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Thats fishing
Thu 12th January, 2012
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Mixed fortunes on the river since the last report and I must admit I've had much easier weeks.
I only fished myself for a couple of hours on two occasions and didn't get a touch on one of them. Lorenzo who lives in Milan and works in the banking industry was on a tight schedule for his two week New Zealand visit. Come rain or shine Sunday was the only day he could set aside for the Tongariro so undeterred he fished in awful conditions for a beginner. We blanked in the usual town spots but the wind and rain didn't dampen his spirits. As the river began to color up his determination eventually paid off when he landed a trout in the Blue Pool.
A few weeks ago I remember remarking to a friend that I had never guided anyone from Russia. This week Valeriy and Timothy's booking for the day brought that tally to six and luckily they both spoke good English. It struck me when I wrote down their details that Timothy didn't sound much like a Russian name. Listening to them talking when we first met up
I thought Valeriy had a speech impediment because he kept on calling his mate " Timofey " but this is of course the correct pronunciation and spelling of his name. Tim now lives in New Zealand and is a builder by trade which is a far cry from his previous career in Russia.
You'll never pick it... he was a Ballistic Missile Engineer. I thought at first he was pulling my leg but they both assured me that really was his former occupation in Russia. Tim's other passion besides hunting and fishing is mountain climbing. I've never understood the appeal of this sport may be I'm biased because I'm not a great lover of heights and get vertigo if I wear thick socks. Valeriy owns a commercial fishing vessel... thankfully he also owns his own waders because he's a pretty big guy.
It isn't often I'm looking up when I speak to someone. We fished the Braids, Judges then later Stag to Lower Birch and hooked something in most places we tried. They weren't great fish, a lot of them had been in the river for a while which is exactly what you would expect in January. I think the last few days have probably been the toughest I've had of late... but hey that's fishing. For some reason all of the photographs I took of Timofey didn't come out that well... but he was there.
Below is a snippet from the Geoff Thomas' Saturday NZ Herald Fishing Report :
".... Concern over late spawning runs of rainbow trout in the Tongariro River has led to an experimental programme to release 10,000 fingerlings in April or May. The yearling trout will be marked and catch rates monitored over the following two years, which will hopefully give an indication of what is happening in the fishery.
One theory is that large brown trout are eating juvenile rainbows, which spend the first year of their life in the river before migrating down to the lake. As a result, fishery managers are encouraging anglers to kill brown trout they catch in the river rather than release them ...."
I'm sure there will be many anglers out there who will voice an opinion on this one. My own is that both species of trout have co-existed in the Taupo Fishery for over a hundred and twenty years. Although rainbows will also sometimes eat small fish its their bigger relatives who have more of a reputation for doing so...including their own kind. But this is nothing new they have always done this...why should it suddenly be a problem. In the past I've taken the odd brown but nowadays
I prefer to put them back so that someone else can also enjoy the thrill of hooking one of these special fish. What changed my mind was something that happened I think around February last year. I had caught and released a nice brown from one of the town pools. Next day I visited the same spot but good-looking Bryce Curle was already there with a client. It wasn't long before she landed a fish which I immediately recognized as the brown I had let go the previous day.
So this one fish had given two anglers great sport and a huge amount of pleasure all in the space of just 24 hours. I think it would be a mistake to actively condone the culling of such an important summer resource on the Tongariro River. With revenue from license sales in decline surely the chance of catching a trophy brown trout is a draw-card that should be promoted not thrown away. At the end of the day the fate of any fish landed on the river is in the hands of its captor and his or her own conscience. I'm not going to be a hypocrite and tell you that I'll never kill another brown. There is a magic weight in my head that for me would be the one that goes to the taxidermist.
I haven't managed to land one that size yet so the likely-hood is they will be photographed and returned. Most anglers I know look forward to the arrival of the browns and the opportunity to hook a fish of a life-time, the summer fishing on the Tongariro just wouldn't be the same without them.
Tight Lines Guys
Mike |
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