The jigging on the lake has been fantastic ! The fish are in great condition and we have caught some crackers full of KOURA and flesh deep orange red colour which makes great shishimi. They fight like the devil as well and on the light rods makes for some great action. Best flies are size 10 smelt patterns, no paticular colour but i like the gold bodied ginger mick. (great...
I have been flat out guiding over the last few weeks, had some fantastic nymph fishing in the rivers and some great jigging action in the lake. I had a first time fly fisherman land 4 browns and 4 rainbows on my quadbike trip, this would be a good day for an experienced angler ! The lake has been fishing really well,both trolling and jigging has been producing some great... 1 comment(s)
Mark booked me for a 2 day fishing adventure, first day was overcast and rainy but the fish were biting so who cares ! The second day the sun came out and the fish were still on the bite but no dry fly action, all were caught on my seal fur nymph. We fished dry and nymph combo but still the nymph did all the catching. The fish are in...
A lack of rain has left our rivers low and clear, ideal for sight fishing but not so good for the farmers, we can't have it every way but who cares,we have the rugby world cup ! Pier and Mark with a couple of nice rainbows on a quad bike adventure fishing trip. It was a stunning day but no sign of any fish rising, all the fish were caught...
Backcountry fishing remains good, the rivers have been low and clear and the fish are in great condition after having come through winter and spawning. Dry fly action has been good, half of the fish being caught are on dry's, fish taking these ahead of the small nymps hanging off them. The local tribs have few fish in them now, the Tongariro being the best with spasmodic runs of fresh... 4 comment(s)
The whole country has breathed a sigh of relief with the All Blacks winning the Web Elis Cup and I for one can now relax and get back to fishing ! Jim,Jacob and myself with solid rainbows taken on nymphs .The backcountry rivers have some superb conditiond rainbows and browns for this time of year. I took a guy out last week to the Whakapapa, he had a big SLR...
The guiding has been hectic so a little slow on getting my blog out, the clients have changed to Aussies and South Africans, the Irish and English have vanished. The fishing has been pretty good, the rivers have good numbers of fish but some are getting fairly thin not putting up much of a fight and then you hook into a bigger and fatter fish and it smokes you off...
Rugby world cup fans have come in there droves to fly fish Taupo's rivers and try their luck on the lake and the fish have been obliging with good catches in both river and lake with some great conditioned fish being caught. It is a real buzz talking to these anglers about the world cup and the positive attidudes they have about New Zealand in general and the running of...
An early season heli trip in to the mohaka with Paul, Julia and lan. The river is open downstream from the Mangatinoka so we fished up from Te Puia lodge. Just after we landed a sika deer came down to the river to check us out. it carried on whistling at us for a few minutes, then lost interest and wanderd off. We caught a nice brown right where we...
