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Tongariro up again.
Thu 6th August, 2015
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The rain the Met Service had been forecasting for most of the week finally arrived overnight as a very active low traveled south east across the country.
The almost monsoon conditions woke me up in the middle of the night and it continued to bucket down for hours. Gail finds the sound of rain on a tin roof quite soothing and it sends her off to sleep. Unfortunately it drives me nuts and I was awake most of the night trying not to listen to it.
At 6.30 am I gave up and sods law just as I dragged my bleary eyed butt out of bed ... it stopped.
I've lost count of the number of freshes we've had this winter. The biggest peaked at 740 cumecs and looking at the flow chart this one is over 300 cumecs. This isn't a huge fresh by Tongariro standards but it will move things around a bit. Some of the smaller or weaker fish will be pushed downstream but it will also encourage more fish to move into the river to spawn. I expect some of the existing redds will suffer as the gravel is disturbed. And of course many of the insects that populate the river will be redistributed providing easy pickings that the fish won't ignore. We'll probably notice more changes along the river as well. Because we've had this series of freshes the rocks, gravel and silt that gets shifted around doesn't have time to consolidate. So you tend to get lots of temporary little changes between each fresh. I'm looking forward to a good walkabout on the weekend to check some of them out.  
It also makes it extremely difficult to second guess the fishing and this week its been as unpredictable as the weather. Before the rain it was "fill your boots" one day and the next you were wondering if there was a fish in the Tongariro. All you could do was keep moving until eventually you "found" a few fish.
For instance earlier in the week I had one of those cracking days on the river that you tend to remember.
I was fishing with Mike Fransham. Mike's a long haul pilot with Air New Zealand so his time on the river is extremely precious to him ... and it shows. We ended the day well into double figures but that almost didn't matter. It was just a really nice day out!
 
A little bit of banter and piss take between fish.
Mike boiling up the "billy" for a cuppa. Parking your bum on a rock in a beautiful part of the river to eat lunch then talking shit while taking in the awesome surroundings ... this is what its about. Celts call it "the craic".
Fly fishing has been around for hundreds of years. But we can probably thank the early European settlers for its spread across the globe as a recreational pastime. Angling is now the biggest participant sport in the world but people who haven't been bitten by the bug, often don't understand the appeal.
The whole point of it may start out with the desire and intention of catching a fish. And there's no doubt in the early years of your angling journey that's all that matters. But eventually it becomes much more and the "catching a fish bit" is secondary.
Fishing for me became more than just a hobby a long time ago. I can't actually recall a time when I didn't fish. Its had a massive influence on my life, where I've traveled and the friends and acquaintances I've met along the way. I definitely wouldn't be living in Aotearoa trying to write this if I hadn't taken it up. And all because my grandfather concealed himself under the small stone bridge I was fishing off sixty years ago and attached a dead mackerel to the hand line he'd bought me.
Because of fishing I've experienced sights and sounds and all kinds of other stuff that "normal" people would never encounter during their lifetime. Often at times of the day and night when if you had any sense you'd be down the pub or tucked up in bed. But do you know { and I'm sure you do } I wouldn't have swopped one single second of it.
 
Before last nights deluge the fishing had become a bit patchy and you had to be prepared to move around the river until you dropped on a few fish. There's still some nice trout waiting to be caught but personally I think the fishing was better a couple of weeks ago.
I said "personally" because there will be others out there who've had a blast and will disagree. Just because I haven't been catching doesn't necessarily mean Joe Blog's a little further up or down river isn't doing ok.
Its one of the problems you come up against when you post a report. Its a big river and you can't be everywhere at once. Most months I'm on the river at least four days a week but I think its important to get feedback from others, this extra information should give you a more objective view of the bigger picture. 
Writing reports isn't easy and I take my hat off to everyone out there who does it ... I know whats involved and how long it takes. But every so often you'll hear from other anglers who genuinely appreciate your efforts ... and that's what makes it worthwhile.
Right ... looks like the river has peaked at about 340 cumecs and is now dropping back. More heavy showers forecast for the next few days so your guess is as good as mine. If we don't get significant rain we should be ok by the weekend but I think if I was planning a trip down I'd probably leave it until later Saturday just in case that forecast is right again.
Globugs, Caddis and PT's have all been working well with a Gold Head Z Wing also worth a shot.
Tight lines guys
Mike |
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| COMMENTS |
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Hi thanks for writing your column. I know it is not easy however for those of us a long way from the action it keeps us going and motivates us to get back there on the mighty river. I have found the Hine to be of great value earlier in the season . Is it true that the fish run earlier in this river than the others because of its source.
Keep the ink flowing
Tight lines
Al |
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| alioop | Fri 7th August, 2015 | |
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