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Small nymphs still working well.
Sun 14th October, 2018
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Although the rain didn't amount to much, Friday nights heavy showers were enough to nudge the flows up a few cumecs.
The next day the Tongariro was carrying a hint of color and there have been some good reports from anglers the last few days.
Globugs and jelly eggs are still taking fish but the buzz on the river is how effective small nymphs are at the moment.
Alan and I started off on the middle river in a howling southeasterly but it was a bit slow.
After an hour or so we'd only connected with two fish...losing both of them, so headed back to town to try the Braids. Despite the chilly wind we hooked up almost straight away and caught more in twenty minutes than during the entire two hours we'd spent upriver.
And we weren't the only ones. Jack pictured left caught this one fishing a globug under the indicator but the size 16 nymphs we'd been fishing all week were still working well for us.
 
This was Alan's last full day on the river and he was determined to make the most of it before heading back to Oz.
I mentioned last time he'd been practising Euro nymphing all week and even with the stiff wind putting a huge downstream bow in the leader he'd learned enough to recognise a take in the less than ideal conditions.
No one likes fly fishing in the wind but tight line nymphing or whatever you prefer to call it makes things a lot easier when you have to fish in these conditions.
We watched anglers come and go and they all struggled trying to cast and mend with the traditional set ups. But with only leader out and no mending needed you get a lot more actual fishing time using modern methods.
This is only a quick update so I'll include a couple more pics and call it a night.
 
The wind finally eased earlier today. And although there's a couple more cold nights and frosty mornings to come temperatures are set to climb steadily all week. There are some very good rainbows in the river but as usual while some anglers are reporting big catches {with fish up to five pounds} others are still finding things difficult.
Most places are throwing up fish but if you're new to the river try the Braids, Big Bend or Stag. Flies wise ... any small nymphs with a little bit of flash are still working better than globugs or caddis.
Tight lines guys
Mike |
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