Fishing: Got skills? Bring endurance, too

After a patchy two months, Tongariro River anglers are experiencing their best fishing this winter and the biggest spawning runs are yet to come.

That may be this weekend and into next week as the river level drops and the water clears after rain.

"Once the rivers begin to clear you should all get a sore arm from landing too many fish," claims the website of Sporting Life in Turangi, and you can't get much more positive than that.

John Gibbs, from the Department of Conservation in Turangi, says the Tongariro winter season has been marked by extreme conditions, with reasonable runs of fish following bursts of rain, then quiet periods after the weather turns fine.

The Waitahanui and Hatepe rivers have been fishing brilliantly, he says, and the Tauranga-Taupo has been a little patchy but producing good fish in the lower reaches and likely to fish well in the upper reaches once the river clears.

Anglers adapting their gear to suit the conditions, rather than the heave-and-hope brigade, are catching the Tongariro fish.

The best recent catch I've heard of was 26 trout by one fisher in three days. Good reports have been coming from the Swirl and Honeypot, the Bridge Pool, the Major Jones Pool and especially the Kamahi and Admirals pools.

More and more anglers are using three flies since the rig was legally permitted two seasons ago.

A popular set-up is a bomb, a globug and a small natural, and this rig is working particularly well on the right bank of the Bridge Pool.

A golden rule for Tongariro beginners at this time of year: never ignore the tail of a pool, especially at dawn. Fish coming up overnight will often be resting just above the rapids. The tail of Boulder Reach contains a superb lie, but many anglers wade straight through it to reach the other side without fishing it first.

Across at Lake Aniwhenua in Bay of Plenty, guide Graeme Ryder says the fish entered the rivers for spawning early this season and consequently are returning to the lake early, and big hungry browns are starting to cruise the shallows.

He expects top fishing by next week as the lake clears after bad weather and the trout come back on the bite.

Best time, says Ryder, is from about 10am till 3pm when the lake is warmest and nymphs and other aquatic food life become active.

"Aniwhenua is a shallow lake and, unlike Taupo or Rotorua, the fishing tends to shut down in the early morning and evening."

Ryder says the Rangitaiki River has been fishing well where the water remains clear above the confluence with the Whirinaki, which has been pouring colour into the lake.

The standard bead-head hare-and-copper nymph is proving the best fish-catcher on the river, while on the lake woolly buggers in olive green, brown and black are doing the damage.

At Rotorua, O'Keefe's tackle specialists report a run of spawners up the Ngongotaha Stream after heavy rain, with good fishing in the lower reaches (the upper river is closed for spawning). Light and dark scruffy nymph patterns have been providing consistent catches, or a weighted nymph with a small grey ghost.

O'Keefe's suggest a visit to scenic Lake Rotoma in search of hybrid tiger trout - a cross between brown and brook trout - which gather along the drop-offs at the Otangiwai Bank, which is marked by buoys in the middle of the lake.