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Rubber-legs
Wed 22nd June, 2011
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It's been a funny ole week with a real mixture of trout in various stages of their spawning cycle. There is still no sign of a sustained run just a continuation of sporadic pulses of fish which have been a feature of the river for a few weeks now. Catch it right and you'll have a good time...catch it wrong and you'll go away disillusioned and disappointed vowing never to return. I was having a conversation with local guide John Somervell this afternoon and the timing of the spawning runs came up. John mentioned that his notes show that the first significant run of 2010 didn't occur until July 23rd, so I don't think we have anything to worry about yet. I tried a little experiment this week and deliberately concentrated most of my time on other areas either down as far as Smallman's or upriver to the Fence Pool. On each occasion I only fished the Braids for about twenty percent of my fishing day but guess where eighty percent of my fish came from. Other anglers had similar stories with their best results coming from the Town stretches despite fishing elsewhere.
I have to say that one of the better fish came from above the Poutu and gave me a humdinger of a scrap in the faster water. This rainbow went off like a train stripping yards of line off the reel. It was a pretty impressive effort and prompted me to do a bit of digging when I got back to find out just how fast they can swim. Have a look at this article by fly fisherman and author Ron Newman entitled The Extraordinary Rainbow below is a paragraph from it :
"For example, consider that a moderate size Rainbow can accelerate from a standstill to about 23 mph (or 37 kilometers per hour) in about one second. A larger fish can get in an extra one or two mph. Almost instantly the fish is traveling more than 33 feet per second and can maintain that speed long enough to easily strip a hundred yards of line and backing off your reel. Its no wonder that if a fly fisher is going to loose a Rainbow, it usually happens within two or three seconds of being hooked. Can you think of another member of the animal kingdom that can reach that speed so quickly? Even those animals known for their speed, such as the Cheetah or Greyhound, cannot accelerate that fast."
You can read it all at www.bcadventure.com/ronnewman/rainbow well worth a look.
It wasn't only the ladies trying it on, a jack I hooked in the Plank was a real "hard nut" trying the bullying tactics from the get go. He even took me for a stroll downriver before giving up. The fish seem to have developed a rubber fetish this week and a number of them have taken rubber-leg patterns on either method. There seem to be a few browns in most of the spots in the middle and upper river and with the clear conditions easily seen in places like Poutu, Sand Pool and the Fence with anglers also reporting them in the Lower Bridge. 
Things aren't easy out there but it's not a lost cause either...keep moving...keep experimenting and if that fails why not do like these guys. The images left are the last class of "young graduates" who enrolled in the Tongariro River Motel Fly Fishing Clinic. This is day one of their course and shows them out on the river with their mysterious mentor known only as "the trout whisperer." I would have spilled the beans and unmasked him but as I was taking these photographs I was unaware that Ross had used his sneaky military training to creep up behind us like a Japanese sniper to prevent me getting my scoop so I"ll let him tell you all about it.
Be lucky guys
Mike. |
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