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As it
is coming on to winter time, and winter is the traditional time for Trout
fishing in the central North Island lakes, I was very pleased when Keith, the
esteemed Editor, phoned me up telling me he’d arranged a short trip out on Lake
Taupo for me. This was great, I likes a nice bit of fresh trout, and as the trip
was planned to go on a nice big Launch, I looked forward to far more comfort and
luxury than I am used to when I go down there with my little runabout
boat. The
boat I was to play on was Graeme and Joyce Downes’ “Waimarie”, a Vindex 350,
that they had been operating on
Taupo for the last decade or so. (Correct Graeme?) Being aimed at taking tourist
out for hassle free fishing for just a few hours at a time, she is rigged mainly
for cruising comfort rather than a purist fishing vessel. This is
not to say that the Waimarie is not a good fishing boat, as the fishing demands
of Taupo trolling are really pretty limited, all you need is a small cockpit to
wind in your trout, the need for large cockpits, walk-around layouts and game
chairs to tame the wild big boys of the salt water is not particularly necessary
for an average size five-pound Rainbow Trout! On this
trip with me I had arranged a couple of keen trouties, Bruce Dearlove of
Matamata, and young Ben Portman, a fifth former from Matamata College. Both had
done plenty of trout fishing before, but little from such a large boat, especially for Ben, who’d never fished
Taupo before. We
loaded up on a warm if somewhat drizzly April noon, meeting Graeme at the dock
at Taupos marina. As we loaded up our gear and set off to park our cars, I had a
chance to ask Graeme about the set up for Fishing licences for commercial
operators on Taupo. I had thought that there would be a sensible scheme in place
where individual charterers would have a boat licence so that customers would
not need to buy separate licences for each trip. This
was not the case though. Graeme was quick to point out, this had been suggested
by the Taupo Charter Industry several times before, but had been knocked back by
D.o.C. as possibly dropping their revenues too much! This seems to me to be a
pretty unrealistic stance by the powers that be, even worse when you consider
that most of the tourists fishing on these vessels in Taupo fish for only 3 or 4
hours in one day, yet are forced to pay for a full days
licence. That
doesn’t upset me too much, the thing that really bugs me about Taupos licensing
system is that the Day licences in Taupo only run until midnight of the day of
issue, so if you arrive in Taupo for a nights fishing, planning to fish as we
were on this trip, the afternoon and early morning of the next day, we would be
forced to buy two one day licences. This is
a real rip-off, a days licence should cover a 24 hour period, for a day from the
time of purchase. Rotorua and the rest of NZ has already modified their licenses
to this system, you have to wonder why Taupo has been so reluctant to offer
anglers in their areas a similarly fair deal. By the
time we had thoroughly covered this matter, we were back on the boat, slipping
the ropes and heading off onto the lake in search of the wily Trout. We put our
lines in as we neared Whakaipo Bay, cruising the bluffs leading into this scenic
spot. The Waimarie has a couple of heavy-duty down-riggers set up on her
transom, as you’d expect they are the deluxe models with all the electrics and
line counters, not the simple basic wind’em out, wind ‘em up guess how deep ones
like my little one. Off each of these ‘riggers Graeme would run two lines, one
run off the ball weight, the second off a clip on the wire about three metres up
the wire. I was
particularly looking forward to using these downriggers here, as I have long
been of the opinion that trout fishing with the old Lead and Wire lines must
eliminate much of the fight of any hooked trout. Using downriggers, you use no
such weighty lines at all, just normal nylon lines, much lighter for the fish to
pull and fight against. We had
not gone far, just entering Whakaipo Bay, when the first trout seized on Graemes
favourite lure, the good old Spotty Gold Cobra. This first fish was Bruces, a
fat little fish of about two pounds, but as it was a little bit under Taupos new
size limit of 45cms, we put it back to grow some more. Still, a good omen, only
about half an hour into the trip, and one fish landed already. Now all we had to
do was convince Graeme to head for the grown-up fishies, and leave the nursery
alone! Only
another fifteen minutes later, as we crossed to middle of Whakaipo Bay, Bruces
