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Ticking along.
Tue 31st May, 2011
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Another four days on the river has flown by and I’m back in Kapiti mowing lawns, cleaning windows and catching up with all my “hubbie” jobs before the next trip up to my second home. I promised to get back to you if anything exciting happened…well it didn’t…but we’ll do a little update anyway.
With the river level down to a comfortable 32 cumecs and the color dropping out I headed downriver again to have another scout around. On the way I spent an hour in the Braids and landed four fish… the numbers are not important except to illustrate a point. When I arrived at Reed I met an angler who had fished upriver from the bottom of Grace Road and his only fish had been one of those little silver juveniles. I jumped in below him… first chuck I caught his twin brother…the trouts not the anglers! A few casts later the indicator slid under and this time it was a better rainbow may be couple of pounds. Time to move on...I spent the next few hours walking and fishing as far as the Bends and back to Reed for the grand total of zilch ! On the return journey I fished the Braids and had three more plus a couple of near misses.
 From memory this happened the last time I was down there and makes you wonder what’s going on. The fish obviously have to pass through this stretch because they can't catch a bus and hop off in the Bridge Pool but they now move through here very quickly. When I was previously there it didn’t look too bad but it has undergone more changes because of this latest fresh. It was still carrying a lot of color with clouds of silt moving around everywhere which made it impossible to see the bottom.
The only fish I saw were a couple of browns lying tight under the bank well above the Trolley Pool. For the last few years this area had been one of the "go to" places . I can recall many dark winter mornings hurrying down the track with the head-lamps of other anglers hot on my heels. Personally I noticed a bit of a decline in the fishing there last year and at the moment once you get past the bottom of Reed it’s hopeless. Could this be the start of another change in the behavior and preferences of spawning Tongariro trout…its early days yet and only time will tell.
Talking of tracks be careful if your down there because the banks have been undermined in several places and have some very ominous cracks running right through the existing paths.Those of you who haven’t walked between the Bain and the Plank for a while will notice something is missing…the pines are disappearing fast. By the weekend I think most of them will be well on their way to the saw-mills. It does take a bit of getting used to but it was the same when they felled over three thousand of them above the Bridge now you don’t even give it a second glance.
Before heading home I fished until mid-day so stayed close to town. First port of call was my favorite pool and I dropped in below a couple of other anglers who were already there and we landed a couple of fish between us. The pool itself didn’t produce that much but one angler fished a well known spot above and did ok. I wasn’t that surprised because over the weekend this popular pool had a right thrashing from fisho’s chasing the browns and probably needs resting for a day or two.
Mine came on the dry and dropper, the head here is perfect for this method. I know we keep banging on about the importance of getting down fast and deep for spawning fish and most of the time that’s what you have to do. In a situation where the bottom is uneven and strewn with large rocks and boulders the fish and the food are in amongst them. So a more natural presentation of the fly is achieved by using this setup and as a bonus you won’t snag up as often. Actually describing the method as dry and dropper is probably a bit misleading because you are really nymphing but not hard down. The large Cicada pattern that I use is purely there to suspend the flies and register the take. You could just as easily substitute a small yarn indicator to achieve the same result because at this time of year I’m not seriously expecting a fish to take the dry.
Later I had a quick session back in the Braids mainly to get some photographs for this report and had a couple more rainbows before returning to TRM to pack up.
I make a point of talking to as many anglers as possible whenever I’m on the river. It’s always good to get another point of view and helps give you a better overview of the fishing. My impressions after this stint are that most are happy. They are usually the ones that are prepared to adapt and move fairly quickly when things are a bit slow. The fish that have run so far are flying through and my pick would be the middle and upper stretches. Best flies…globugs…flashback nymphs or caddis with white being the "in" color as levels fell and the river cleared. Fish numbers are continuing to improve and if you know where to target them you still have a very good chance of hooking into a brown. The barometer reading is up there a bit and needs to drop but there is some more of the wet stuff forecast later this weekend. Next week is looking unsettled with showery rain most days and we should see some better runs.
So things are ticking over nicely but if you’re a first time visitor or an occasional Tongariro angler you may find it a little tough...unless of course your on the river either side of some rain.
Be lucky guys
Mike. |
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