Morning all, well we finally have some decent weather here in Turangi this morning with the big yellow thing making its long-awaited appearance. The Kaimanawas have had a good coat of snow overnight, so it is nice and brisk this morning.
The Tongariro River is flowing at a nice level in the mid-thirties, nice and clear. (Just had an Angler in the shop who has reported the river has gone dirty so a slip must have come down somewhere in the gorge, hopefully this should clear over the day).
I have spent the last four days on both the Tongariro and T.T Rivers and have had a great time catching a mixed bag of both fresh and spent fish. This is very much to be expected at this stage of the season with the large runs we had back in June now finished their spawning cycle and heading back to the Lake. We found the ratio of fresh to spent fish about the twenty five percent region. Flies doing the damage were the Rainbow Trout emerger pattern in both the soft egg and traditional yarn pattern. Colour did seem to make a difference with the old school Champagne Steelhead Orange combo hitting it out of the park.
Also very noticeable is the appearance of our early day time Mayflies. These little fellows always turn up in September and are a sign that Spring is truly with us. The occasional fish will take an adult off the top but the real interest for us is on the nymphs sub surface. It just goes to show how tenuous these nymphs really are having survived the big flood we had a few weeks ago. Turning a few rocks over yesterday we also observed plenty of caddis nymphs still there which bodes well for the evening rise that will kick off next month.
Make sure you have a couple of Pheasant Tail patterns in your fly box as these are a must over Springtime, sizes 12 to 18. We have a great range of these in the shop.
If you have no plans for the weekend, make the most of the good weather and head to the Tongariro for a late season trip.
Tightlines
Tim.