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Not a bad week.
Sat 5th November, 2011
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Not a bad week on the Tongariro and the majority of anglers have enjoyed some good sport.
Last weekend once any early cloud had cleared the days were warm with very little wind and it was a pleasure to be on the river. Mayfly hatches continued and there are some really dark nymphs under the rocks. You'll also notice a few more lighter colored caddis larvae showing up making "white caddis" patterns an alternative. The last couple of days have seen a return to unsettled weather and the heavy squally showers that crossed the country earlier in the week put some color into the river. This has not only encouraged a few more rainbows to run but a couple of little birds have told me they've also spotted the odd brown sneaking up in amongst them. This wouldn't surprise me because the first brown I got on the bank last year was in the middle of December and any time now I'd be expecting to hear of someone nailing a good one. I had Grant Unsworth and his mate Wayne Rowland out for a day. Grant has booked me before and its always fun. He's another dry and dropper convert and was keen for me to show Wayne some water where it works best. Things got off to a slow start on a grey morning in Judges but it was Wayne who was eventually first to score. Grant loves catching fish but sometimes gets a bit excited when he hooks up. Note the jaunty angle of his cap and the gallons of water pouring out from underneath his sodden jacket. Seconds before this pic was taken he did a sort of backward flip into the river, right up to his neck. The water must have been hot because he didn't stay in long! Undeterred he landed his prize plus a couple more before we headed over to the Braids for a look. This place had been fishing well for days but despite taking a few slabs in front of the lodge it wasn't exactly "on fire" so we fairly quickly decided to look elsewhere and headed up to some nice water above the Hydro. Wayne and Grant both caught fish along this stretch and I'm pretty sure we ended an unexpectedly tough day with about seven landed.
Now for the first part of Paul Anderson's around the world fly fishing adventure...thanks mate.
" I guess I'll begin where it all started in a country that for me is one of the greatest trout fishing destinations in the world...New Zealand. Every year I'm lured back to this fly fishing mecca by the promise of big brownies and plenty of rainbows. This trip I planned to fish other destinations so I only spent four and a half days in NZ fishing mainly on the Tongariro, with the exception of a couple of hours on the Hine and T.T with guiding mate Steve Sprague. The trip got off to a great start and I think we picked up about 6 fish in that time. Later that day I ended up fishing the Tongariro for a little while landing a few more nice fish. The next day the local Hydro scheme let go a fair bit of water which created an artificial fresh. A fresh is when there is decent rain-fall which raises the river level.
This is a trigger for the fish to move up the river to spawn. It also attracts more of the local fisherman and one of their favorite spots to intercept the spawning runs is below the State Highway road bridge. I dropped in at the end of the picket line and fairly quickly landed eight fish. This got the locals attention who had been there since first light. I went and sat down after that and a few other fly fisherman that were fishing the same pool came over for a chat and asked me to have a look at their set up and at the same time checked out what
I had on. In my opinion the main problem for them was the split shot that they were using. Nothing wrong with split shot but this stuff was as big as some of the sinkers I used as a kid when I would go bait fishing in the Leven river. My advice to them was "you wont catch a fish on a split shot" if you want to use something that heavy you may as well tie on a double tungsten hare and copper, at least that has a hook on it. After spending some time with these guys I went up the river to more secluded water to get away from the crowds. I hooked a few nice fish up there which was a bonus because the scenery alone was enough to make it worth the trek there. During my time in Turangi I stayed at the Bridge Motel which is right on the river, not far from the famous Braids and just down from the Hydro pool. A big plus is the restaurant and I used to go in there and smash an Asian Platter every night. This was only $6.50 or the very special price of two for $13 dollars!! I questioned Kent the owner of the motel about the pricing, he blamed the chef! I found it quite amusing and still have a chuckle whenever I think about it...only in New Zealand eh. The good thing about the restaurant was it also had a bar... where a lot of fishermen came to share stories about the ones that got away... and the ones that didn't. This is where I met a Welsh guy named Mike Hughes who is a Tongariro guide. Mike writes a weekly fishing blog on the Tongariro River which is worth a look. 
Mike and I fished a couple of days together and caught a fair few fish from the Braids which you can read about in a report for September entitled "At last". All up I got just over 100 fish in the four and a half days of fishing.
On my very last night I was chatting to this guy who was telling me all about monster sea trout that grow to over 95cm in length. Apparently if you fly to the top of the world, to an "island of fire and ice" you can catch these huge sea trout... but then again there's always a country like that somewhere. The next day I hopped on a plane and flew to Iceland. I had booked a tour with Iceland Angling Travel, all rivers in Iceland are privately owned so you have to pay to fish each river. Prices vary depending on how good the rivers are. I decided to fish three rivers while I was there. First up the Varma which is a very small river, that runs from the mountains down the valley, through the town and then out to sea... like most river do. However this river is a bit different because the name Varma in Icelandic means warm. When you feel the water with your hands you will know why...guess what... it has warm water.. well for Icelandic standards.There are thermal springs and vents that flow into the river which keep the temperature at a moderate rate... just perfect for those big sea trout I'd heard about.
