Tongariro River Flow: 22(m3/sec)
Weather: Isolated showers, becoming widespread and persistent from late morning, then clearing late afternoon. Gusty north-westerlies, turning south-westerly late afternoon.
The river is still holding very low and clear, so looking into the future forecast, it looks like we may have a little bit of rain coming on Sunday- Monday (80% chance of 10mm+). We are also getting a bit of rain currently, hopefully just enough to get some more fish moving.
The fishing locally this past week has been okay. I've seen a fair few very fresh run fish in the 2-4IB, but not many bigger. The tail outs and shallow fast water sections of the river- have been producing very well.
I'm also seeing a lot of mayfly activity on some of the smaller rivers, so pulling out the more traditional natural nymphs like a #14 hare and copper or Pheasant Tail have been going well when the sun is up.
As per usual with the big river, depth of flies seems to make all the difference. If you're fishing likely water, to no success, try and get your flies a bit deeper in the water and rotate flies very often. I haven't found one specific fly that works best- but every time I rotate to a new shape, size or colour, the fish seem to play game again.
Some promising photos from customers recently, showing some nice condition fish.
One more month now until most of the back country open up, and help relieve some pressure on the local rivers, which should still be fishing well by then.
As the conditions keep warming, we will keep moving further away from glo bugs and slushies and moving in-to the dry fly/ dry dropper season.
Tight lines everyone,
Let us know how you get on.
Sportinglife Turangi