Fishing will be exceptional when water clears

The massive amount of rainfall to hit the Bay of Plenty over the last few days has seen both the Ngongotaha and Waitite streams high and dirty. It will take a few days for them to settle down but on a positive note it would've encouraged many large brown trout to enter and start running the streams towards their spawning grounds. Once the streams begin to clear the fishing will be exceptional. Make sure your flies are visible (so the fish can see them with both colour and size!) as the rivers clear and fish heavy leaders, don’t be afraid to fish 12-15lb tippet for the first couple of days before the streams drop and clean up. By next week you will need to fish lighter leaders and smaller flies as the angler pressure comes on the fishery.

On Lake Rotorua the fish would have spread out again as it has gotten cold with these fronts coming through. The algae bloom would have long gone now so the lake will clean up reasonably quickly and on another positive note next week sees lots of settled weather coming with warm temperatures and light winds. As the lake warms up again it will see the rainbows seeking shelter in the cold currents of Awahou and Hamurana streams, so next week looks like it will be very good for the fly angler in and around the tributaries of Lake Rotorua. While the fish are spread out it will give good opportunities to the spin and softbait anglers as they will be able to cast further and simply cover more water than those fly fishers so don’t be afraid to change up your techniques before the weather fully settles later next week.

From Tuesday onwards we have lots of light winds and sunshine so all of the major boating lakes such as Rotoiti, Tarawera and Okataina will all have some wonderful fishing especially as the air temperatures reach the mid-twenties and the water temp rises. These warmer days will help define the thermocline once again so the trout can push the smelt hard against it and feed ferociously on them. On all of the lakes we have seen fish of over 8lb being caught, jigging has been the most productive method and by now people should be concentrating hard on fishing three smelt patterns. We have been going well with slightly larger flies in size 6 so don’t be afraid to fish larger smelt patterns. Concentrate your efforts in the 18-24m range and believe in your sounder and hunt those fish down. There is no question my staff and I will all be putting the big yards next week on the lakes as it should be awesome fishing.

Mike Davis

Rotorua Hunting and Fishing

360 Te Ngae Road, Lynmore Junction, Lynmore, Rotorua 3010

07 349 6303

https://www.facebook.com/RotoHF/

www.huntingandfishing.co.nz

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