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The early bird ...
Tue 21st July, 2015
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  With the school holidays almost over anglers were making the most of it on the weekend.
The stretch from the road bridge down is always popular but the Hydro has also been kicking off and I counted ten lined up there one morning. Things should quieten down again now, especially during the week.
As you would expect with so many on the river the fishing got a little tougher over the last fortnight which meant an early start if you wanted to get into the hot spots before they got thrashed.
I generally prefer to keep on the move and fish the "in between" stuff. But there were days when there were a lot of casts between fish and even the obligatory Tongariro "match the hatch winter bug" wouldn't tempt them.
The weather has also been all over the place. A lovely sunny winters day in Turangi this morning and its quite pleasantly warm out of the wind. But for the last week we've had the lot, rain, hail, frost and a biting southerly that some days went right through you and made your fingers burn with cold. I must be getting old and sensible because on Saturday morning despite the fact I'd only been on the river an hour, as soon as I started getting pelted with hailstones the size of frozen peas I headed back to the truck and the hot sausage roll I'd just picked up from that sexy brunette at Creel ... not Steve! ... Debs.
Too be honest although I'd caught a couple of fish things were a bit slow and the river was coming up fast. Its been up and down like a yo-yo lately ... not big freshes but enough to unsettle things and make the "fishing" from day to day unpredictable.
I've had days where you can't put a foot wrong and others that are quite the opposite ... but that's fishing.
The season is turning out to be remarkably similar to 2014 although the fish so far this year are probably slightly better.
In recent years the Tongariro has produced some of its best fishing between September and November so plenty to look forward to. 
The brown trout "season"gets longer every year and there aren't many of the fifty two weeks when they don't turn up. From here on in a lot of them will look little ragged around the edges and as we head towards August expect a real assortment of rainbows from fresh run "chromers" to slabby post spawning fish.
 
I've been doing a bit on the upper river trying out the Czech nymph in some interesting little spots that have appeared since that big fresh we had a few weeks ago.
Personally I still think the town and middle stretches have the edge but as the weeks go by things will even out as we get a better spread of fish throughout the river.
A couple of nice days forecast before the next spell of wet weather hits us on Sunday. With the holidays over and far fewer anglers around things should settle down again as we head towards the weekend ... although I'm told the Brown Trout Club will be in town. 
Tight lines guys
Mike |
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| COMMENTS |
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| Great photos Mike |
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| Muzza | Thu 23rd July, 2015 | |
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