The rivers remain low and clear with challenging conditions......nothing has changed, however i did have a good day guiding on the Waitahanui on Wendsday,Loic from France (i did mention the rugby world cup ) hooking onto 8 fish and landing 5 of them, all rainbowsand all on glo bugs. A run of fish did come in the river but they have shot up like thourabread race horses, heading for the... 1 comment(s)
The Taupo rivers remain low and clear, the fish that are in the rivers have seen a number of anglers and hundreds of flies and you have to be on you game to catch them, long fine leaders and small naturals such as pheasant tails, hares ear ,hare and copper,prince nymph in sizes 14 to 16. The imfamous glo bugs when the light is off the water and if you... 6 comment(s)
Perry, Pete and Handbag (apparently was sprung drinking Baccardi ) wanted 3 days fishing, mixing some boat with flyfishing in the rivers. The local tributaries have been pretty tough going so we were going to hit the Mohaka but the rain came in that day so we decided on a boat trip in the morning and fly in the afternoon. We got on the water at genteltmens hours of 8am,... 1 comment(s)
A late July dusting of snow around our house was something of a novelty for us and for the ski fields it couldn't have come at a better time with the last week of the school holidays. As for the fishing a small run of fish on the Hini, TT and Tongariro kept anglers happy for a couple of days. Some fish of around 2kgs were taken but they are... 5 comment(s)
The fishing has been anything but easy, yes there are some fresh fish entering the rivers but you have to cover the water, move on to the next likely lie and get lucky. The fish we have caught have been in the 2lb to 4lb range, nice and fat.Glo bugs and caddis are your best bet. On the boat the spottie gold was the best lure. From top left we... 1 comment(s)
Photo's, team GT,biggest of the trip,and me, broken after 4 days and no GT ! Our trip to New Cal had been planned for months in advance and Mat nearly didn't even leave the check in counter with an invalid passport ! A 5am phone call to New Caledonia got him through although we had all left him at the check inn !! Gear including lures, hooks, split rings, trace,... 1 comment(s)
The fishing has been slow in the rivers but the lake continues to fish well. Above is Todd with one of 6 or so fish we caught on the lake in a couple of hours. We spent the morning on the Tongariro with little success and decided to spend the afternoon on the lake which paid dividends. The rivers just haven't fired, paticuarly the Hini which is usually the first... 1 comment(s)
Perry with a solid rainbow and brown late season from the Whakapapa river. We had a great day, the weather played its part ,overcast with little wind . The day started a little awkward with the local farmer but we soon sorted that out. Perry had a bussiness partner over from Portland Oregon and wanted to give him a NZ fishing experience he would not forget. To that end we... 2 comment(s)
Chris Fleck from Montana contacted me and said he wanted 5 days fishing. I came up with a plan that would give us the best fishing, most time on the water and the least down time travelling but still get us remote water not often fished. Chris B&B with us the first night,next day we headed down to National park way to fish the Wanganui and Whakapapa rivers. The rivers... 2 comment(s)
April can be a challenging time to catch fish, the fish have been hounded all season,had their photo's taken a number of times,released and re-caught, they don't know what food they can trust anymore and to cap it off they are getting ready for mating or spawning season. Rod (with the nice brown) phoned and said he had a couple of crazy keen fish'os, father and son (Kevin and James... 1 comment(s)
The local spawning tributaries are tough fishing unless you get the Tongariro on a rainy day or if the water has a bit of colour. The other options on the local fishing scene is the river mouths,the Waitahanui being the standout especially early morning and of course the lake which is fishing paticularly well. The fish are not big but are in good numbers and in great condition. Many of... 4 comment(s)
I always enjoy the quadbike adventure fishing. Not only do we get good fishing we have fun on a great ride in and out. Nigel wanted something different in his fishing and he wanted to bring his wife Tina along. I took a spinning rod along for Tina who fished a couple of pools ,hooked a tree or two and decided laying in the sun was her thing. The morning... 1 comment(s)
March has been a boat fishing month with charters every day. The fishing has been great with consistant catches, one 6 hour charter giving us over 40 fish , one of the best days I have had. Above is Dorris and Dean who stayed with us. We had a boat charter on the first day, Dorris was the champion angler, caught the best fish just as Dean decided to swap... 2 comment(s)
February has been my bussiest guiding month to date , lots of differing clients, rivers and fish. I have had heli fly inns, quad bike adventures, drive and fish, boat charters, had clients who can cast as good as me and those who struggle to get the fly 20 feet. I have had clients who can cross rageing rapids to those who struggle ankle deep on pebbles. We have caught...