rod again heeled over in a major strike, very much different from the cautious
nodding of the first fish... this looked like a very healthy specimen. Sadly, we
would never find out, as the second Bruce lifted the rod from the holder,
tantalisingly feeling the weight of the fish for a second or so, the fish spat
the hook... darn! Being
the nice guys we are, we all assured Bruce that it was undoubtedly a fat prime
10 pounder he’d just dropped, just to make him feel real good about it. Oh well,
off we cruised again, with the lines all reset, waiting for the next
hit. It was
a pretty long wait, as we trolled out of Whakaipo bay, and into Whangamata Bay
off Kinlock, before again Bruces line nodded and danced. This time there was no
backing out for this fish, and before long Bruce had this nice four pound fish
lying beside the boat, ready for me to net for him. Perfect, at least this time
we had something to take home! It was
getting later in the day now, and Graeme was keen to get to our anchorage for
the night, Boat Harbour, before the light gave out, so we upped lines and
cruised off to Kawakawa Bay. Boat Harbour is a small, circular bay set into a
rocky headland at the Southern end of Kawakawa Bay, a perfect sheltered
anchorage in everything but a strong easterly wind, and a more picturesque
little spot you could not wish for. As we neared it, we slowed to a troll for a
wee while, but this proving fruitless we soon headed in to the Harbour to tie up
for the night. This is
very easy to do, as set into the rock wall forming the northern end of Boat
Harbour are a couple of steel spikes, onto which we were soon tied. Then with a
small anchor cast out onto the sand to keep the tern off the beach, we were set
for the night. As soon
as we were settled, young Ben and I were keen to be off, as we planned to put in
some time casting lures off the rocky point entering the Harbour. Casting out
into the deeper water out from the entrance with small 18 gram Grim Reapers,
we’d let the lures sink to the bottom before starting our retrieves at moderate
speed. This form of spinning/jigging has proved to be deadly effective on the
Rotorua Lakes over the last few years, and I was sure the same tactic would work
on Taupos’ stock of Rainbows. Only a
few minutes after starting to flick our Grim Reapers, we were heartened to see a
nice big trout porpoise out of the water in the middle of the Harbour entrance,
(the entrance is only about 40 metres wide at most, you can cast your jigs from
one side to the other easily) so Ben concentrated on working his lure in that
area while I stuck to working the deeper drop-off. My plan
worked first, as half-way in on my retrieve, the thumping strike and rattling
run of a good size fish proving the effectiveness of this technique here in
Taupo. I was using 6lb Spiderwire Fusion, one off the new Spectra type lines,
(this brand in particular developed for spinning), and as it is a non-stretch
line, every shake of the trouts head and thrash of its tail was transmitted
instantly to my rod-tip. The
immediacy and vibrancy of the fight on this line compared with the cushioned
effect of nylon really makes a huge difference in the feel of the fight, I
really love this line, and fully encourage any other keen anglers to splash out
on some of this line too. The fact that it is also so much lighter and finer
than nylon, and that you generally can get 10metres further per cast in distance
over the nylon lines is also a very good feature! I was
soon able to work this fish in from the deeper waters, despite an alarming
period when it made a determined run out of the bay and around the rocky point,
but with my normal marvellous skill (Ahem! No skites in my family, eh!?) I soon
had the fish coming to the rocky bank. It was
rolling on its side just at my feet, showing itself to be a healthy fish of
about 4 to 4 and a half pounds, when Ben, in his youthful exuberance, reached
down to grab the fish and drag it ashore. Before I realised what was going on,
Ben grabbed the line, lifting the fishes head clear of the water. In a last
despairing flail, the trout thrashed it’s head again, and before my horrified
eyes, snapped the light line. Gone.
Damn.Ooooohhh bugger was my restrained response, as Ben looked up with the
stricken look of one who knows they just lost someones fish for them. Ah, well,
I said to myself, it was only a 4 pounder, I’ve caught plenty before, this one
was no great loss. Not that I would admit that to poor Ben though, oh no, I
looked forward immensely to being able to rub in this terrible, devastating loss
to the poor kid, man, I could see I was going to get a lot of mileage out of
this event!
