Weather: Overcast, sunny spell, 14km winds and highs of 17°C
Tongariro River Flow: 22.5 cumecs (m³/s)
The wind has been a real challenge for anglers over the New Years period, at times it feels like you're just casting a ribbon! But for those who have managed to get a line on the water in between gusts, have reported good fish numbers and rainbows chunking up and recovering nicely, making for great sporting fights. And despite the wind, we're still grateful that it's warm enough for us to be wet wading!
Getting the spey gear out and swinging wee wets throughout the day into the evening hatches has been a productive method to land good numbers of fish, with the odd brown trout lurking among the rainbows for a welcome golden surprise! The Tongariro is still nymphing very well, which was my Tuesday adventure, sight fishing with smaller natural stoneflies and caddis to deeper sat rainbows to try and get my eye in for fly presentation on the bottom for the winter (not wishing summer away but those big silver bars are hard to not think about!)
River & stream mouth fishing at night has been productive despite the wind, with fish hankering down in the shallow sheltered edges, still happily eating and taking dark woolly buggers, kōura (freshwater crayfish) patterns, lumo paddle tails and wee wet emergers.
Smelting throughout the daytime has provided Gary some great brownies where the sunshine and wind has allowed for sight fishing. His fly of choice is a grey ghost style fly tied very small and skinny, we have all the materials instore for you to create your own deadly pattern or pick up some quality Pat Swift tied specials.
Fingers crossed for that long hot dry summer we have been dreaming of to bring out the terrestrials for some fun dry fly action! I have yet to witness and fish a good cicada year, after hearing so many great Tongariro cicada stories from years gone by! It will happen!
Enjoy the rest of your summer breaks and we'll see you in store or out there!
Rosie