method of removing them is not quite the same you soon figure it out and with practice the whole procedure takes about ten minutes.
Heavy showers in Turangi since late afternoon, with some torrential downpours during the last hour or two. Met Service has issued a warning for moderate thunderstorms across the North Island tonight with a few severe storms in places producing 25 to 35mm per hour together with damaging wind gusts. This is valid until mid-night Saturday.
The wind has already picked up and we've had the odd clap of thunder and plenty of lightning since about 8.00pm but the heavy rain has eased at present. No accurate river flow information available at the moment so I'll try again in the morning.
The drop in pressure has encouraged more fish to move and reports from the river today were good.
The forecast tomorrow is for things to improve briefly with more rain and showers for later next week. Providing river levels don't rise too much the Tongariro should continue to fish well.
UPDATE Sunday 8th 6.00am
Wild and very windy out there this morning although it has now stopped raining. The deep low crossing New Zealand is forecast to clear throughout the day as a ridge builds across the country.
Just a quick update because its going to be another busy month.
