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Brass Monkeys !
Wed 15th July, 2015
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If there were any brass monkeys on the river last weekend they were definitely missing part of their anatomy ... boy was it cold.
I fished with Glenn and Teresa for a few hours on Friday and undeterred by the freezing conditions they hit fish straight away. They very quickly landed five between them ... a great start to the weekend.
But by the next day it was all change.
I couldn't buy a fish in the same stretch next morning. And despite moving around I found Saturday a pretty tough day on the river.
By Monday the bitterly cold southerly blast had cleared the country and with the weather almost spring-like I spent the day catching up on changes on the middle and upper river.
Whenever we get a big fresh its inevitable there will be changes. Over the last few years the trend on some parts of the Tongariro has been for things to move towards the TLB. Judges is a good example of this. The right hand side has shallowed and its now possible to easily wade into the middle of the river to get at the "fishier" water on the opposite bank.
The same thing has occurred on some of the middle river stretches and there are some great new spots that are now easily reached from the true left bank.
This annual cycle of change is one of the reasons I find this such an interesting river to fish. I never get bored with it because there are always new challenges to overcome.
The last few days its paid off to use larger size nymphs. This happens every year during the spawning runs and you've probably noticed that your getting more fish taking the bomb.
I don't know why ... maybe in this instance the fish are still a little green and because they haven't become conditioned yet to feeding on the small nymphs and larvae that populate the river bed, to them "big is best".
 A similar phenomenon happens after spawning when mending fish in the early stages of recovery will often take the bomb. But then its because of their need to regain lost condition as quickly as possible so everything that looks remotely edible is grabbed ... and the bigger the meal the better.
Like many trout fishermen I tend to use drab colored patterns most of the time. On the Tongariro flies tied on 14's and 16's will be close enough to adequately mimic the natural insects that live amongst the rocks and stones of the riverbed. That famous fishing quote that "a lot of what a trout eats is brown, fuzzy and less than a half inch long" is a good one to remember.
 But during the runs or when there are plenty of hungry kelts in the river it can pay to go up a size or two and experiment with flashier flies.
I've had a lot of fish recently on bead-head flies particularly a size 10 silver colored tungsten bead Czech nymph.
Its good to see a few more anglers trying this European style of fishing. Its not a method you can use everywhere but it can be incredibly effective in fast runs and enables you to fish water you might otherwise walk past.
But you don't have to "czech nymph" a Czech Nymph. I usually fish three flies under the indicator and a Czech nymph style fly makes a great middle fly when nymphing in the traditional way ... ask some of these guys.
   
Its a bit milder today and there's been steady rain falling for the last few hours. The flows are up a cumec or two but you won't even notice this if your fishing. More showers and rain for the next few days so keep an eye on the flow charts just in case.
The fish should continue to move through and I'm looking forward to getting out and about tomorrow.
There's still a lot more river to check out and with the nights drawing out its going to be a long day ... its tough but somebody has to do it.
UPDATE:
Thursday 16th July 7.30 am
The flows crept up and down all night and have now passed 44 cumecs. Any remaining showers are forecast to fizzle out later this morning providing great nymphing conditions as things settle back.
Tight lines guys
Mike |
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