Covid lockdowns mostly kept me off the Lake until March - very very late start to the season for me.
Fish were a bit of a mixed bag for me with far more smaller fish up to 1.5kg caught than previous seasons - yet still managed equal pb 4kg and plenty of fat 3kg fish too so quality still there - just a mixture.
Stand out location was Haparu bay / moose lodge reef - very consistent and always got me a fish or two with some hot bites thrown in. Last trip of the season had a hot bite at Ruato too which was not normal for me there- hardly catch a thing normally there.
A few fish off Emerys store and gisborne point at times - in fact Gisborne pt always seemd to have good sign on sounder- smelt and trout.
Didnt fish at all up power lines, west bank , the hole this season . Thats up western end lake.
Rigs- still have the traditional 3 swivel rig and have another rig with no swivels on droppers for the harder days and this rig only has 2 flies. Plenty of times my 2 fly rig outfishes crews 3 fly rig . Still trying subtle changes here and there but mostly 10lb rigs and droppers - found tangles and bust offs more common with lighter rigs. Also the non swivel rig has more tangles and bust offs than swivel rig but gets more bites. Best to switch to swivel rig for hot bites..
The electronics still so important - sounder needs to be watched like a hook, is that smelt? are the smelt schools broken up? On fish finder screen is that a shadow from the rock wall and is it hiding fish sign? Had alot of success jigging for a few minutes on fish sign then kicking minkota into gear and creeping away slowly - this lateral movement often triggered a bite.
Flies again- Pat swift smelt flies in both uv and normal not too large got the job done for me.
Looking forward to new season already.