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Cracker Jacks.
Fri 5th August, 2016
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  The cold, wet, unsettled weather has continued for most of the week with last Sunday probably the coldest day I've experienced on the river for a few years. Despite a couple of thermal layers and a good waterproof jacket the rain and wind chill went right through me and I for one was glad to get home to the log burner.
There were a lot of anglers around with a number of clubs in town holding their annual drinking championships.
It did make fishing a little more difficult and most of the river received a lot of attention. But in fairness I think things had already began to slow down again in the lead-up to the weekend.
That being said anglers were enjoying themselves and I spotted several returning with fish.
By Monday the river had quietened down but the Tongariro was back to its unpredictable best.
I started early on the TLB of an empty Boulder Reach and although I made a couple of passes it just wasn't happening.
I was soon joined by two others but when I left about an hour later none of us had so much as touched a fish.
But what a difference a day can make!
 
Next morning as I crossed Red Hut bridge it was already "drizzling"as I slid my way along the muddy track that leads to Boulder Reach.
My plan was to fish all the way up to the bottom of Big Bend ... and for a change it worked because I struck fish straight away.
Unfortunately by the time I got to The Fan it was chucking it down and the river was already on its way back up again.
So far I'd caught a real mixed bag of fish. But there were some cracking jacks amongst them and as luck would have it a few more to come.
This mixture of fresh and earlier running fish set the scene for the rest of the week and I had some great fishing on other parts of the river.
I prefer to fish three flies when I'm nymphing because it allows you to hedge your bets.
We know how effective globugs can be during the runs. But they don't always work as well with fish that have been in the river a little while. I find I do better using a three fly set up e.g., bomb, nymph, globug or bomb, globug, nymph or taking off the egg and mixing caddis and may fly patterns.
Some anglers get a little edgy about casting three flies but providing you have a fairly smooth casting style and space the flies accordingly you'll have very few problems.
The measurements below are just a guide, they don't have to be exact. You can make each section longer if you like but its usually best not to go shorter.
I've found I get much better results if I don't crowd the flies, doing so seems to confuse or even spook the fish.
As long as the gap between the bomb to middle fly is longer than the gap between the middle to end fly you should be ok.
A four inch difference works for me ... so 18 inches and 14 inches.
I mentioned the the Fan pool earlier. This pool seems to change after every fresh and looks nothing like it did when I first began fishing the Tongariro.
Currently its much wider and although the obvious lie has moved further towards the opposite bank its easily reached because the TRB is much shallower.
Its a big piece of water now, so take your time and explore all of it ... particularly if the river is carrying some color. When its clear its quite easy to spot fish in here and they're not always where you'd expect them to be.
Like most of the upper river pools if you catch it right it can hold good numbers of fish during the winter runs. But I think the likes of Big Bend, Boulder or the Blue are probably more consistent.
A word of caution ... there is a doozy of a snag in the middle of the seam that runs the entire length of the pool.
When you get around halfway up, if you look across to the opposite bank you'll see two trees leaning out over the water. Take a line off them and the snag is a couple of rod lengths upstream.
Its not a problem as you approach it from the downstream position because your nymphs won't have sunk deep enough. Even if you cast on top of it the current will drag them away before they get down. But when you're upstream of it and your flies get anywhere near it towards the end of the drift, say goodbye to them because it will gobble up your nymphs all day long.
 
Its been cold and wet again for most of the day and its pouring down as we head towards Saturday.
Looks like a better day tomorrow with a return to fine days and frosty mornings from Sunday on.
At the moment the flows are back to 40 cumecs after the latest fresh. But once the rain clears it should settle into the thirties with that nice milky green color ... perfect.
I've had a couple more browns since the last report ...again, they're not big.
But there are some really cracking rainbow jacks in the river ... and it wouldn't surprise me if some big hens joined them in the next few days.
Tight lines
Mike |
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