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Keep on running
Thu 1st September, 2011
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The runs continued throughout this week with more reports from anglers of double figure days and lost fish. Many chose to concentrate their efforts around the town pools with migrating trout again having to run the ever growing gauntlet below the bridge. Later on the weekend I had writer Tina Shaw out after lunch for a half day. Her husband Bruce is a keen angler and prefers to fish the dry fly with a split cane rod but Tina wanted to learn some of the more traditional methods used on the Tongariro. Once she had picked up a basic cast we moved to a fishier spot and it wasn't too long before Tina had the first of a couple of memorable encounters. These were her first Tongariro hook-ups and judging by the expression on her face she was quite impressed commenting "I thought the rod was going to break". Although we didn't manage to land any I'm sure we haven't seen the last of Tina on the river.
A couple of times over the last week I've been lucky to be on the river when the fish are running. The next day while fishing with Chris Mylne there were trout leaping from the water as they passed by on their urgent upstream journey.
Chris had at least half a dozen fish on but kept letting them go. Each time he lost one his language got worse, then to add to his frustration his rod arm developed a mind of its own and he started striking at imaginary takes...a condition I call the Tongariro Twitch. A couple of nice fish flapping on the bank eventually cured everything but later in the week I got this email from him :
" A little slower today two on the bank wet lining on the straight above the xxxxxxxx, three good hookups including a really grumpy brown in the xxxxxx that must have taken fifty meters of string off the reel! Hooked up the other two in the same spot as yesterday both on the nymph plus about six missed opportunities - bloody twitch!"
Great stuff Chris...see you next time.
At last there are more encouraging reports of fish caught further upriver. I'm not surprised and with these more frequent runs not stopping for anything, over the coming weeks we should see them spread a little more evenly throughout the Tongariro. That said its still difficult to ignore the Braids and anglers continue to do well there. We've had no meaningful rain for well over a month and with Turangi as dry as a dead dingo's donger it doesn't look as if this latest forecast is going too amount to much.
For all us coffee lovers Shaz is back.
Can you believe its a month since the cart and van were found stripped and dumped after being stolen. The local community, fisho's and visitors were really annoyed about this one. Rain or shine the coffee cart was always there...a welcome part of our daily routine. With typical Shaz determination it has been re-fitted and she's back in business by the lamp-post in the middle of the Waipapa Reserve car park...long black please.
Officially its the first day of Spring...did we have a Winter? I know we had the cold snap a week or two ago but that did seem an incredibly short winter even by New Zealand standards. This week has seen the best runs so far, almost a month later than the first significant runs recorded in July last year. Hopefully with these later spawning fish we should have a couple of months at least of more obliging trout eagerly walloping our flies. As the temperatures slowly warm up so will the amount of aquatic insect activity below the surface and we'll gradually make the change to lighter tippets and "naturals". Although without rain and the river low and clear many of us were already trying this before the recent upturn. Along with some form of caddis a go to fly when fishing the Tongariro will be a Pheasant Tail nymph. Nowadays there are dozens of variant patterns. The original was invented over sixty years ago by Frank Sawyer M.B.E 1906-1980. Unusually he tied it without thread using just copper wire and fibers from the center of the tail feathers of a European cock pheasant. I think he was only twelve when he left school, common practice if you were from a working class background in the early 1900's and he took an apprentice-ship as a river keeper. Sawyer is legendary in fly fishing circles and his now world famous creation is the fore-runner of all modern sinking nymphs. Most of us from the UK have grown up with his nymphing techniques, we forget that from the late nineteenth century until Sawyers days most advances and innovations in trout fishing were driven by the popularity of the dry fly. It was because of his keen observations of feeding trout on his beloved River Avon in Wiltshire that he concluded it would be possible to catch them well below the surface. This was a completely new approach back then and the Pheasant Tail and upstream nymphing methods were born. There was soon a huge demand for the fly and Nick Sawyer who is Franks grandson recounts on the Sawyer Nymphs web-site. Go to www.sawyernymphs.co.uk
"My grandmother Margaret Sawyer was very much part of Frank’s fishing life and I associate her with fishing as much as my grandfather. She ran the nymph-tying business for Frank and could tie a nymph per minute. I remember her and three of my aunties sitting round the kitchen table with their vices, surrounded by pheasant tail feathers. Their fingers were a blur and even now I am amazed at the tiny nymphs and the skill and speed with which they were produced. Every fifteen minutes or so each of them added another envelope with a dozen nymphs to the post pile.
That afternoon Gran would take me by the hand and we would walk up to the village post-box in Netheravon to catch the last post. Sometimes if there were lots of envelopes we would wait for the collection van to save clogging up the post-box. I tie a few Sawyer Nymphs for the many people who still want the original designs but I am clumsy and slow compared to Margaret. I know from my own hook-sliced fingers and limited tying experience that Gran was one of the most extraordinary fly-tyers the world has ever seen. Sadly she died in 2004 at the age of 96, exactly 24 years after Frank. I estimate she tied well over 2 million nymphs in her lifetime".
Whenever Frank Sawyers name is mentioned its always the PT nymph that immediately comes too mind but he came up with a number of other "fish catchers" like the Grey Goose, Swedish Goose, the Bow-tie Buzzer and the Killer Bug tied using the enigmatic Chadwick's number 477 wool...but that's another story.
Mondays earthquakes seem to have had little effect on the fishing. In the past its been suggested that these "shakes" unsettle the fish with the takes suddenly drying up. This was another marvelous excuse why we can't catch them and one I was definitely prepared to go along with. But since then plenty of anglers are walking around carrying trout so I'll have to come up with something else.
Fish are still moving but some of them are currently on the small side...watch-out!... because every now and then you'll get a nice surprise. Globugs, caddis and flash-backs will all take fish with a dark rubber-leg bomb also worth a try.
See you on the river guys
Mike |
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