Yet again we have had a significant flood come through the Tongariro, this time reaching 330 cumecs on the gauge. Currently the river is sitting at 50.5 cumec and looks in fantastic condition for the long weekend ahead! Plenty of reports through the shop from anglers with a mixed bag of results - some nice fresh silver fish coming through but there has been a good increase in the amount of coloured up fish, no doubt washed down from the upper river from this latest fresh. With the river continuing to drop were very hopeful of another good push of chrome rainbows coming through over the next couple of days!
There has been yet again more significant changes down the lower river with the Bain pool, Shaw's reach, Creek Pool, Jones pool etc all appearing to be different now with multiple trees/snags in the middle of the runs moving or disappearing, new sandbanks appearing and old ones moving, new seams created and some others lost. It will be very interesting to see how it all looks in lower flows however it appears that the bypass (Plank Pool etc.) in front of the Tongariro lodge will end up looking much the same with lots of gravel filling in the pools so if that is the case expect it to be nearly stagnant when the flows drop down especially to summer levels.
I shot out with Tarn, Josh and Bre yesterday and there were plenty of fish brought to the net, most were coloured which was to be expected given the conditions however there was some solid fish in the mix - the coloured up jacks this time of year are some of my favorites to target as they can be super aggressive and full of fight, epic fun on the trout spey rods which is what we were using yesterday. Bigger flies in darker colours were the order of the day, and with the river still carrying plenty of colour they will continue to work right through the weekend. The old faithful orange bead head wooly bugger is another must have, and with the amount of eggs floating past us in the shallows yesterday for anyone indicator nymphing make sure the globug box is well stocked up!
We have our fly line wall stocked up nicely for the start of the new backcountry season, with my personal favorites for the smaller streams the Rio Technical Trout and Gold in all sizes available. We also have a good range from Scientific Anglers and Airflo available so give your old lines a good look over and if they're showing signs of cracking/delaminating or have been cut against snags etc have a look at the following link and we should have something to suit your requirements!
Check them out here Fly Lines - Floating | Sportinglife Turangi (sportinglife-turangi.co.nz)
We look forward to seeing everyone here, it should be a great weekend ahead!
Connor