Bert Robinson: Fish are at stream mouths, but proving a challenge

Brown trout. Photo / File

The fish are in at the stream mouths of Lake Rotorua but, at times, are proving a challenge to catch.

Even those spin fishing have found the going hard at times.

On the few occasions that the rainbows have schooled up in large numbers the casting of a line across them has spooked them and put them off the bite.

The most effective flies at the Awahou have been olive or green orbit and gold bead hare and copper nymphs.

When using nymphs, the addition of an indicator makes quite a bit of difference to the catch rate as does the length of the trace which should be just long enough to flow with the current and not drag on the bottom.

The taking of the fly is often subtle so it is more a matter of tightening up on the line rather than an active strike.

Even then the strike should be sideways rather than vertical as there is a loss of tension on the line when a vertical strike is used, which then results in the trout having time to spit your offering out.

At Haumrana I have done better than some by using a dragonfly nymph or a La Giaconda fly.

Others have been successful with a gold bead hare and copper when used as part as the same system as described for the Awahou.

When the wind pushes the cold water plume hard to the left there tends to be more of a concentration of fish than if the current is flowing normally or pushed out to the right.

When it is to the right or flowing normally trout tend to congregate to the left of that current line and not very far out, so it pays to fish your way out rather than just head straight out to waist deep water.

There are plenty of fish out as far as one can walk though they are in schools of two to six fish at the moment. However it can be productive as there is less angler pressure.

The possibility of a bit of rain had been forecast for Thursday of last week, so, at this time of the year especially, anglers can be sure that there will be another influx of large brown trout into the Waiteti and Ngongohahā streams.

After this month the number of browns heading upstream usually reduces though this year may be a little different as our summer is going to be hotter and longer than usual as well.

Finding a small stream mouth which enters Lake Rotorua to fish after dark is a good option at the moment. With little or no angler pressure there are likely to be some heavy duty brown trout and good conditioned rainbows hovering around these mouths.

The secret is to check out the mouths during the day and return just on dark to fish.

Standing well back from any drop-off into the lake is paramount as the browns are likely to be right where the water from the stream drops into the lake.