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Tauranga Taupo

Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: Freshwater Fishing
Forum Name: Freshwater Fission
Forum Description: The place to discuss all matters related to freshwater fishing!
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=129175
Printed Date: 29 Mar 2024 at 8:48pm


Topic: Tauranga Taupo
Posted By: Legacy
Subject: Tauranga Taupo
Date Posted: 06 Oct 2018 at 1:45pm
Dropped down for a days fishing to the TT yesterday .
I’d never fished the river before and found it an interesting experience.
I was surprised at how many were out fishing the river , how hard the fishing was ( one rainbow ) , how spooky the fish we did see were and how clear the water was .
Really nice river to fish , plenty of room to cast , good scenery .
But river was very low and clear and the fish looked shell shocked from all the traffic .



Replies:
Posted By: The Tamure Kid
Date Posted: 06 Oct 2018 at 4:07pm
Admittedly, I'm referring to experience years ago now, but for me that river was always a 'just after a fresh' place. when the river was clearing just enough to see your feet in knee deep water, it was all on.
 
But when had been low and clear for a while I much preferred the Tongariro.
This time of the year, I suspect the fish you can see are in spawning mode, and would be darker fish - not fresh run.
There may be a TT expert who can jump in to contradict me!

You should still get a few fish if you can run a nymph right in tight against the blackberries etc on the far bank. But it's slow going.


Posted By: Legacy
Date Posted: 06 Oct 2018 at 6:58pm
Certainly learning plenty . Talked with a few of the anglers we met picked up some good info where to fish and how.
Saw a few of the schools of the dark fish .
There were a couple of hatches going on .
Rainbow I caught was a nice silver 2lb on a dark nymph under a dry fly .
So a bit of heavy rain and give it a couple of days and it’d be worth a shot again ?


Posted By: The Tamure Kid
Date Posted: 06 Oct 2018 at 9:30pm
Definitely! There was a good vid posted by one of the Forum members of his trip up the TT in November (last year?) with Rene from Manic Tackle. Nobody else around and lots of fresh fish after a flood had gone through.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRVl5ouVoZQ" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRVl5ouVoZQ

 
Same with the Tongariro, well worth fishing through late spring after a bit of rain has coloured the river. Fish seem to run later than they did years ago.
I never bothered to fish a dry, as I only saw an evening rise in summer. Two natural nymphs would be my recommendation in low, clear spring conditions. You don't need a heavy bomb in the TT, so I'd go with a Hare & Copper style copper tungsten bead, and a small pheasant tail or caddis on the tail.
While most fish will be tight under the blackberries if it's clear, don't neglect the fast water at the head of pools, you might be surprised what's up there. Three or four casts should tell if there's some fresh fish up there that have been spooked by other anglers.


Posted By: Legacy
Date Posted: 07 Oct 2018 at 11:27am
It was so clear I was using the dry as an indicator figuring the yarn was fluro bright and probably not helping . Tried a twin nymph rig as well under the dry .
Did see plenty of the ‘dark” fish .
Must have been 8-10 people fishing which shocked me for 7am on a Friday . Noticed as we got up to the cliff pool the footsteps on the river bank started to get a lot less .


Posted By: Fishb8
Date Posted: 08 Oct 2018 at 9:01am
Originally posted by The Tamure Kid The Tamure Kid wrote:

Admittedly, I'm referring to experience years ago now, but for me that river was always a 'just after a fresh' place. when the river was clearing just enough to see your feet in knee deep water, it was all on.
 
But when had been low and clear for a while I much preferred the Tongariro.
This time of the year, I suspect the fish you can see are in spawning mode, and would be darker fish - not fresh run.
There may be a TT expert who can jump in to contradict me!

You should still get a few fish if you can run a nymph right in tight against the blackberries etc on the far bank. But it's slow going.
Spot on!
I used to just go down to the TT irregardless of the weather and found clear frosty weather made for hard days.
Then I found that Environment Waikato used to take daily readings and I could graph the river height - I'd ring up the office (pre-internet days) and get the latest info. Kept results and found the times post-peak flow when it was safe to cross at Cliff Pool and visibility was perfect.
Using this data, I fished the TT way less but increased my catch-rate, hugely. Tongariro for dryer times.



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Be yourself; everyone else is already taken


Posted By: Legacy
Date Posted: 08 Oct 2018 at 9:29am
Originally posted by Fishb8 Fishb8 wrote:

Originally posted by The Tamure Kid The Tamure Kid wrote:

Admittedly, I'm referring to experience years ago now, but for me that river was always a 'just after a fresh' place. when the river was clearing just enough to see your feet in knee deep water, it was all on.
 
But when had been low and clear for a while I much preferred the Tongariro.
This time of the year, I suspect the fish you can see are in spawning mode, and would be darker fish - not fresh run.
There may be a TT expert who can jump in to contradict me!

You should still get a few fish if you can run a nymph right in tight against the blackberries etc on the far bank. But it's slow going.
Spot on!
I used to just go down to the TT irregardless of the weather and found clear frosty weather made for hard days.
Then I found that Environment Waikato used to take daily readings and I could graph the river height - I'd ring up the office (pre-internet days) and get the latest info. Kept results and found the times post-peak flow when it was safe to cross at Cliff Pool and visibility was perfect.
Using this data, I fished the TT way less but increased my catch-rate, hugely. Tongariro for dryer times.


Thanks this seems to be what I’m learning. Will try to give it another go hopefully nov but will watch the flow rates - I’m sure there’s some art to that too.


Posted By: The Tamure Kid
Date Posted: 08 Oct 2018 at 9:41pm
On a nice warm day in Nov you could hike up to the headwaters and try the fish holding up there. Only the odd fresh run fish, but beautiful country.
On the TT, as with the Tongariro, the further you are prepared to walk away from car access points, the fewer the anglers.

I used to go down to fish Turangi area for a week at a time (when I was single!) and eventually the depressing state of the trout, and the crowds, put me off. From what I can see, the fish are rallying, though still a bit down on size. But sounds like the crowds are still there. Does my head in when people barge in, hold place all day etc.
Unfortunately, the number of anglers seems to have peaked at a time when the floods and man-made work has reduced the Tongariro's holding pools, and also research has shown the fish tend to hold in the lower reaches then race up to the headwaters - whereas there used to be miles of water from Hydro up which would hold fish all winter. So all the pressure is focused on the favoured areas and it's cheek by jowl fishing.


Posted By: Legacy
Date Posted: 09 Oct 2018 at 11:00am
I’ve only really fished around the Waikato , and the Rangitiaki , whirinaki etc . Often doing days without seeing another angler on the water .

Up by the cliff pool the footprints were a lot less .


Posted By: Fishb8
Date Posted: 12 Oct 2018 at 7:46am
Headwaters don't open up until 1st December - well that was always the date in the past.


-------------
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken



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