Mark Chatterton with the double, a nice brown and rainbow from the Wanganui. The rivers are in great condition west of Taupo and are serving up some great dry fly action in certain parts of the river. Some sections of the rivers are outstanding dry fly while others are still on the nymphs and it is not just a fish or 2 but virtually all of them. Really makes you... 1 comment(s)
Helicopter, Mohaka river, Hut, rainbow and Brown trout, quality red wine, scotch steak, throw in a possum or two and a large eel and you have a great couple of days. Mandy contacted me and wanted to organise 2 days fishing for Derek as a birthday present and we booked the hut a few weeks ago. In the meantime we had a massive flood, wiping out the backcountry rivers for... 1 comment(s)
Roger booked me for 2 days backcountry flyfishing . The heavy rain we had put that out of the question for the first day so we hit the Tongariro and got lucky to find some holding browns and a few rainbows. Roger landed 5 nice fresh run browns,(and a few rainbows ) all similar to the one Briggs is checking out. Next day we hit the Wanganui and Roger was... 1 comment(s)
Spin fishing for trout is not my speciality , sure I have caught plenty on spinners but I am no expert so when asked to guide a spin fishing trip I was a little apprehensive. I suggested we take the fly rod as well. I needn't have worried, the spinners were working a real treat, fishing the fast runs where I would normally nymph or dry fly the spinnners were...
Summer is well and truly here when the cicadas are going flat out and the fish are hitting big terrestrial dry flies.The last couple of trips have been awesome fishing with 9 out of ten fish going for the big dries. The rivers are now in great condition, low and clear. This concentrates the fish , moves them into the riffles/runs where the airated water cools them and more importantly...
Caleb and Erin from Reno USA. These guys were over here in NZ to get married, but before that they had booked a quad bike flyfishing adventure with me. Erin had little flyfishing experience so we had a crash course instuction sesion the night before. Early morning breakfast and we were on the road heading south for our adventure. After an hour or so we unloaded the quad, geared up... 1 comment(s)
It just doesn't get any better. Wilderness flyfishing by Helicopter. A short flight or 2 days tramping, your choice ! The chopper dropped our gear of at the hut and then a short 2 minute flight downstream and we were there, I am usually guiding so to have all this water to ourselves was a real treat. I had 2 6wgt rods, large terrestrial dry on one and a nymph... 4 comment(s)
John and Jeanette from England stayed B & B with us for a few days last week. John and I went fishing on Tongariro for the first day and managed a couple of recovering rainbows in the shallow riffels. A good steak on the barby, couple of cold beers, good sleep and we were ready for the next day. Next day we headed for a more remote river and although...
Rich from Waitahanui Lodge put together a fishing school for kids wanting to learn about trout and the different fishing techniques of catching them. Ole is the flyfishing guru who is teaching the casting and getting them river wise. Choosing flies, getting to know where the fish are likely to be and hopefully catching them. The trip was a make-up for the disappointment of the Lake Moawhango cancellation a couple...
Trout are great eating provided you get a quality fish, one that has a small head in relation to the body, fat through the flanks and a nice silver colour. The flesh should be a nice orange colour. Most people smoke their fish, it makes great shisimi ,soup,bottled, but one of our favourite ways is as follows. Cooking Trout Usually we smoke or sashimi our fish (in all honesty we...
The Tongariro is fishing well with good numbers of rainbows, the odd fresh one as shown with Torben holding destined for the barb-o-que , the odd brown and plenty of recovering fish . I have had the best results on the hares ear size 14 as the point fly with a tungsten bead head to get the fly down. Dry fly was happening untill the river got cloudy from some...
Gourmet hamper and Champange enjoyed by Piet, Peter and Rob from Rotterdam on the Tongariro river after catching their first trout. All 3 caught 2 rainbows each on their first time flyfishing. The river had a snow melt colouring which made spotting the fish next to impossible but fishing was good. We spent a good part of the day on the river then headed back to Taupo where we picked... 1 comment(s)
Walt with some nice backcountry fish. We had a cracker of a day, the river was low and clear and we could see the fish in the odd pool feeding below the surface taking nymphs . Walt had no worries getting his first rainbow for the day, a good cast and the indicator plunges under, solid hook up and the fish charges down stream through shallow boulders and rapids with... 1 comment(s)
Over 200 Snapper ,barracouta, school sharks, gurnard, kahawai were caught amongst 10 anglers on a recent charter trip out of Kawhia on the west coast. Most of these fish were released. Our earlier trip had been postponed due to a large wave damaging the boat on the bar crossing a couple of weeks earlier. We couldn't have picked a better day, hardly any swell and no wind. The fishing was... 4 comment(s)
Nigel from Natal with a nice Brown sight fished on lake O. With the rivers flooded and a stunning spring day we headed to lake Otagamakau. We were greeted to clear water where we could see half a dozen nice sized browns cruising around doing their beat. Hiding behind a flax bush we waited for the fish to swam past us for the 3rd time and placed our dryfly/dropper rig...
