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After the rain.
Sun 29th May, 2011
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I suspect that like a lot of other Tongariro anglers the latter part of last week was spent with one eye on the Genesis flow graph readings. After the ups and downs of the last couple of months everyone was hoping that this latest fresh would be the catalyst which would give the fish a bit more of a kick up the bum and send them our way.
As I drove over the road bridge late Saturday morning it had dropped to a perfect 40 cumecs and was still quite colored. I booked in at TRM and after a quick chat with the wealthy owner, Jake and I went on a tiki-tour of the town area just to get some early indication of any changes and how it was fishing. Heading upriver from the bridge we spoke to a few anglers along the way and they had all caught fish. Further up these three fisho’s from Auckland had got on the river early and reaped the rewards.
While we were there they took it in turns to get stuck into some good strong rainbows.
Later when they were leaving it didn’t take too much persuasion for them to stop so that I could take a few pics of these nice browns they had caught earlier … thanks guys.
We had a walk around the Braids in the afternoon and it was the same story with more positive feed-back from the anglers we encountered. The right hand by-pass was getting a lot of attention and Spot X in particular was firing with several good conditioned fish coming out. Again the place had changed here and there. I wasn't surprised because this unstable area has been hit by a couple of mini-floods since the big one in January and has had no time to settle down.
So luckily for me when we arrived back at TRM everything was looking good for the next day because I unexpectedly had a half-day booking.
Rich and his wife Mary are originally from Oregon and after a visit to New Zealand in 2009 fell in love with the life-style here and now live in Gisborne . Rich has a number of hobbies including golf and wind surfing and has now decided to try his hand at trout fishing … anything to take his mind off his busy career as a doctor. He had brought some very nice gear but unfortunately as I explained to him the three piece 4 wt would very quickly become an eight piece if he tried using it on the Tongariro at this time of year!
Early next morning with Rich kitted out we found ourselves…yep…you’ve guessed it…in the Braids. It’s the ideal place to introduce a novice to the Tongariro because it hasn’t got that “big river” feel. Many anglers find this intimidating so a number of guides use the Braids for that reason. It’s also one of the most reliable spots on the river and it isn’t often you’ll get skunked there. With some basic water loading instruction under his belt Rich was happily fishing away and very soon after his indicator shot under. He was hooked up to a very unhappy silver rainbow that took off downstream with us in hot pursuit. But as sometimes happens it caught Rich off guard just when we thought it was all over. Thats fishing and before we left the Braids it happened twice more. With more anglers starting to turn up we returned to the truck and headed upriver and parked at Red Hut…plenty of options from here but we crossed and went along the TRB.
It wasn’t long before we reached our spot and after a quick coffee Rich was back into it. By now he was getting used to the heavy nymphs and even though we had to increase the leader length was coping really well. We had to work on “the strike” a little bit but he eventually had one safely in the net which he released. Time was running out fast so we moved on to a great little place downstream where we spotted a brown lying on the shallow shelf of a deeper drop-off. Half a dozen casts later the globug proved too much of a temptation for it… but it took off like a train and snapped the line like cotton. Rich was gutted but he was soon re-rigged and ten minutes later was playing the really nice rainbow in the photograph that starts this report. You could almost hear the sigh of relief when I slipped the net under it and he even gave me a little “man-hug” when I returned to the bank with the fish safe and sound …nice one Rich…the fish…not the hug. Great day bud really enjoyed it.
So it all looks awesome guys and the word is that a lot more fish came through this time both rainbows and browns. They seem to be moving pretty fast and already there are reports of fresh fish above Cattle Rustlers…even a little further than that.
I hope to have a "fish" myself over the next day or two and if anything exciting happens I'll get back to you before the end of the week.
Tight lines
Mike |
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