6 days in turangi

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    Posted: 09 Mar 2009 at 10:58am
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Hey all
 
Just thought I would pop up a quick report from my fishing trip to Turangi last week.  After coming back from London for my grandads funeral a couple weeks back I was looking forward to spending the week in Turangi and chasing some mud fish.
 
I arrived in Turangi on satdy arvo (28th of Feb) to steady rain.  That night I headed up to the waipehi stream mouth.  I got there just before dark and despite the conditions being perfect with overcast skies and a slight chop I only had one take in  a couple hours of fishing.  I met an interesting chap by the name of Jeremy Norris while fishing there.  Jeremy is from the UK and is spending 4 months fishing at Taupo/Turangi.  Jeremy travels the world and fishes exotic places for whopping fish (www.fishartist.com) . He didnt touch anything either.
 
Due to the regs changing while I have been away regarding felt soled boots i called into the Creel Tackle house and grabbed a pair of river works boots and then headed for the major jones car park.  I normally always start at the hydro pool when I havnt fished the tonga in a while as there are normally a few fish there.  I fished the true right up a the top of the pool and picked up one on a nymph. Despite the river being a bit coloured and high a splashy cicada type rise saw me change to a cicada dry fly.  I landed another three there on the cicada and lost a couple too. The fish were recovering fish in the 2 - 3lb range.
 
As i was walking along the boulders I slipped up and smashed my leg just above the knee which made my wading efforts more like hobbling efforts over the next coupleof days.  I have never liked the studs on some wading boots and this fall confirmed my suspicions ( I later ground them down just above the rubber which made wading less hazardous). I then picked up another couple of nice recovering fish from the run below the neverfail.  This will be a dynamite spot during the winter as its got reasonable depth and plenty of boulders and the drift is very nice.
 
Sunday night I headed out to Omori for a night fish as this is one of my favourite possies on taupo.  Again the conditions were perfect but the fishing was a little dissapointing and I landed two slabby rainbows and two silver browns of around 4 - 4.5lbs.  Doro from Italy turned up after dark and landed a brown and a couple rainbows. He said that he has been catching a few good browns there up to about 8lbs so obviously a few good ones lurking around.  It was good to see Doro though and I plan on going and styaing with him in Italy later this year or next year.
 
Monday I headed out to the Delta and caught some ok little fresh fish just wading the rips with smelt flies.  Saw a few browns in the lower river and threw a few cicadas over them but they generally werent interested.  I needed to be there about a month before as apparently it was all go.
 
My good mate Gareth came down from Hamilton on Monday night for a couple of days and we had a day in the back country where we hooked about 10 fish with the biggest being 6.25lb and a couple others lost that were a bit bigger.  Wednesday we fished the big O and landed about 7 countable fish plus a few tiddlers.  The smallest was the one below at a whopping 4 inches (oops photo issues so will upload a few pics after).  We picked up some reasonable fish up to 6lb on nymphs both drifting and anchoring.  A lack of wind during the morning made the fishing hard but when it came up we started hooking fish.  I think there are too many fish in Ota at the moment as indicated by the number of fish trapped last winter and the amount of small fish in the lake.  Normally I never keep fish from Ota but we kept a couple 3.5lbrs for the smoker. If people keep some of the smaller fullas but continue to release the bigger 6lb + specimens ota should continue to produce a few trophies.  I was talking to Jamie Davies who is a local turangi guide who fishes ota lots and he said that he had been catching a few in the 8-10lb category but you have to go through a lot of small stuff to get some decent ones.  Chris Brennans client caught and released a 13lbr about a week ago so still the odd horse lurking around.
 
The weather started turning avg later in the week so put a bit of a dampner on the fishing. Fished the back country again in a different river and got 3 fish up to 6.5lbs, it had looked like it had taken a bit of a hammering though.
 
Friday arvo I had a fish in the tongariro in the pool directly above SH1.  The river was a little green and picked up one fish on the nymph and got one and lost one on the wetline.  Agian not big fish but nice and silver around 2.5lbs. I lost a whopper that would have gone atleast 3.5lb - jeez is a bit sad getting excited about 3.5lbrs??  This pool will be very nice in the winter fishing from the true left as its got good depth and you get a good drift with both the nymphs and on the wetline.
 
Overall the week was a little dissapointing in terms of fish numbers and size but I still find Turangi a great place to base myself for a weeks fishing as there is something special about the Taupo fishery.
 
Will be watching with interest from the UK how this winters fishing goes and the size of the  fish.
 
cheers
 
ps a couple pics to come
 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Pole Dancer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Mar 2009 at 11:15am
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Great Report Cheeko!!!
Would love to see some pics... A few have had issues posting but it seems if you log out and log back in it resolves itself. Give it a try, if that doesn't work send Grunta a PM and let him now the issue.
www.clarkreid.co.nz   FFF Certified Casting Instructor / Umpqua Designer Tier
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Cheeko Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Mar 2009 at 11:20am
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Whopping otamangakau monster!!! taken on a size 12 olive damsel and 6lb flurocarbon trace.
 
6.5lb rainbow from the backcountry.  Not the best photo but Mr rock hasnt got his photography badge yet.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Cheeko Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Mar 2009 at 11:22am
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Originally posted by Clark Reid Clark Reid wrote:

Great Report Cheeko!!!
Would love to see some pics... A few have had issues posting but it seems if you log out and log back in it resolves itself. Give it a try, if that doesn't work send Grunta a PM and let him now the issue.
 
Cheers Clark.  Didnt get many photos to be honest but Gareth has a few he is going to send of a couple of his pb rainbows on the fly so will pop them up when they come through.  Yer logging in and out seems to do the trick.
 
cheers
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Barbary B Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Mar 2009 at 4:09pm
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Nice report Cheeko. Agree totally about the fish from big O. Bet they tasted fine as well.
It will be interesting to see how many ACC claims come through this year as a result of wading injuries as oppossed to other years. Those cannonball sized boulders on the Tonga are deadly.
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Look down along the coast of High Barbary..."
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Cheeko Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Mar 2009 at 5:31pm
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Originally posted by Barbary B Barbary B wrote:

Nice report Cheeko. Agree totally about the fish from big O. Bet they tasted fine as well.
It will be interesting to see how many ACC claims come through this year as a result of wading injuries as oppossed to other years. Those cannonball sized boulders on the Tonga are deadly.
 
Yer my mate said they came up good as gold - still not as good as a nice fish from Taupo but not too bad. A few years back Ota used to get about 2000 - 2500 fish (rainbows and browns) in total go through and the avg size used to be closer to 6lbs with plenty around the 7-8 and the odd double thrown in. THe last few years its mainly fish in the 2-5lb category with the odd few bigger ones. Id rather have fewer fish but bigger ones than lots of small ones.
 
The studs on the dry cannonballs were like walking on marbles.   Definitley glad I grinded down the studs as the next day in the back country they were a lot safer.
 
 
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