1769 Still,
this was not the time to really rub it in. There was no audience! The important
thing about making people squirm is to always have an audience, eh. It’s Soo
much more satisfying! So, after sending the young fella back to the boat to get
a net (which I should’ve thought to bring in the first place), I shrugged off
this unhappy chance and tried to have another crack at a
fish. Sadly
it was not to be. The dusk turned to the deeper gloom of a cloudy night, and
casting lures became pointless. The last straw was the light rain that started
to fall. Time to head back to the warmth of the Waimarie and a good cooked
dinner. We
returned to the Boat, just as Graeme was preparing to serve up a thick, tasty
pumpkin soup, with lashings of toast, bread and butter and Kentucky Fried, there
was more than enough for us all to eat. After this repast, we settled down to the quiet evening banter of a
fishing crews yarning, until it was time for bed. I tell
you folks, going down to a proper bed/berth, while tied up on the lake ranquil
haven of boat harbour, we readied our lines for the slow process of Harling a
fly line, the best way to fish so early in the day. While
Bruce was Harling a Yellow Lady Fly, I prepared our deeper lures to run off the
Down riggers. Ben was keen to use the Spotty Gold again today, and I wanted to
try the very sexy Yellow Attractor (traffic Light) McGrath Lure I had all ready
to go. Within
15 minutes of the start of our mornings fishing, with two lines running off the
riggers, and Bruces line out Harling, we had our first fish on. Hitting Bruces
harled Yellow Lady, we soon had boated another fat Taupo rainbow, a good 5 pound
fish. As we
admired this sleek beauty, I was quick to point out that the fish that Ben had
lost for me the previous night was easily better than this, but that I didn’t
really mind him losing me a nice 6 pound fish. Ben wince of remorse was great,
exactly what I was fishing for! Heh, heh, heh. With
Bruce now opting for a deeper line, now the daylight was broadening, we trolled
on slowly towards the beautiful Otupotu Falls. We had gone for maybe another ten
minutes before this time Bens rod was struck. Delighted, Ben got stuck in to his
first ever Taupo Trout, keeping steady pressure on the fish he soon had it
laying in the net, beaming as I lifted it aboard. Another 5 pounder, with the
glorious colouring of a prime Rainbow, it glistened marvellously in the first
light of Dawn, one of those special moments. “Well
done Ben-boy!” I said, “a beauty! Not quite the same as the seven pounder of
mine you dropped last night, but nice enough anyhow” Ah, I was enjoying this
trip! Again
we set off on the troll, after the obligatory photos of the event. Once
everything was set properly again, I headed up to the bow to flick a jig into
the shadows under the nearby cliffs, ever hopeful of picking up a trout I could
call my own. Standing on the bow of Waimarie, slipping silently over the mirror
calm waters of Waihora Bay in the Western Bays of Lake Taupo, well folks, life
just not get any finer than this. If anyone asks why I go fishing, I think of
instances like this, and ask in return, “Why do you not?” Truly, we are a very
fortunate country. My
reverie was disturbed when I looked back to the cockpit, to see Bens rod again
start kicking. My alarm yell alerted those in the cockpit of this situation, and
again Ben started in on a fish. When, a few seconds later, a beautiful big trout
leapt fifty metres astern of us, Bens smile became positively manic. When I
lifted this fat 6 pound fish into the boat for Ben, the lad was fit to Burst, it
was his best ever trout, one that anyone would be proud to
land. After
the congratulations and celebratory photos, I did mention in passing that it
wasn’t a spot on the great 8 pound fish of mine he dropped the previous
evening. Our
interrupted journey towards the falls was resumed, with us getting very close
this time before Bruces cobra was again hit. This fish, as well conditioned as
the others, if only a four pounder, was another welcome addition to our tally,
with four fish now, we had one fish each to take home, and when breakfast time
came, we’d be able to have one for that too! Very neatly worked
out. We
stopped off for a shot at spinning and fly-fishing the Otupotu Falls, although
more just to enjoy the view and the natural beauty of the area than for any real
chance at a fish I suspect. It certainly is a very pleasant way to while away
half an hour or so, before Graeme was leaning over the flying bridge asking if
we were ready to head on to Waihaha. We
