Fishing: Bags improving as trout begin to feel sexy

Winter spawning is slowly beginning in the trout streams and rivers of Lakes Taupo and Rotorua.

The fish have been gathering at the river mouths and feeding up at large to build strength for their upstream migrations. They await the bad weather that brings down the smell and taste of the back country where they were born - their first whiff of sex which triggers the spawning runs.

The initial runs have been small and sporadic, and generally the fishing has been quiet except for bursts of activity. A sharp temperature drop and a spell of dirty weather to freshen the rivers will bring bigger runs.

The Tongariro is still settling after the big flood of 2004 and new fish-holding lies have gradually been forming from the lower to the upper pools. Anglers prepared to spend time tramping the river, moving from pool to pool to search out the lies, will be rewarded.

Gravel extraction and flood-protection work on the Tongariro below the State Highway 1 bridge has not affected the fishing yet, says John Gibbs, of the Department of Conservation in Turangi.

The work has not altered the active channels, but it will allow floodwater to flow through more readily and could well form new lies from now on and after all the work is completed next summer.

Gibbs says this area can be fished from a new walking track that runs from Graces Rd down the true right bank to the Reed Pool, providing good access to several pools and new lies.

Exactly when the main spawning runs begin, filling the river with trout and providing action aplenty, is entirely dependent on the weather. In recent years the winters have been warmer, the biggest runs have come later and the spring fishing, when the weather has been more turbulent, has been superb.

But you have to wait and watch, week by week, and strike when the weather's right.

A tip for Tongariro beginners: Never ignore the shallower water at the tail of a pool at any time during spawning months, especially first thing in the morning, when the fish that have run up the rapids overnight are lying among the rocks in the tail of the next pool up.

At Rotorua, O'Keefe's tackle shop reports that the Waiteti Stream has been quiet; spawning runs have been going up the Ngongotaha; Rangiuru Bay and the Landing at Tarawera have been "going off big time" with 3kg fish landed from the shore; Ruato Bay, the Dump and the Pipe areas at Lake Rotoiti have been producing "some magnificent fish"; and at Okataina it's time for the trophy trout to start showing up along the beach, especially when foul weather keeps many anglers away but stirs up the food supply, making for exciting fishing.