Fishing and golf, well someone has to do it ! We have just come out of 2 weeks wind and rain. well I mean gales. One gust 200kph. Obviously no fly fishing, the rivers have been flooded but some good fish have been coming out of the TT. This river is fishing as good as the good old days with some great conditiond fish and good numbers if you are... 1 comment(s)
Guiding has been busy with mixed results on the river and the lake. Tom from Colorado wrapped with his rainbow jack from the Waitahanui which we cooked for dinner for him . I think he enjoyed his stay after being cooped up in his small van. Boat charters have been hit and miss, one day good fishing and the next tough. Change the lures, depth, speed and location. Makes you... 5 comment(s)
An old wader bag makes a great net cover,stops blackberry,sticks etc getting caught in the netting.I personally have lost half a dozen nets over the years and have found just as many and most could be contributed to getting caught on branches.This totally eliminates this. I must admit it was not my idea. I guided this guy last week, he had never fished before and saw my net getting caught... 5 comment(s)
Yvette hooked up to a nice Tongariro rainbow with Mark looking on. Yvette missed out on catching her first trout on fly with the fish throwing the hook and making a hasty retreat.Thats fishing ! Mark fished hard determined to catch his first Tongariro rainbow but the fish gods were not on his side and we had to settle with a couple of beers instead. The next day I met... 2 comment(s)
Local identity Phil McMaster with a nice rainbow, Briggs inspecting the catch,and an empty stertch of the Hini. Some good rain has lifted the river levels and all but the Hini and Waitahanui have been unfishable.The Tongariro has cleared enough to enable anglers yesterday to fish with some reports of excellent fishing to be had. The TT and other tributaries should be fishable by tomorrow so get your gear out... 1 comment(s)
An early morning start resulted in half a dozen fish caught harling on a gold ginger mick for a trio from Whangarei. The fish were porposing for the first hour or so and we had some great fun getting a strike every pass. The river fishing has hardend up somewhat, the great fishing we had a couple of weeks ago has certainly abated. Maybe some rain will bring some new... 1 comment(s)
The Tongariro,Hinimai,and Waitahanui fished well today.The TT was still to high but should be good tomorrow.Photo's are myself on the Tongariro,self confessed Manawatu Mafia fisho's holding the fish,and another 3 anglers with one in the net and their catch.The rivers should continue to fish well all week.On the Tongariro I landed 8 or so fish out of one pool,all on a gold bead PT. They were not interested in the...
The winter spawning runs have well and truly started with some excellent fishing .Reports of plenty of good conditiond silver bullets around the 3 to 4 lbmark and a fish weighed just under the magic 10lb. All the spawning tribs are fishing well so get your gear out and get into it. Glo bugs in the lower reaches and naturals higher as a rule. Above is Stu from Canada who...
The guiding has slowed right down now so time to have a break,work on my golf game,do some hunting with Briggs and a bit of fishing of course. On that note the spawning season runs have started with some fantastic fishing remeniscent of a few years ago with good size fish and numbers to match.Lets hope it will keep up. As I write this the TT will be the place...
