The fishing hasn't been to bad since the last report. Its that time of year when there's a real mix of fish in the Tongariro and you never know what you'll hook into from one cast to the next.
Post spawning fish are slowly making their way back to the lake and with fish still moving up, this combination of hungry kelts and fresh runners makes it unlikely you'll blank at the moment.
I fished with Lesley and Chris earlier this week and we caught fish in most of the spots we tried, particularly the stretch between Boulder Reach and The Fan Pool.
When conditions have been favorable there have been a few mayfly hatching, although most days this week its been a little too windy. But there are plenty of caddis larvae in amongst the rocks and stones of the riverbed. In fact there are so many in some stretches I've occasionally been hooking them off the bottom when I've been nymphing.
Some of the most common in the Tongariro are Green Sedge larvae.
The posh name is Rhyacophila or "Rhyac's" for short, but green caddis will do for me. They're a free swimming variety {no case} and probably the most easily recognizable of all the caddis.
Green caddis prefer cool fast flowing water and because they're free swimming they routinely enter the drift where they become a favorite food item for trout.
With large numbers of them in the river at present, it makes sense to "match the most" and try a green caddis imitation now and again.
If you tie your own and want to give your flies that little bit of "something special" have a look at these from USA based company Lively Legz.
I haven't had time to get on the vice this week. But I'm looking forward to getting a few tied up to try on the Tongariro. Looking at the tying tutorials most remove the back pair of legs but they definitely give the nymphs a more realistic profile.
There used to be something similar available when I lived in the UK which I think originated in Japan. But I haven't seen those around for a while. I spotted these online while looking for some other fly tying materials. Fast delivery too ... only eight days from the States!
This from their website:
How "Lively Legz" Came About...
It all began last spring. Benny, Andy and I were out fishing on the little Juniata River located in central Pennsylvania. We took a break from fishing and decided to do a little rock turning to get a better idea of what type of nymphs were in the stream. What we noticed were the various size, as well as color of the nymphs, ranging from browns, olives, yellowish browns, to even almost black. The thing that stood out the most to us on all the nymphs we observed was the leg structure of the nymphs! Each and every nymph had very defined legs that stuck out from its body. We thought if there were only a way to represent these legs rather than tying with feathers as a replication we may improve our number of hook ups. After a year of trial and error and a lot of hard work we came up with a product that increased our hook ups beyond our belief. By no means do we claim to be great fly fisherman but our product is extremely effective. We used to go out and it would be great to have a day where we would each catch/land 4-5 wild browns. Now when we go it is nothing to have a 50 day on the J between the three of us. Please view our videos and watch the product in action. Our product is the first of its kind in the industry and is truly unique and very affordable compared to other quality nymph prices. If you have any questions or comments please email us at livelylegz@gmail.com and we would be happy to answers any questions you may have.
Until then......"Tie One On!"
Best of luck, Mike Saxion
This river has a habit of biting me on the bum when I write a report ... but this time I didn't mind.
I ended the last one with "as long as you don't expect ten fish days you won't be disappointed" ... sods law ... next day out ... eleven!
And I'm not the only one.
The next few weeks should see some of the best fishing of the year. Most of the fish are nothing special by Tongariro standards but there have been one or two reports of some exceptional rainbows ... although I'm not too sure where from.
Despite the dire weather in many parts of New Zealand, its been a cold but otherwise sunny day in paradise today. But this often happens in Turangi and looking out across the lake the wind is only now starting to pick up.
With the flows still hovering around thirty cumecs, conditions are perfect. A few days of settled Spring weather coming up,then more rain on the cards for next week. How the river fishes beyond that will depend on how much we get but it should be pretty good.
And as a footnote, if anyone was in Judges Thursday morning and picked up a fly box please send me an email or give me a ring, I know the owner and he'd very much like to get them back.
The fishing hasn't been to bad since the last report. Its that time of year when there's a real mix of fish in the Tongariro and you never know what you'll hook into from one cast to the next.
This river has a habit of biting me on the bum when I write a report ... but this time I didn't mind. 