Its been another eventful couple of weeks on the Tongariro.
Plenty of rainbows in and out of the water and there have been some "belters" caught and lost. I don't know if you've heard the same rumor but I was told of an eleven pound hen turning up in the trap.
As expected after the five year record flows there are some changes and a few new snags ... the Island Pool has a real tackle grabber in it.
Its going to take a little while to get round them all but so far I've fished from town to Cattle Rustlers and although some spots have definitely changed for the worse there is plenty of interesting "new" water to replace any spots we may have lost.
Vera's for instance has been a popular stretch for a lot of anglers during the winter runs. The lower end in front of the lodge {just above the two chutes } was a great place to ambush migrating fish as they headed upstream but it looks to be a bit quick for them to hold here since the flood. Now there are better spots a little further up.
There have been some good late afternoon runs going through there most of the week. This hasn't gone unnoticed judging by the number of anglers lining both banks recently.
By the time the fish get as far as the Bridge Pool they must be starting to get sick of the sight of globugs because some days the gauntlet there has been eight wide on both banks. There's even been a camper van parked on the rivers edge complete with table and chairs. This pool is my fishing barometer for the rest of the river because its rarely occupied in numbers unless the fish are running.
You know ... I always enjoy trying different patterns so here's another one that caught my eye a couple of months ago and is worth sticking in the box.
Its called a JuJu nymph and is one from the vice of American fly tier Charlie Craven. A lot of the patterns popular in New Zealand originated in Britain or the USA but the name JuJu comes from the tribes of West Africa where the word is linked with the magical powers of some of their lucky charms and talismans used to ward off evil spirits.
I've been using it as the point fly under the big dry and it seems to work well fished deep, particularly after a fresh as the color is beginning to drop out. The dark color and flash really make the fly standout and fish don't appear to have any trouble spotting it even when I'm using sixteens.
In the States its a popular pattern during Baetis mayfly hatches in sizes 18 - 24 but I rarely go below eighteen with any fly on the Tongariro. This is a slightly different weighted version, one of dozens of variations that have already sprung up. Below is one of a bunch of tying tutorials available on You Tube that are closer to the original. I prefer to fish with naturals whenever possible ... I don't know why because a fish egg is just as much a part of a trouts diet as anything else that floats down the river. I always feel as if I'm "cheating" when I tie on a globug. But over the last week I'd have been crazy not to fish them.
One unfortunate side effect of a big flood is that many of the redds and nursery area's created by earlier spawning fish will probably have been damaged or completely destroyed as the eggs and alevins are blown out of the gravel. This could affect the continuity of the late Autumn/early Winter runs in a few years time.
As the river settles back these provide easy pickings and with plenty of natural fish eggs floating around globugs were the sensible choice.
Once the river had settled down I had a day exploring the middle river with Myles. To be honest I thought there might be more change here than there actually was. On our travels we spent an entertaining few hours in the Stag and the guys opposite us were also having a good time.
Be careful on the TRB here because a bit more of the track has been washed out and some of the remaining path close to the river has some pretty big cracks in it.
By the afternoon we'd reached Cattle Rustlers and again there were some late afternoon runs sneaking through. Myles did well here landing several fish as they moved up tight along the true right bank towards the head.
By staying well back and putting up fairly long casts no more than a rod and a half out, I watched him land three fish in three casts, hooking or missing a few more before the pod moved on ... all caught on pink globugs.
I popped around the corner to fish Barlow's which like Cattle Rustlers hadn't changed all that much. This is a great stretch for the Czech nymph and I had a couple of nice fish on a big green caddis.
Over the years I've heard lots of stories about the weird things fisho's have found in a trouts stomach.
The run of the mill stuff like stones and sticks, and the more unusual things like toffee wrapping, cigarette paper, drink can ring pulls etc., I even read that someone had once found the remains of a human finger in a trout caught in America ... must have bitten off more than he could chew!
A few years ago I posted a photograph of a fish I landed in the Braids which coughed up half a Calamari squid.
Well, that night after our session, Myles sent me a photograph of the stomach contents of a trout he'd been preparing for the smoker a few days earlier.
It wasn't a huge fish by Tongariro standards, Myles thought it was probably around four and a half pounds but along with the usual mayfly nymphs and larvae this one was full of feathers ... it makes you wonder sometimes why we bother to tie flies!
Looks like a patchy week ahead weather-wise. July can be a traditionally "wet month" but the experts are predicting a much drier July than usual with temperatures forecast to plummet again next week.
As the runs build so will the anglers chasing them but as long as you get away from the car-parks its not a problem.
At the moment its a great time to be on the river.
I prefer to fish with naturals whenever possible ... I don't know why because a fish egg is just as much a part of a trouts diet as anything else that floats down the river. I always feel as if I'm "cheating" when I tie on a globug. But over the last week I'd have been crazy not to fish them. 