Lastest guiding victims Andy and Steve from Auckland got lucky on a stunning Autum day on the Waitahanui.This was Andy's birthday present from good wife Rachael and he brought good mate big Steve along for the afternoon. Andy had never fly fished befor while Steve had been out a couple of times. The first pool we arrived at Andy was given a quick lesson on what to do if he... 1 comment(s)
Some good fishing,great weather and camp fire combined to make 3 fun days on the Mohaka. Pictured are Grubby with a nice rainbow,Lisa hooked into a nice fish which I dropped just before the photo,(i am still reminded of that from time to time),dinner on the barby and Grub hooked into another rainbow. The river was low and clear and the fishing was pretty tough, late in the season in... 3 comment(s)
Mark with a pair of nice rainbow jacks with their spawning racing red strips on, myself with a solid jack and Mark hooked up with another nice rainbow. 2 days fishing backcountry rivers is always special and right now is a great to to be fishing as the fish are in good condition after feeding hard out over the summer getting ready for spawning. These fish can put up a... 1 comment(s)
Angela with a Waitahanui Brown taken on a nymph. We came across quite a few which were not intrersted in our offerings, turning away and slowly cruising of to the cover under the banks much to our frustration. In one pool we came across a dozen or so. I couldn't believe our luck, bound to get one of these. About a fly box later we had to admit defeat ,... 1 comment(s)
A 3 day campout with the Yeti and Stig .The weather was good, the fishing awesome with 20 odd fish over 3lbs,mainly browns all on the dry. A double figure fish was lost, some nice rainbows caught, some wine and beer consumed,and the food wasn't bad either with lamb rump, steak, and the good old bacon and eggs. A quad bike adventure with 2 Aussies and their first time flyfishing... 1 comment(s)
Phil with his first rainbow on a dry.He spotted this fish behind a rock feeding on the surface and Phil being Phil decided to throw his large terrestrial dry at it, I,m not sure who got more of a surprise when the fish lept on the fly and charged of accross the other side of the pool.Needless to say Phil was pretty chuffed with himself. The day was one of... 1 comment(s)
A job from Huka Lodge turned into a very casual day for myself and fellow guide Marcel. Tom,Bill and Joe .We picked these guys up from the lodge, packed lunch and seemed like a few bottles of wine in the pack as well. We took them down to the Tongariro, geared up, walked down to the pool. They did a bit of fishing and decided it was time to have...
Carl ex Taupo and Phil from Albany WA booked me for the quad bike adventure. I picked them up at 7.30 and off we went . They had just spent 2 days fishing the Tongariro. On the ride in we tried a spot of golf ,Phil had the edge over Carl on that one for sure. When we parked the quad we had some bush bashing to do before we... 4 comment(s)
Drew with a small fresh run rainbow Me with a solid rainbow destined for the smoker The fishing has been patchy,the weather has been crazy with hot humid conditions and torretial downpours,the cicadas don't know what to do,one minute it is hot and they are going flat out then the rain comes and they go dormant. The rivers are high one day and down the next, the lake fishes really... 2 comment(s)
Ben with his rainbow jack after some frustrating earlier action in which we had some just plain bad luck and stage fright from Ben on some big feeding rainbows. The day started by picking Ben up from Seasons camp ground here in Taupo. Ben is here for 2 months living his dream of fishing in NZ. He wanted a heads up for the start of his flyfishing adventure so we...
