I towed my 6.2m tinny (and wife) into Waikaremoana from Auckland a few January's ago on the back of my 6 cyl Holden. We chose to go via Waihau Bay (East Cape area) and spend a couple of days chasing Tuna, then down to Gisborne for a day via the Gis - Opotoki gorge, then into Mokau to launch the boat and set up a base camp next to some friends. Main comments would be:

- great trip, but would launch the boat at the campground next time. The Mokau access was dodgy (for towing) if it rained, and we in fact had to pull the trailer out of the camp without the boat. No problem as we just motored the boat around to the Campsite to put it back on the trailer.

- I found other drivers on that road didn't always allow for fella's towing boats, and we had 2 very narrow escapes in approx 30 mins of towing between the Campground and Mokau. Personally I wouldn't do the tow from the Rotorua end purely for the reason that other road users make it too dangerous.

- Jan fishing can be hard (Spring/Autumn is much easier), so unless some of the excellent sounding advice above works out, don't budget on having trout for dinner every night.

- Next time I am there with a boat, I will be doing as suggested somewhere above and setting up camp in one of the beautiful bays 'through the Narrows' somewhere. Just beware that the track runs close to the shore in places and some places that look quiet and private, may not be as private as you think they are.

- I love Waihau Bay and the camp ground there, and would definitely do the trip via Waihau next time as well. It's nice to spend a few days chasing the Tuna, Kingi's etc, before tackling the slimy bu--ers in the lake.

Overall, fantastic place to go, fishing will possibly be harder than you might think, but I would seriously look at minimising the amount of towing over that road.

Hi Matt

I have been fortunate enough to have been going to Waikaremoana for the past 25 years on a very regular basis. Like all fishing there are many secrets to sucussfully fishing this place. My best catch was getting married at the

Te Puna hut when it was still there. If you stay at the camp ground look for the following people at Xmas - A green 6m tin fryan with a 150hp 4 stroke yamaha. This guy camps opposite the kitchen and a couple of sites from the toilet with his wife and teenage kids. He can find the the fish every year even when no one else does. The other guy to look for will be trolling from a little white yacht with no sails. He fishes in shallow water in close to the shore. He uses smelt flies

If you are fishing from the camp ground start at 25ft deep. The two spots to troll are  - from the river mouth around the bay / the far side of home bay is best. The other spot is around the shallow water off the grass flats about 700 meters from the boat ramp heading up the lake / the road side of the lake. Keep heading up the lake and you will find a suken tree log sticking out of the water. This was the hot spot last christmas. Dont be tempted to fish to deep - these same spots also fish will at 45 ft deep if the lake is high and the water warm. You can expect to catch rainbows between 2 - 3 lb and the odd brown. 2 - 4 fish an hour in the evening

As for fly casting for browns use a floating line and Mrs Simpson size 8 - 10. Find a sheltered spot where you can easily see the fish cruising a flat sandy bottom along the shoreline. You will need lots of patients and skill.

To get the best out of your boat head up the lake through the passage and under the bluff. There are some great areas to pitch the tent just look around and find a sheltered spot / be aware the wind can get very nasty so a sheltered spot is recommended. You will hear Kiwis during the night. There are some great spots to fly fish from the shores but the hot spots can only be explained via a good map. There is great trolling around the shallow bays - once again 25 ft or 45 ft are the magical depths.

Best trolling colors are pink, purple, skeletor - white with black skeleton. I only bother fishing the change of light during this time of year.

As for hunting - we found more deer and pigs there last year than an other. All the tourists hunt around the lake edge - the deer are there in small numbers but spookey. Imagine a area with big rooting and tracks everwhere. The are there but you will need to put in a 6 - 12 hour walk to find the animals. The internet is not a good place to tell you where to hunt. The locals have a few secret places - head back to rotorua from the lake - At the top of the summit and any river head away from the lake - once you are 1 hour off the road keep your eyes open.

The road is not easy but can be done - make sure the trailer is in top nick and you have a good 4x4. My bro in law comes in from napier when coming from Wlg with a 20fter.

The other place to camp is Mokau. There are no facilities. I prefer the camp ground or heading up the lack and finding a spot to meself. There are no facilities, but you know you have gone to a remote part of the country.

