Welcome to the first report on the new Sporting Life website! There has been a massive amount of work from the team in putting this site together with countless hours spent staring at a screens so a huge thank you to all the crew for their efforts. We hope to have everything in store loaded up in the near future, and if you have any issues or spot any gremlins please be sure to let us know via email at sporting.life@xtra.co.nz and we will get it sorted.
**We have had a customer lose the tip to their Sage rod last night between Cattle Rustlers and the Major Jones swing bridge, it is brown coloured off a 10ft rod so if this is found please bring it in to Sporting Life. Thankyou!**
A grey and drizzly morning dawned today, with a handful of anglers prospecting the bridge pool as the light burnt through the mist that had blanketed the Tongariro. A shout to the boys below received a reply of a couple of fresh fish landed so they are slowly trickling their way up - the next big fresh should see some numbers push in!
It was another very successful night mission over the weekend with the biggest brown I have seen this season getting brought to the net by Karl Sawyer. We headed out onto the lake to try and see if we could track down some big rainbows as they gathered at one of the rips in preparation for their spawning runs but the first fish that was hooked was this behemoth! Talk about starting a session off with a hiss and a roar, pretty hard to supersede a fish like this...
Overall it was a slow night numbers wise with a handful of chunky rainbows including this solid model which made its way into the fish bin and was destined for the smoker. We were also plagued by catfish with a number of them getting foul hooked as well as eating our lumo flies and it was the most I had seen caught since being back in Turangi. Hopefully the annual catfish cull can put a dent in the numbers, we certainly provided the koura with a few meals worth!
Our man Johnny has been out giving the fish a good hurry up with his pre tied jig sets that we sell instore and has been picking up some great looking fish! He has been catching most of them out deep (40m +) so if you are heading out on the lake it is a good place to start, we have had reports of as deep as 65m so spend the time searching with your depth sounder to find where they are before dropping down to save yourself fishing in barren water.
Andrew and I headed to the upper Tongariro with the new Sage R8 to give it a good run and try to track some fish down in the shallows and we got into some quality fish with some solid trout making their way to the Mclean net over the course of the day. We are very very excited about these new rods and the early impressions are superb! It is hard to do these rods proper justice with words but the wizards at Sage that produce them have come up with a rod that has a lighter swing weight, scarily good accuracy, loads of power to full send a cast right up a pool if needed but still have that bit of softness and soul we all love in a rod which has made for one stunning product - they will be in store this afternoon so be sure to check them out!
The night fishing on the Tongariro is still producing some nice fish with good reports in from customers of solid browns and rainbows! We headed out for a quick cast after dinner last night and within 15 mins had a beautifully marked brown in the net. The big rabbit patterns continue to provide consistent hits and if you're keen enough to leave the couch and get out there the rewards are waiting for you!
Come in and see the crew and we will get you kitted out and out on the water, opportunities abound at this time of year and we will be getting amongst it as much as we can - we'll see you out there!
Connor