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It should be good.
Sat 21st July, 2018
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After a brief, slightly quieter spell on the river at the beginning of the week the number of anglers using the river has steadily increased each day.
Mike and I headed up to Boulder Reach yesterday and when we got back there were thirteen vehicles in Red Hut car park.
We'd met several anglers while we were up that way and all of them had found it tough going, with only a couple of pretty ordinary fish landed.
The overall quality of trout caught seems to have declined the last few days with just a sprinkling of good fish amongst the small, toothy jacks and "residents" that most fisho's are reporting. We fished up to the Fan and like the other anglers ahead of us had very little action.
  
Earlier in the week most of the better fish seemed to be caught around town and a little further downriver. With those prepared to put in an early start doing well.
I spoke with an angler carrying a brace of fish {Thursday morning} who had wet-lined the Hydro. And they were the best of three he'd landed there.
I was actually on my way back from a morning session in Judges. I hadn't been there since that 273 cumec fresh a couple weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised to see that a lot of that silt along the TRB has gone. So now we have a "proper" river bed there again which probably explains why I had a few more fish this time.
I had a couple on the 5 wt but the others took a jelly egg suspended under the big dry. Not your typical rig for winter fishing the Tongariro but very effective in the right circumstances.
 
Anyway, yesterday when we got back to the car-park we decided to give it a go lower down.
Fransham has been fishing since he was "knee high to a grass-hopper" and knows the Tongariro extremely well ... particularly the upper river. After all he's been casting a line here for over thirty years.
He's still the same height but hasn't done a lot of Euro nymphing and after expertly placing his indicator rig into a bush on the opposite bank decided he'd like to have a go with my 5 wt.
We moved a little further down to a couple of fast shallow runs and he connected straight away. At one time hooking three fish in in four casts. And I think our mutual mate Grantly will be selling another Czech nymph outfit soon.
 
Up until a couple of days ago the fishing from the bridge down had been really consistent with some nice fish coming through and I'd caught several classic winter fish on Wednesday using a heavy gold-head. But when Mike and I fished the same spot again yesterday it was nowhere near as good. The fish didn't seem to be running through like they had been but that could have changed while I've been writing this.
There were ten fishing below the bridge when I passed earlier and more in the distance.
Its the final weekend of the school holidays for some and a lot more anglers have arrived in town the last couple of days. I suspect all of them will be keen to make the most of it before the heavy rain and wind arrives later tonight and into tomorrow across Central North Island.
It should be good
Tight lines guys
Mike |
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