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A bit of an improvement.
Thu 1st March, 2018
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Most anglers would agree that its been a challenging few weeks on the Tongariro. But I think we're over the worst and from now on things will improve as we head into Autumn.
Already the mornings are much cooler and overhead you can here the honking of Canada geese as they fly to their autumn feeding grounds.
Soon the deciduous trees will begin to shut down in earnest and on breezy days it will "snow" leaves all along the river bank.
My "boatie" friends tell me they've been getting some great conditioned fish from the lake. So although its early days we should start to see a difference over the coming weeks.
 
My ole mate Alan Herring has been over on one of his regular visits from West Island and we've spent most of our time trying to catch up on some of the changes since the floods. There's a lot of them out there {some more obvious than others} but after plenty of walking we're gradually getting around them all.
The TRB of Admirals was a favourite of mine but before we set off we checked it out from the lookout on the TLB. There weren't that many fish visible but those that were there were occupying different positions in the pool than before the floods. Once we got over there the reason for this was more apparent.
Prior to the floods a sandy bar had built up a couple of rod lengths out from the TRB. This was easily wadable providing a much better fishing position which allowed easy casting and good long drifts with the indicator. This has been washed away and the top third of the pool is now "boiling" with upcurrents. Making anything resembling a good drift impossible. The flows in the rest of the pool have altered and they've also quickened. You can see fish in the backend but casting and getting down to them is tricky. 
Further upriver at the winter limit, the Fence Pool is pretty much the same as it was. But almost every where else in between has undergone some sort of change. A couple of spots I used to enjoy fishing have disappeared and others are now difficult to get at. But again there's also some interesting new spots to try out ... so "swings and roundabouts".
  It took a while but that color has dropped out and its much easier to spot fish. And as you'd expect by now the numbers of browns in the river is increasing. This one picked up a heavy caddis pattern while Czech nymphing. And despite the fact it was no monster, it proved to be a bit of a handful on the 5wt.
There are heaps of mayfly nymphs in the river at present and although I've been catching fish on caddis there seem to be less caddis larvae around since the floods.
You can see that mayfly nymphs come in all shapes and sizes and the link below is a useful and informative guide on the Mayfly Life Cycle and how to fish them. Mayfly Life Cycle and how to fish them
Personally I think Red Hut down probably has the edge at the moment ... particularly if you're chasing browns. And one or two anglers I've come across have taken some nice rainbows near town.
Isolated showers until the weekend with more persistent rain forecast later next week.
Tight lines
Mike |
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