Weather: Overcast & raining at last!
Tongariro River Flow: 26.4 cumecs (m³/s)
Some great reports coming in today as we write this from anglers landing good numbers of fabulous conditioned fish both yesterday afternoon and early this morning. The lower light levels and pressure change is pushing good numbers of rainbows up through the system & there's no better time to hit the water than now!
The wetliners & spey fishers are in for some great fishing as the water levels are due to rise and with a bit of colour change, a good time to use bigger, heavier & brighter wet flies to catch the fish's attention. The same can be said for the river mouth fishing as more fish arrive & stack up to begin the upstream spawning voyage. We have good stock numbers of the Fathom full sinking lines, a great line for elevated flows on the Tongariro & for swinging the river mouths with wet flies & heave & leave egg patterns, which are working well on a slow retrieve.
Bridget and I had great fun last week indicator nymphing our way up and down the Tongariro. She landed many a beautiful fish on her new Rio Grand floating line, paired nicely with her Sage Arbor XL reel and one of our shop favourite rods - the Sage R8 in a 7wt. A true joy watching her succeed over and over! A fabulous winter set up for our local river.
My excitement is building for the spring & summer nighttime brown trout fishing and lumo black woolly buggers are still doing the damage, when finding the odd resident local brown.
For the nymphers, get onto to your caddis patterns as they're the biggest menu item and get easily disturbed and washed out from under the rocks in higher flow rates, trailing a darker orange glo bug, slushie or bigger size 10 UV hare & copper to make them stand out more than in the low, clear conditions we've been experiencing for a while.
And you can't go out without staying warm and dry with a reliable waterproof jacket, we have the new Patagonia Swiftcurrent Wading Jacket, which is lightweight, robust, has good long & flat deep pockets & very high quality, as usual from Patagonia. & don't forget the coffee! Our variety of Yeti Bottles & Mugs in varied sizes & colours, keeps your hot drinks hot & your cold drinks cold all day long.
Enjoy the fishing team!
Rosie