Further to my last trip report.      The "Bite Time" question is surrounded in some mystery especially in the lake.     I can understand that tide flow may get things moving in the salt but this is not the case in the lake.     However, regulars are quite sure that there is such a thing as bite time.      On my last trip the fishing was generally hard although fish and smelt were thick on the sounder.     The few fish I caught  came mostly during a relatively brief period with neighbouring boats also hooking up.     Luck or simple coincidence, who knows?      It all became a bit clearer when I gutted the fish back on the beach in late afternoon.     As the pictures show nearly the whole gut full of smelt were super fresh, strongly suggesting that they all been eaten, including my Grey Ghost smelt fly during  more or less the same time.     These fish were not picking up individual smelt throughout the day which would show stomach contents in various stages of digestion.     They had a feast over a short period.     Is that what bite time is all about????     The next question is what causes the trout to suddenly attack the smelt that they have shadowed all day????/

I went on a Teriakhi trip out of Mt Manganui at full moon. The Maori fishing calendar said bite time was 11.30 - 13.00.

We tried Gisborne point thursday / friday briefly but had no luck there.

Forecast was good for yesterday afternoon so after a week of crap weather we took the tinny out to the lake for an afternoon fish.  I was a bit concerned that parking may be limited as it was a long weekend but fortunately the lake was not to busy.  Lower water temperatures (14.5 C) may be dissuading  wake boarders and jet ski hoons from getting wet at the moment.

Nice work on the softies. I've only had luck with soft baits for trout has been when casting from the shore. 

I was just fishing them dropper style as you would a 3 fly rig. I have tried them occasionally to date as just one of the dropper in a rig and found the green one good as a replacement wooly bugger in bottom fly position and I have had success with the white lumo one,particularly when overcast or on dusk. I have tried larger softies on jig heads with limited success, but I plan to play around with them more in the future. 

That's some great fishing!

Many thanks Redfinger  for your season summary ,like last season, freely giving info advice etc. Keeping Rotoiti page going along with the others much appreciated .

it's a bit wet this week, I got this beautiful rainbow trout with a 8g black toby spinner after work from the Utuhina stream