Hope this helps - the place is magic

Cicada,

It sounds as if you have been in there recently.

Is it OK coming in from the other end?

Where is a good spot to launch (and safely park car and trailer)?

Do you fish the lake too?  How does it fish - I imagine not many people fish it, too remote for most?

Do you hunt there too?

I strongly advise against using the road from Rotorua if you are towing a boat. the big storms of the past few monmths really knocked that area around and you will, at the very least, have some big delays getting through, if you can.

Even going around the hawkes bay way will probably be faster.

Internet Acronyms Dictionary

[ A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | A-Z ]

A

A/S

Age/Sex

A/S/L

Age/Sex/Location

AA

Adios Amigo

AA

Alcoholics Anonymous

AAAAA

American Association Against Acronym Abuse

AAMOF

As A Matter Of Fact

AATK

Always At The Keyboard

ABT

About

ACD

Alt Control Delete

ACK

Acknowledged

ACK

Acknowledge

ACRONYM

Abbreviated Coded Rendition Of Name Yielding Meaning

ADN

Any Day Now

AFAIAA

As Far As I Am Aware

AFAIC

As Far As I'm Concerned

AFAICS

As Far As I Can See

AFAICT

As Far As I Can Tell

AFAIK

As Far As I Know

AFAIR

As Far As I Recall

AFAIR

As Far As I Remember

AFAIUI

As Far As I Understand It

AFAYC

As Far As You're Concerned

AFAYK

As Far As You Know

AFB

Away From Brain

AFC

Away From Computer

AFCPS

Any Fool Can Plainly See

AFDA

A Few Days Ago

AFDB

A Few Days Back

AFK

Away From Keyboard

AFTP

Anonymous File Transfer Protocol

AFU

All ****ed Up

AI

As If

AIH

As It Happens

AIIC

As If I Care

AIR

As I Remember

AIR

As I Recall

AIS

As I Said

AISB

As I Said Before

AISI

As I See It

AIUI

As I Understand It

AIW

As It Was

AIW

As It Were

AKA

Also Known As

ALA

As Long As

ALAP

As Late As Possible

AMAP

As Much As Possible

AMAP

As Many As Possible

AMD

Air Movement Device

AMF

Adios Mother ****er

AMF

Adios My Friend

AMF

Adios, Mother ****er

AMF

All My Fault

AMIGA

A Merely Insignificant Game Addiction

AML

All My Love

ANFAWFOS

And Now For A Word From Our Sponsor

ANFAWFOS

And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors

ANFSCD

And Now For Something Completely Different

ANSI

American National Standards Institute

AOL

America On-Line

AOL

Army Of Lamers

APAC

All Praise And Credit

APPLE

Arrogance Produces Profit-Losing Entity

ARE

Acronym-Rich Environment

ASAFP

As Soon As ****ing Possible

ASAP

As Soon As Possible

ASCII

American Standard Code for Information Interchange

ASF

And So Forth

ASL

Age/Sex/Location

ASO

And So On

ATB

All The Best

ATLA

Another Three Letter Acronym

ATM

At The Moment

ATM

Automatic Teller Machine

ATSL

Along The Same Line

ATTN

Attention

ATTYOB

Anything That Turns You On Baby

AUDI

Accelerates Under Demonic Influence

AWCIGO

And Where Can I Get One

AWGTHTGTATA

Are We Going To Have To Go Through All This Again

AWGTHTGTTA

Are We Going To Have To Go Through This Again

AWHFY

Are We Having Fun Yet

AWOL

Absent Without Leave

AWS

As We Speak

AWYR

Awaiting Your Reply

AYBABTU

All Your Base Are Belong To Us

AYCOOYM

Are You Completely Out Of Your Mind

AYF

All Your Fault

AYK

As You Know

AYOR

At Your Own Risk

AYPI

And Your Point Is

AYT

Are You There

[Go to Top.]

My Guestbook

Sign it or read it

My other pages

Main Page

If you know of any acronyms/abbreviations you feel should be on this page,
please send them to me webmaster_REMOVE_THIS_AND_INVALID@gaarde.org.invalid!
Any comments are also appreciated.

IMG height=31 alt=Valid HTML 4.01! src= http://www.gaarde.org/valid-html401">