was down over the weekend, think i got about 6 or 7 fish for 6 or 7 hours worth of fishing. fished much the same areas, fish were holding in 20-22m, but caught a couple around the 15m mark - definitely worth drifting right in to 12-13m at this time of year. fish were a mixture of 3lbers and 6lbers, all in great knick.

Nice going RF.  Would have been great to join you, but w*** got in the way. A final trip before 30th June?

Orange bodied rabbits and olive wooly buggers. Got 1 on a jack spratt

Just remember that very little color exists at depth. Red is the first color of the spectrum to dissipate; +5m. Followed closely by orange and yellow. The only color to still be present at +20m are shades of blue through purple/violet.
Colors like red, orange and yellow will take on a neutral complexion similar to the surroundings. This is not a bad thing because all of the trouts natural prey will also take on the neutral colors of their surroundings.
The best use of color at depth is through contrast, simple light and dark.   Flies with a light body and dark top or flies with dark bands over a light body for example. Your traffic light fly is a good example of multiple contrasts.  Or even better is jet black all over.  Trout hunt for the majority of their prey by looking upwards for silhouettes.  A jet black fly or lure is very visual against the distant  illumination of the surface and is also very vivid in a some what colorless world.  A jet black rabbit has worked well for me in the past. 

Was plotting a last fling on saturday but looks too windy for us drifters  (from the north east) from midday.  Bugger.

Interesting that Rainbow - I would believe that and common sense would tend towards covering more area.

Rainbow wrote: Interesting concept and generally well known.    However it does not account for the fact that trout take an almost transparent smelt such as a grey ghost at 25m in preference to a dark fly.    This preference is explained by the universal relationship between predators and prey which is always in favour of prey.    It follows that predators seek out the young, the old and sick as an easier and safer "wounded buffalo" option.   So how does this relate to the above smelt fly example when there are a million other smelt close by?    IMO the unnatural jigging action identifies the grey ghost as a "wounded buffalo" that triggers the predatory attack instinct of a trout that might not even be looking for food at that time.    It may also account for the attack on completely unnatural looking "Attractor Style" flies.   That brings into focus the importance of the jigging action.   What action comes closest to imitate a wounded smelt?    Is it just a slow lowering and raising of the rod or could that be improved?   On my last trip I watched a nearby guy in a dinghy hooking up regularly.  Interestingly he employed a few very pronounced short, almost spastic wrist flicks followed by a pause then more flicks.    Before long his rod bent down with another strike.   The guy was not just fishing a smelt imitation he was fishing a "wounded smelt."    I studied that action for a while and did it myself.    It definitely worked better than my monotonous lift and drop.      Rainbow

A highly visible "wounded buffalo" would attract some attention. Smelt are far from translucent, you may be confusing them with whitebait.  Just trying to point out that color is not as important as some may think.

Fished Rotoiti over the weekend, one last shot before the season closes. Resisted the urge to pick up the fly rod and jigged all weekend with mixed results. Boated about 12-15 fish over the weekend down the Hinehopu end from the willows around to Gisborne Point, and not a single fish over 3.5lb. Every fish was a replica of a 3lb bullet. Catching them everywhere from 13-20m of water.

Would have thought we might have got a couple of good ones amongst that many but the bigger fish obviously had other things on their mind!

Interesting thread, Mr Rainbow, Redfinger and others.

Tagit     I am far from an expert on present day Rotoiti.     However, I night fly fished the release points for several winters after the Big Fish programme was introduced,   I caught over a dozen double figure fish and have personally seen 20 lying in the grass at Ruato one frosty morning.    That morning I was the last one out and on my last cast at one of the small rips hooked an 11.5bls jack.     Many will recall the photos of all the big fish adorning the walls at Pat O'Keeve's tackle shop.    Things have certainly changed since those days.I recall Pat saying that when jigging started he sold 40 sets but the next year he sold 400.    It certainly is a very successful way of caching trout.     I am sure F and G got a handle on the total number of fish in the lake and keep that carrying capacity up to balance that with the available food.     Nor do I believe that the genetics have changed   If anything selecting superior breeders in the Rstrain programme should ensure late maturing fish.    What has probably happened is that a lot of potential double figure fish are caught before reaching this magic weight and jigging may be partly to blame.    Lets not forget that F&G sole income is from license sales and to sell enough licenses they need lots of happy anglers not a handful of shore line fanatics who guts it out on frosty nights to catch a trophy trout.    They respond to the market and the market is boat based.    the double figure fish are now as rare as hen's teeth but the rest of them are not to be sneezed at .      Try Taupo if you need some comparison