wouldn’t have time to fish there as I would have liked to have done, standing in
the river mouth in my waders Fly-fishing, but I was at least keen to see a spot
I had not visited for over a decade (time flies! Man, does time fly!). It was
just as we were passing the cliffs leading into Waihaha that this time my rod
nodded quietly away in a discrete strike. This
fish was not the size of the others, being barely legal at around the three
pound mark, but as it was almost the perfect pan-size fish, it was quickly
dispatched, filleted and in the fry pan before you could say “what’s for
breakfast?” Man oh man, what could be finer than such a fresh fish
meal? As
Graeme was serving it up, I did point out to Ben that as nice as this fish was,
I’d much rather be tucking into the marvellous 9 pound trout he’d dropped the
previous evening, not that I was holding any grudges or
anything. Well,
after such a great Brekkie of Trout, toast, eggs and Sausages (we were a very
well provisioned crew!) we did a few laps around Waihaha Bay, but with no
further luck. We had been listening to the Radio Chatter, as there was a Trout
fishing contest on that day, and ere very happy to hear that no-one was catching
anything either, fishing being very slow. This puffed us up enormously, having
landed four trout for the morning, although I took the opportunity to point out
to Ben that if he hadn’t lost it the previous evening, that glorious 10 pounder
I had, beaten and laying at our feet, would have won us that contest (not that
we were actually in it you know. Never let details like that upset a good
needle!). It was,
by now, getting on towards mid-morning, and time for us to be heading off back
towards Taupo, so we upped lines and Graeme nudge Waimarie up to a healthy 15
knots for a faster dash back across to Whakaipo for a last gasp troll along this
productive piece of water. As we
slowed down for our last trolling effort, at around 11-30, I quietly asked Ben
if he thought I’d get a chance to catch a fine fish like that great 11 pounder
he’d lost for me the previous evening..... aah, this was great, mirror calm
waters, fantastic scenery, good fishing, good company, and somebody to torture
in the boring bits, does it get any better than this? Our
last burst of fishing added nothing to our score though, and as these waters
nearer Taupo were becoming a bit more crowded (half a dozen boats were within
eyesight! Disgraceful! How dare these people fish on my lake?) we pulled in our
gear for the last time and headed for the Marina. So,
what did I think of our trip? Isn’t it obvious? I loved it, every moment of it
(well, except for the one moment in the early morning when a puddle of water
emptied itself off the canopy, down my neck and back, ay chihuahua, at 6.30 I
didn’t need that!), the scenic beauty and the tranquility of Taupo has to be
experienced to be believed. Waimarie is the perfect sort of
boat for this job, with plenty of room on the bow, uncluttered and easy to fish
from for fly-casting and spinning, otherwise very comfortable to spend time
cruising and trolling the lake from the comfortable salon. As an overnighter
boat, she is perfect for a group of 4 fishermen to live in comfort, something I
am very surprised more people do not do. As for
the fishing gear on the supplied on the boat, I was very pleasantly surprised. I
always had in my mind that Taupo boats would be somewhat backward in their
fishing gear, expecting to find old one-to-one reels, loaded with wire or
leadline etc, but instead I was delighted to find that Graemes gear was perfect
for his fishing options. His
Down-rigger outfits were Shimano “Charter Special” lever drag reels, which are a
virtually idiot-proof reel, ideal
for tourists not well versed on the handling of fish etc. Had we wished to use
Leadlines, he again has these on top-of-the-line modern reels, large capacity
Penn 330 GTi reels, and for his Harling, runs light lines off Shimano Bantam
reels. As for
Graemes charter rates, I thought these to be more than reasonable, especially
for anyone wanting to just spend a morning with a few mates fishing while in the
Taupo area. Graeme says that 80% of his customers are Kiwis, with the bulk of
his other customers Being American or German, with Asian numbers dropping off
lately, for the obvious reasons. The
true test of my assessment of the Waimarie as an overnight fishing trip for
Taupo, would I go again? Simple, Yes. In an instant, I really loved it. I just
really wish Ben hadn’t lost that amazing 12 pound Trout I had over at Boat
Harbour, folks it was a monster, and it was right there.....
sigh.
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