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Here they come.
Thu 10th January, 2019
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The warm sunny weather and patchy drizzle of the past few days has triggered the emergence of huge numbers of cicadas in the area.
Along the banks of the Tongariro the trees and undergrowth are littered with abandoned nymphal cases and the air is filled with the adults mating calls.
Fly fishermen in New Zealand eagerly await this event every year because it often signals a few weeks of top notch surface action as the trout gorge themselves on these big insects.
But in recent years although the annual emergence of these bugs started well, it was often cut short because of sudden changes in the weather ... usually an unexpected drop in temperature or prolonged heavy rain-fall.
But I have a feeling this year could be a bumper year for them because the forecast looks fairly stable for the next week or so. And by then most of the nymphs should be above ground.
  
The other event synonymous with early summer on the Tongariro is the arrival of the big browns that inhabit the river during the warmer months.
Its a time I look forward to every year and I never tire of catching these impressive fish.
Yesterday I shared a day on the river with a friend of mine Bill Higgins from Horewhenua and his long time American fishing buddy Dan.
Dan has been in the wars a bit lately so we concentrated on some of the easier to get at spots around town and the upper river with the emphasis on Euro nymphing and the possibility of catching a brown.
There are several widely known spots along the Tongariro that throw up good browns every year. And we had a dream start in one of them yesterday.
Bill grabbed the dry and dropper set up and on his second drift found himself attached to the brown above which made several spectacular leaps before we finally slipped the net under it.
This was another fish that picked up that Uniflexx caddis I knock up. I was messing about on the vice a few weeks ago, just trying a couple of things and I seem to have stumbled on a winner. Because a lot of the fish I've caught lately have fallen for it.
This is only a quick update so I won't babble on. There's nowhere really stand out but the lower to middle river on the Tongariro is now worth targeting for Salmo trutta. As are many other places in the Taupo fishery.
 The beauty of chasing these big fish on this river, is there aren't that many venues where the access is as easy. Or where you have such a realistic chance of hooking up to one of these prized fish. And with a little bit of local knowledge you can tempt them on a variety of methods. You don't even have to fish after dark.
In fact looking back, most of mine have come between 11.00am and 2.00pm.
Still some better rainbows in amongst the juveniles and recovering fish. And there have been a few chrome coloured two pounders around town.
But my main focus from now on is nymphing for browns.
The weather is set to continue with that mixture of scattered showers and hot days until the middle of the month ... so dig out those cicada patterns. And when we eventually get some "good rain" expect plenty of browns to show up.
It should be good
Tight lines guys
Mike |
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