It has been a stunning weekend on the central plateau with a couple of blue bird days and hardly a breath of wind in sight. The Tongariro remains low and clear flowing at 24.8m3/sec and there are stacks of fish both fresh and coloured in the system at present. Both wet lining and nymphing have been extremely productive as long as you are willing to scale things back (less weight, small indicators, lighter tippet). The NZ Strike Indicator System is ideal for these conditions with a smaller profile and the ability to easily adjust depth it is a great way to improve contact and drift which seems to be crucial at the moment.
Some anglers may be finding this winter a little challenging with the low water levels and finding that their tried-and-true winter techniques aren't yielding the usual results. Instead of counting this winter as a write off I would Challenge everyone to look at it as an opportunity to change things up fish some lighter flies focus on improving your presentation and drifts and try targeting some different water. The crew from Taranaki did exactly that over the weekend and the results speak for themselves!
Theresa and I are instore today as Neil enters the final days of what seems to have been an amazing trip to Christmas Island ticking off bonefish, triggerfish, giant trevally and more. We are eagerly awaiting his return so we can here all the stories! And I'm sure he misses us too. 😉 The weather looks settled through the week and we're not complaining as the warmer sunny days are starting to kick some insect life into action which has had the fish feeding happily. There's no better time to get on the Tongariro than right now!
Tarn.