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A good month on the Tongariro.
Sat 28th March, 2015
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  As we head towards the end of March summer returned to Turangi with a bang today and we experienced one of those beautiful early autumn days that sometimes turn up at this time of year.
Overall a good month on the Tongariro with fish moving up at irregular intervals... in fact there doesn't seem to have been any let up in these patchy runs for quite a while. I found the start of the week a little slow but this happens, especially when the fish are trickling through like this.
Still hordes of sardine size juveniles in the river, the runs and riffles are full of them. They'll "have a go" at anything but have a particular liking for small PT nymphs, so for the moment that's one fly I'd stay away from if you think they're in front of you.
March and April are traditionally good months for browns and as expected there have been plenty of pics featuring them in the local reports. The town and lower middle river has been consistently producing fish, with the bridge pool for instance throwing up several good brown trout recently.
During March its not unusual to catch fish of all shapes and sizes and in amongst this mixed bag there have been some cracking rainbows showing up. Ask Al Dover a retired judge who was staying at the Bridge Motel while on holiday from the U.S, he was particularly delighted with two of the fish he landed.
If this is a taste of things to come we could be in for some fantastic winter fishing on the Tongariro.
Earlier in the week I caught my first couple of fish of this year on an egg pattern. As I mentioned I was finding things a bit slow and inevitably when this happens you end up chopping and changing flies and methods until you hopefully find something that works.
In this case a change to a heavy epoxy bead egg fly did the trick and tempted a couple of fish in the fast run I was fishing. The rest of the time I've done better with small flashbacks, caddis or the little brown bug. The latter is one of my favorites and is a consistent fish catcher on the Tongariro.
 
You'll notice fish rising most days especially in some of the town and lower river runs and tail-outs but a lot of the time they're smaller trout or juveniles taking lacewings.
Just the beginnings of a small picket line occasionally forming under the bridge, as a few more fish move up but the river is still fairly quiet. This will change with Easter coming up.
Around this time last year work began on the flood management and willow clearance program along the the Island Pool stretch.
This week the contractor was back there re-spraying as part of this ongoing strategy. I don't know what they use but I remember it was pretty quick acting and within a very short time the foliage began dying back.
A little bit of rain on the cards but it doesn't look at this stage as if it will amount to much. The outlook for the remainder of the month is for more of the same with above average temperatures and patchy rain.
Things will probably keep ticking over just as they have for the past couple of months, with no real change until we get the first significant autumn downpour.
I'll sign off with a few more images taken along the river. 
UPDATE SUNDAY 29th 2.30 PM
The overnight rain and heavy morning showers seem to have done the trick and got a few fish moving. The river is up slightly and currently flowing at 26 cumecs with just a tinge of color and is perfect for nymphing. Some small runs went through town yesterday afternoon and mid-morning today and already there has been some good feedback from other anglers . I hooked a couple of "screamers" this morning... it could be a good week ahead.
Tight lines guys
Mike |
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