Taupo Fishing Report

Took Anthea who manages the 5 star River Birches Lodge in Turangi fly fishing today for the first time in life - despite living in the Taupo area since age 11. The fishing was a little slow to begin with but Anthea is a quick learner and was soon able to hook but unfortunately loose her first trout after a very brief struggle. A little later Anthea managed to hook and land a nice Brown trout and then cast, mend, hook, play and land a nice 3 poundish Rainbow.

Guided Matt and John Pyle today on the last day of their 3 day trip and had a ball. The guys each managed several fish around half of which were in the 4 - 5 pound range. The most interesting event was when John hooked a nice 3 - 4 pound brown and we saw a Rainbow jump not far away. Eventually after a bit of a batlle he landed a nice 2 and a half pound Rainbow!

Found the river I wanted to fish today a little dirty but John still mangaged 2 land 1 nice brown out of 2 hooked and Matt also landed another nice brown. We left early and went to fish a piece of water I had been meaning to explore but hadn’t had a chance for for the past couple of years and found a nice piece of water that looks good for dry fly. Didn’t see any trout inside 10 minutes but only through two casts and then headed on to a little last resort spot and hooked another 7 to make 10 solid hookups for the day and 7 landed - only one of which was under 2 pounds. The photo here here is of Matt - a typical Australian - who we had noticed had his waders on inside out.

Guided John Pyle again today for the second time this year - this time with his son Matt who has never caught a trout before. Had a great day with Matt taking naturally to casting and John retaining well what he had learnt last time. In the end the guys managed to land a majority of the 16 good sized trout and several smaller ones - 12 of which were in the 3 - 4 pound range.

Picked up the Blackmans at 7 this morning for a day out fly fishing with a bit of tutoring on nymphing thown in. While Sam was still practising casting he managed to hook a couple of Rainbows and followed this with only the second double header I have ever send landed fly fishing - 1 on each hook (photo in the gallery). Ian managed to hook a couple before landing his first ever on dry fly. Sam also mangaged this fantastic Brown Trout on dry. In all the guys managed to hook and play 14 good trout - 5 on dry, + 1 small brown on dry, - excluding 1 further foul hooked fish.

Guided Nick Dunn again from England - on a different river to yesterday and had pretty good day. Nick managed to land 4 out of 7 solid hook and plays but also briefly hooked 4 others of which 1 broke off and 3 wriggled free after a short time. There was also one nice take on a dry fly where the big brown trouts mouth came out of the water to engulf the dry fly and Nick cleverly snatched it away hence saving a fight with the trout which could have resulted in another break-off and cost me another fly! There was also one other fish in relatively deep water that we brought in foul-hooked which had obviously gone for the fly and missed given it took the fairly light nymph soon after it hit the water.

Met Nick Dunn this morning at Spot X Lodge to take him out for a fish. The day was a little slow but fortunately with Nicks excellent skills he was able to make the most of the day and land 7 out of 8 trout mainly in the 3 - 4 lb range. Nick hooked 11. Previously the night before when he arrived Nick had manged to hook 6 on dry fly fishing near the lodge. I tried last night but to no avail. Seems a yellow clink hammer fly did the damange for Nick the night before.

Picked up Sergio this morning from the Anglers Paradise motel in Turangi this morning for a few hours fishing and experieced the best weather conditions for 6 months or more. The weather, helped by Sergio’s excellent fishing skills enabled him to land 4 out of 7 trout hooked including two nice fresh runs. To end the trip, Sergio had a couple of takes on dry fly but did not managed to hook either trout.

Went over to Tauranga today to sight fish for Yellow Tail kingfish with Clark Reid and friend Kevin Dhillan. Though the Kingfish weren’t around yet, (they will arrive for the summer sometime in the next few days or weeks) we still had a ball with several Kahawai engulfing Clark’s flies. Conditions were perfect and the day was fantastic with the three of us having a great time on Clark’s customized fly fishing boat while we hunted for kingfish - doing it bonefish styles! I am looking forward to another trip across soon, hopefully when I get a chance and conditions are perfect again. Perhaps next time the kingfish will play ball - and looking at Clark’s photos from last season I am sure they will. For some reason, sight fishing a 30 - 40 pound Yellowtail kingfish on sand flats in New Zealand has more appeal to me than bonefish at the moment!

Guided Stewart and Michelle White from Santa Barbara in California today and had a great day. Initially the fishing was a little tough then we hit a couple of hot spots later on with 17 excellent fish of around 3 lbs or more hooked of which 7 were landed. Michelle manged two of these - pretty good for her first days fly fishing.