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First winter fresh and update.
Thu 4th June, 2015
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The Met Service were onto it this time and have been forecasting a cool and very wet start to June for a little while now.
The last couple of days we've had the lot ... torrential rain, hail, thunder and spectacular lightning displays. As a result the Tongariro has been rising steadily all day and at the moment the flow graph shows 244 cumecs plus.
Another slow moving low is predicted to clear the country overnight with more heavy rain possible.
As usual anglers will be keen to get out as soon as the river settles back, especially at this time of year.
    
UPDATE THURSDAY JUNE 4th 4.00pm
The river has dropped back quickly from this mornings peak of 260 cumecs and is already into the fifties. This is the fourth good fresh since the end of April and the Tongariro fired after each of those previous recent floods, which of course bodes well for the weekend.
Now is the time to prospect in bypasses and side channels well away from the strong currents.
As the waters rise during flood conditions the river widens its reach and fills with all kinds of sand, grit and debris picked up along its banks.
The bigger the fresh the larger the objects brought down by the rising waters.
Fish instinctively move away from the danger and discomfort of the main current and head for the edges of the river.
They may even leave the main stream altogether and congregate in the safer bypasses and backwaters.
Some of these places adjacent to the river might normally be dry land, now submerged. These new "shallows" are great places to try before levels fall back because they give fish access to a whole new food supply.
Don’t be put off by the shallow muddy water it will often contain trout feeding on grubs, worms and all kinds of other terrestrial insects not usually available to them.
Quite often you’ll see fish head and tailing in water less than a foot deep as they mop up some these insects near the surface. The old Braids was a perfect spot to observe this behavior after a fresh.
Wade carefully, fish feel much safer in this coloured water and are not as easily spooked. They can literally be under your feet. In conditions like this browns often show up and if there is fish activity at the surface chances are it’ll be a brown.
Make it easy for them and use larger flies and nymphs.
Stick with dark colours because they show up better in dirty water.
And lastly don’t be afraid to experiment with depth and setups ... you never know what might be lurking just in front of you
Tight lines guys
Mike |
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