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Right on cue...
Thu 14th December, 2017
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  Some nice fish around this week and as the weather settled down and the mercury began to climb, right on cue the first of the cicadas emerged.
The same thing happened last year during the first couple of weeks of December.
But back then that early show fizzled out when things unexpectedly cooled down again.
There aren't huge numbers of them around yet. But by mid morning most days now, you can hear the sound of summer along the river as the males chirp away to attract a mate.
If the settled spell continues, the emergence and noise levels will build over the coming weeks... probably peaking in early February.
   
This week I've spent some of my time fishing the less accessible runs and riffles around town and the middle river.
Because they're not fished as often, the access to one or two of them is a bit more difficult. But the effort is usually worth it even though I've had to carry a new piece of kit...garden secateurs!
No action on the indicator dry itself ... but the caddis combination hanging below has taken plenty of fish.
I don't use the conventional indicator set-up much in summer because I tend to fish water that's better suited to other things. In runs and riffles you can lighten everything up and lose the indicator all together if you want. All you need is seven or eight feet of 6lb leader on the end of your fly line to which you can attach a couple of small weighted nymphs.
Casting and everything else is much easier without that bulky indicator.
And by holding the rod slightly higher than normal during the drift, takes are easily spotted by watching the line where it enters the water.
The only problem you may encounter in summer are pods of trout parr making their way to the lake to grow and mature.
They love riffles, runs and tail-outs and because you'll likely be using smaller nymphs these "Tongariro sardines" can sometimes be a bit of a nuisance.
Green caddis are still taking fish, especially in faster water.
And long time mates Colin and John lost and landed a few on the upper river using them.
With a combined age of 150 years they're still out there doing it and spent the rest of their time backcountry and raft fishing the upper Tongariro with Peter Wilton. There's hope for me yet!
  Temperatures in the mid to high twenties again next week with some scattered showers thrown in as well. This will provide ideal conditions for cicadas to emerge and by the end of the week there should be plenty of papery husks clinging to the trees.
The less popular parts of the town/middle river will probably be worth a shot again. Although my long suffering dog will definetly have the hump because there's nowhere for him to sunbathe.
The wind put paid to any evening dry fly action this week but according to the experts things look a little more promising next week.
See you out there
Mike |
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