Brendon with a solid rainbow Brendons first fish of the day Jono with a nice jack I first meet Brendon and Jono in the Yasawa Islands Fiji, I was fishing my way through the Islands and they were partying . They had a go on my fly rods, these guys can cast . We got talking about trout fishing and kept in touch.They were keen on the quad bike adventure... 2 comment(s)
Lucky Phil and son Darcy with a nice rainbow from the lake destined for the smoker along with a couple more. This was the finish of our 2 days fishing. The first day was spent fishing the upper Wanganui accessed by quad bike . The day was perfect, no wind and sunny, the river was low and clear and the big rainbows could easily be seen cruising the deep pools... 2 comment(s)
Jeff,and Zane Heli fish on the Waiau for a day in the wilderness fly fishing and spinning for rainbow and brown trout. The river looked good , clear water with no one in sight except for the odd dear. The flight took about 15 minutes or so, we looked for other anglers, saw none and dropped into the gorge with the trees seemingly touching the blades- and landing softly on... 2 comment(s)
Ira with a solid rainbow taken on a dry fly on our recent quad bike trip into the Wanganui. Our 3 day guide trip started on the Mohaka , sunny skies and little wind with the river low and clear. The fishing was tough, the usual multitude of small fish were absent to be replaced by a few very large browns and rainbows. These fish were in the slow deep... 1 comment(s)
Gavin from South Africa in action on the Tongariro. Nymphing and wetlining the Tongariro today provided Gavin with some good action. We could see the rainbows cruising the pools and shallows , feeding occasionaly but not rising. Still a little early for the dry fly as the fish were firmly on the bottom.Gold bead PT, caddis and the gold bead green woolly bugger did the trick today. Gavin landed 4...
Ken and Mitchel on the Tongariro river Guided Ken and Mitchel yesterday on the Tongariro . Neither had fished before so the morning was spent learning the skills of flyfishing. Casting, retrieving, mending the flyline and actually playing the fish all rehearsed. The Tongariro is a big river and can be quite daunting for the first time angler when you need to put out a 20m cast, quick mend, and...
Macca with his rainbow destined for the smoker and Xmas lunch. Macca, Neil and Doug from Napier charted Maverick for a few hours for some trout fishing on Lake Taupo on Tuesday afternoon. The lake was flat up till lunch time then the dreaded westerly picked up with quite a few white caps around. This always makes slow trolling difficult as the wind blows the boat around, takes you away...
Smoking fish is an artform. I have seen, tasted and smoked myself some fish which could barely be described as edible. Some people smoke them to the extent they become dehydrated, dry ,chewy and smokey,has half a packet of salt and brown sugar plasted on it and they think it is fantastic. Well not this camper. The fishsmoker itself needs to be a size which is managable for the amount...
Fished the Acacia Bay fishing Comp with Rick Cooper and Lisa. Briggs came along as usual. We landed 25 rainbows and this nice Brown which weighed in at 2.4kgs with a condition factor of 59. Nice fish but good enough only for 2nd place, won a nice ham tho !.Another brown of 2.8kg was weighed and a 2.3 kg with a condition factor of 61 won the day. Lots of... 1 comment(s)
Opening day on the Hinimaia River was a wet affair. My plan was a lat start to avoid any early morning rush and arrive arround 10am after the first wave of anglers had charged through all the pools. I only saw a couple of other anglers so not sure if the river was heavily pressured or not. I fished for a couple of hours, landing 6 rainbows in different places,...
Guided Bill and Brian from the UK today, we went to the Tongariro for a start, hooked a couple of rainbows, got soaked in a downpour so we decided to call it quits on the river and hit the lake for the afternoon on Maverick. We spent a relaxing couple of hours staying dry and landing a couple of fish as well which will be cooked for them as I...
Guided Tongariro 1/2 day today with a Canadian couple. First time flyfishers and they managed a couple of rainbows. Dave picked up the casting like a pro and is now hooked for life, hanging up his spinning gear and buying a fly set up. Full day tomorrow and off to the Mohaka . My Wendesday golf will have to wait. Also have a full day on the boat on Saturday...
Guided Andrew from Canberra on the Tongariro yesterday,he could cast a nice line, managed to land a couple of rainbows on small beadheads. The fish were rising to a good mayefly hatch. We hooked a nice brown but it got the better of us, and managed a rainbow on the wet line. Had a barbaque last night and spent the day recovering working in Greenstone Fishing The lake is fishing...
Summer is just around the corner right ? Yesterday shorts and T shirt and today thermals and jacket ! Lets hope we get some settled weather for summer and some hard fast action on the cicadas. November heralds the start of the dry fly season with evening hatches. If you are lucky enough to be on the rivers at dusk you should see some rising fish. A klinkhammer , parachute...
