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2012 kicks off.
Thu 5th January, 2012
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Steve thanks for the kind words mate, I tried to reply to your email but for some unknown reason it won't allow me to send the message. Cheers Mike.
Hi Guys and first of all a belated Happy New Year. Now that things have settled down after the latest fresh 2012 has got off to a great start on the Tongariro. The rain encouraged more good rainbows and browns to run. But a lot of the browns seem to in the three to five pound bracket.
I know its early days but I still haven't managed to nail a good one...to be honest I don't think I've spotted that many. May be we've been a little spoilt because the previous three years saw some phenomenal brown trout fishing on the Tongariro. There have been one or two nice fish caught, seven pound plus and you always hear stories of much bigger fish taken but without pics of these monsters I'm always more than a bit dubious. 
The river looks in fantastic order with some little changes here and there after last weeks heavy downpours. Noticeably more anglers around and yesterday was the first time for months that I was unable to get a client into one of my favorite town pools. So instead Steve and I spent a very pleasant few hours fishing the Braids. Time flies when your enjoying yourself and he found himself in a little bit of " hot water " with his wife when we were an hour late getting back. The unsettled weather over the past few weeks has affected the much anticipated appearance of the cicadas.
They were beginning to make themselves heard as the males began their court-ship calls to the opposite sex but the wet spell has slowed things down quite a bit. Anglers look forward to this annual event on the Tongariro because it can trigger some excellent fishing. The trouble is there's no way of telling how good or exactly when the main hatch will be. Things like ground temperature, air temperature, ground moisture content all play a part in the puzzle. But generally from now on if we get warm settled weather the noise from the male cicadas should gradually increase as more and more adults appear. The love song of the males is produced by two membranes called tymbals situated either side of the first part of its abdomen. These membranes are quite stiff so when the cicada contracts the tymbal muscle it bends the membrane inwards causing a loud click. As the membrane returns to its normal position it clicks again. The insects hollow abdomen acts like a sort of " sound box " amplifying the noise. Male cicadas do this alternately with each one and are capable of contracting the tymbal muscles many times per second producing the almost drum roll like effect we are all familiar with. Its when hundreds or even thousands of mating adults gather that we get the deafening crescendo of noise along the river bank.
One thing to keep in mind if you are walking beneath large numbers of cicadas is they actually pee. I'm not sure of the quantities involved but if you feel a light drizzle touching your face on a cloudless summers day... don't lick your lips !
On many of the trees downriver you'll see the dry, brown outer skins discarded during the nymphs final molt. The posh name for these are the cuticles or exuviae and they can often remain stuck to the sides of tree trunks and branches for months after the emergence of the adult cicadas. 
With BBQ weather upon us why not give your mates something a bit different because cicadas are edible. What about delicious cicada kebabs, sweet and sour cicadas, a nice hot cicada curry with fried rice or that old favorite cicadas on toast. For dessert you could serve up sticky toffee cicada pudding, cicada Panna Cotta or cicadas dipped in dark chocolate sauce with strawberries and vanilla ice cream. There are hundreds of cicada recipes and my New Years Resolution is to give every single bloody one of them a miss !
At the moment its another beautiful day out there with hardly a breeze, so as soon as I finish this I'll pull on the waders and Jake and I will go for a dabble. The long range forecast looks changeable with plenty more of the wet stuff on the cards but you never know in Turangi. The river is flowing at just over 30 cumecs and is still carrying a hint of color. Lots of little silver juveniles washed down from the upper river attacking the nymphs but I have a feeling we may see a few more good fish caught in the coming days. 
Have a great week guys
Mike |
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