To properly sample what the Varma had to offer I hired a guide for a couple of hours, his name was Olafur. He showed me what flies to use and what kinda action to give them in the water. This river reminded me of a small Tasmanian stream I fish so I felt pretty at home here.
Olafur guided me onto this fish and took the photo as well. I walked up onto the mountain on my last day on the Varma and pulled a really nice trout out of some very small water.
The next day I was picked at at my lodge near the Varma river by guide Stjani Ben. His mum Rose, who had never been on a fishing tour before was going to be doing all the cooking for us. Myself and three other guys, Mikey and Harry, brothers from England and Casten from Germany. We proceeded to drive through some beautiful scenery to our next destination... the Eldvatn river. The Eldvatn... hmmm... I'm not sure what to write about it. The owner who sold the river to Stjani and us may have fudged the records of how many fish were actually going up that river. The three days we had there were the three hardest days of fishing that I have ever had. I caught one fish... Stjani got zero, Casten got zilch and Mikey and Harry got 3 between them. The river is catch and release... however we found fishing hooks with fresh worms on them that the previous fishermen had left behind. There were also Toby's found on the river, these are lures like spoons. The river is supposed to be fly fishing only and catch and release. Myself and Stjani were pretty pissed off at the time... I'm still pissed off about it and will never pay to fish that river again. Anyways the best part of the Eldvatn for me was the lodge itself and the stunning night sky. Every cloud has a silver lining which in this case was the world famoius Aurora Borealis. After our disappointment at Eldvatn hopes were high for our next destination the Tungulae. This is one of Iceland's most famous and iconic rivers holding sea trout well over twenty pounds!
During the last few days we had been hammered by poor weather and poor fishing. The weather hadn't changed much but luckily the fishing was better on the Tungulaekur.  Despite the fact it was majorly flooded due to all the rain the country had been receiving it was still fishing very well. I was fishing with black ghost streamers which were really working and I hooked and landed several trout on these. This fish was caught in the top pool of the Tungulaekur but I fished an adjoining river the next day and caught three or four Arctic Char which was a lot of fun. 
I decided to head back to the main river to try and get a another sea trout, ending up with a few more that afternoon. Stjani caught a nice one over 77cm long, my best was 66cm. But looking at them they probably would have weighed roughly the same. The next day it was time for me to head back to catch a plane. I was pretty happy with my adventure in Iceland, great food, great company, great fishing. Its a trip I"ll never forget... biggest fish for me was 83cms not sure what it was in pounds though.
So the next day I arrive back in Reykjavik and head out to the airport. While in departure I started talking to a mysterious old bloke about fishing destinations. He began telling me about a place where you could walk across the rivers on the fishes backs... that is if you didn't get eaten alive by the black bears. But then again there's always tales of a country like this somewhere.
Anyways I jumped on the plane and ended up in British Columbia Canada "...to be continued.
 I was laid low for a couple of days this week with the dreaded "man flu". I'm fully aware that our wives and girlfriends deny the existence of this deadly, completely debilitating disease. But they only have to put up with minor things like P.M.T ...pregnancy ...menopause etc. Anyway I pulled through and was back in action today with 73 years young Bill McKinnon. Bill has been fishing the Taupo area for many years and still retains that enthusiasm for a day out on the river. Nowadays with a couple of artificial hips to help him get around he doesn't tramp quite as far as he used too. But that didn't stop him and after a quiet start in the Braids with only one very sorry looking jack to show for our efforts we headed up to Judges. We began catching a few fish... then suddenly around mid-morning the river colored up. It didn't appear to be a slip because there wasn't any sign of pumice, just a sort of white surface scum. It began clearing around twenty minutes later but the bites had ceased immediately which was a pity. We tried above with no luck so decided to make our way back having a flick here and there on the way. This worked out ok and in some really shallow water that Bill admitted he would probably have walked straight past, he quickly scored two jacks. This again had turned out to be a harder day than I had expected because the Tongariro has generally been fishing well.
I've had a couple of very pleasant days fishing and exploring the little side channels and bypasses above Red Hut and finally managed to nail a few in the Cliff Pool. I have to admit this has more to do with the changes in the tail of the pool itself rather than any improvement in my skill levels. There have been some excellent catches reported and I've taken a few really nice fish. The better ones nearly always late in the afternoons. The weather trend is forecast to remain unsettled. This means we could get a couple more of those mini freshes if it does rain, which should keep things ticking over nicely. Not too many anglers around so have a great week out there guys.
Tight lines Mike |
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