Weather: 10.8°Periods of rain, heavy at times from afternoon. Northeasterlies, strong in exposed places.
River Flow: 23.9 Cumecs (m³/s)
The rain has finally arrived after long anticipation. This rain will hopefully bring the river up and get those fish running. We are expecting the heaviest down pour to be tonight around 6 which we will keep an eye on and see what the river does.
We have been hearing that there has been a mixed bag being landed but with many being in great fresh condition fit for the smoker.
On Sunday I headed out with my mum to teach her a bit of indicator nymphing and show her around the area. I also managed to land myself a nice jack which Timmy has smoked up for me! It was a great little adventure, and I loved being able to share with my mum my favourite little river.
A little report sent in by Rosie who was also out and about over her weekend.
Nick, the black labs and I fished the Tongariro on Monday, while she sat very low and clear at 23 cumecs. Nick has been coming down for 10 years to Turangi for the fishing and is a pleasure to have around! I met him on the river in my early fishing days a few years back and he very kindly shared some spots to help my novice self get into some fish. Sharing knowledge and positive river interactions are pure gold. We targeted riffled water and fast runs to search for fresh fish.
We had a hilarious incident where a fresh fish once hooked, leaped from the depths straight through a tree root on the bank leaving me wrapped up! After a 10 min bank scale and line extraction, the fish got off almost immediately. Hilarious fun! We picked up another 2 fish between us for the morning.
Lachlan and I headed up the TT yesterday all day in search of fresh fish. Fishing the deep pockets, with heavy fast sinking nymphs between snags was productive, where the fish did not see us coming! We managed a good handful of fish between us and had a blast crossing all over the show in the low water to reach every corner and deep water we could find. Lachlan brought out his spey rod for the afternoon, swinging his ULS skandi line on the Sage Trout Spey reel and the Sage #3 LL Double hander - an incredibly beautiful and balanced set up, throwing delicate casts into tight spots on the smaller rivers, & he tells me it's the best gear decision he's ever made! I could see why!
Overall, we all had a great weekend and are all looking forward to seeing the river colour up a little and the level increase. Tomorrow if the river isn't in flood, it should really set things off.
Tight Lines everyone!
~Niamh (Bluey)