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Christmas and New Year Report.
Thu 1st January, 2015
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HAPPY NEW YEAR GUYS!
2015 dawned bright and breezy but heavy overnight showers put a bit of a damper on the fireworks.
The river is up a few cumecs and was approaching the thirty four mark with some color when Blue and I went for a walk this morning. This should drop out as the day goes on and will encourage more fish to move which will set things up for the weekend.
There are already some good browns in the river and with the present conditions there'll be reports of more nice fish hooked over the next few days.
Geoff Wade had already caught a few rainbows but after several twitchy minutes was all smiles and mud when he finally got the one above on the bank. Back home in the States Geoff is a member of the conservation group Trout Unlimited and sportingly returned it after the pics were taken.
Depending on how you look at it Mike Coco below wasn't as lucky. Despite having never fly fished before he hooked two browns in less than 15 mins but lost them both, this one right at the net.
  Boxing Day was probably the busiest day on the river although it hasn't been too bad since.
Some days the fishing has been a little patchy but during summer its as we head into dark that the river comes alive. When we have those warm evenings and light winds the rise can be spectacular and you wonder where the trout have been hiding all day. Mind you when you see the sheer numbers of insects hatching its no surprise the fish switch on.
Normally I tie on a buoyant Caddis pattern or big bushy mayfly with a dropper above them but I also like to experiment.
On the weekend I'd fished all day with Canadian angler Guy {like key} Bonneville we were getting a few fish and decided to take a short break and then carry on until 10.00pm. Throughout the day Guy had been telling me about a fly called the "Green Machine" which he swears by on the rivers back home in Canada. He was itching to try it on the Tongariro but I have to admit when he took one out of his fly box I had my doubts.
You can see it top center. Its tied on a fairly large hook, I'm guessing a size eight and I haven't a clue what its supposed to be. However, five fish later he definitely had me convinced.
Intrigued, the next day I decided to do some digging. I'd honestly never come across this pattern before but once again Google enlightened me. Its a well known and popular fly in both Canada and Northern America and can be tied to float or sink.
When chasing steelheads the floating version, known over there as a bomber pattern is deliberately skated across the surface often inducing some hard hitting and aggressive strikes at the fly.
Tied wet it fishes just below the surface or in the surface film itself. But by using various sinking lines can be made to fish at virtually any depth. They call this "wet bug" fishing.
Whatever they call it ... it works!
The next couple of nights I used it teamed with a snatcher tied on a short dropper above it. The takes were awesome. I found it best to just dead drift it with a slightly raised rod and watch the line hanging down from the rod tip.
Sometimes the takes came just as the flies began to swing but if you had what we used to call in Wales an "educated finger" you could feel a slight tightening of the line just before it slammed straight during the drift.
It seems to work best up until the light begins to fade, after that I had better results with more conventional caddis or big mayfly patterns like the Green Drake with the snatcher on the dropper... especially "drowned".
Snatchers originated in the north of the U.K where they evolved to imitate the large buzzers on some of the Scottish lochs. But they'll work anywhere trout are feeding near the surface.
Like most popular flies there are now dozens of variations and colors. But even old favorites like the Hare's Ear can be dressed "snatcher style".
They're mainly used on still waters in Britain, using all kinds of techniques and setups and most trout fishermen over there would have some in their box.
My night vision isn't great and I like to keep things simple when I'm on the river late. A ten foot leader with a short dropper four feet from the buoyant point fly will keep the flies near the surface and cut down on tangles.
The easiest way to tie in a dropper is by using a Water Knot with either two or three turns, it doesn't really matter. Steve Cullen the editor of Total FlyFisher shows how in the short clip below.
You can if you like " snitch " the completed knot. Take the dropper snood and tie a simple overhand knot around the leader below the Water Knot. Moisten it with saliva then tighten and snug it up against the barrel of the Water Knot. The dropper should now be standing out at right angles from the rest of the leader. This helps prevent the dropper twisting around the leader which hampers presentation and makes the line in that area more visible to the fish.
Now for something completely different. Gail and I are not " Christmassy " people. We both worked for the NHS for many years and nurses rarely get Christmas off ... for us its no different to any other day of the year. Its become a bit of a tradition that I always fish Christmas morning so when the big day arrived I headed to Judges for a few hours. A month or two back I'd read Jared's report about a shag that had tried to make off with a fish he was about to land. I don't know if its the same bird but look what happened to me.
       
That was no baby trout either and probably weighed around three pounds, it makes you wonder just how many fish they get through.
Sunshine and isolated showers forecast for the week ahead and with warm days and light winds the prolific late evening hatches should continue. Day time top water action will also increase...enjoy guys.
Tight lines
Mike |
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| COMMENTS |
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I call this bird Shagger,well known on the Tongariro River-notorious trout snatcher. Fly fishers beware,ole Shaggers out there.
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| Snake Eyez | Mon 12th January, 2015 | |
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| Great photos of shag attack - it is past time for a shag cull... |
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| Mon 5th January, 2015 | View 1 Replies |
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| Great photos Mike. Best wishes for 2015 and I hope to see you on the water March/April |
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| Muzza | Sat 3rd January, 2015 | View 1 Replies |
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