We've been graced with some beautiful weather across the last couple days. The Tongariro is at the lowest it has been in many months currently sitting at 32.8m3/sec and flowing clear. Wet lining has been producing very well for many of our customers, as per usual the olive woolly bugger has been very effective. Nymphing has been good once you are able to locate where the fish are, small naturals with a touch of bling like the Category three Pole Position and Carpet Caddis PTB in either #14 or #16 have been taking the fancy of the feisty fresh fish that have been entering the river. Harling has been effective on the lake, especially in the early morning with the Tinkerbell Sparkler Tassie Devil being an effective fish taker.
We had a very busy weekend in the shop and although the naturals have been doing well for the nymphers we have had no shortage of reports on fish being taken on the Slushy flies. Mac called into the store again today to make sure we are all topped up with Slushy's heading into the weekend..... I'm sure they won't last long.
We now have the Rio Skagit Mini Max Power available in both integrated and shooting head form. I've had the pleasure of fishing this head for a few months now and I have absolutely fallen in love with it. Tony (featured in cover photo) came up to the central plateau over the weekend and after picking up a Skagit Mini Max Power head in 325gr to match his Redington Claymore 11'6 4wt trout spey rod and he said it has changed his spey game completely! Not to mention the salmon pink colouration of the line really brings out the blue in his eyes. The only way Tony could truly describe his newfound casting ability was to use descriptive words such as "Woooooosh" and "Pooooowwwww". Luckily Tony has now returned home so both our shop staff and the fish can have a couple weeks break from his relentless pressure.
The Temperature has continued to drop with a light frost on the ground this morning which has continued to keep the fish moving. Tim has been behind the vice today tying up his deadly bugger patterns so be sure to grab a few of them before they go.
Tarn.