Fished Taupo for a change in their very friendly Taupo Fishing Club Competition. Shirley was very helpful in sorting us out and great company - awesome club.
Friday Barry Stevens and I launched Kinloch and fished for 3.5 hours - l was lucky enugh to hook 8 and land 7 to 53cm. Barry got one - bigger lake than Rotoiti and fish a bot hard to find - fish marked in anything from 28 to 60m! Better arounD 30m.

Day 2 - Fished whagamata bluffs, kawakawa bay, whakaipo bay - covered a lot of territory - I hooked 17 landed 12 to 53cm, barry hooked 6 landed 3.
Smelt flies in smaller sizes worked for us - finding one or two fish - dropping on them and slowly minkota creeping got us quite a few bites and plenty of action.
Kept plenty for smoker - went home with 7kg of fillets!

Top fishing!!! I thought Taupo was now the poor cousin of the other lakes for good catches like that!.

I like the idea of dropping flies and slowly trolling them...hmmmm

Nice work, big fella. Looks like stunning countryside in the background, love the central plateau. 

17 on day 2 is top work for Taupo.  Well done RF!

Lake Taupo is nutrient poor, hence the clear water     Taupo trout are always starving.    Too many trout and not enough smelt     Only solution is more harvest to bring the two into a better balance.     That is why the limit has been increased to 6.     No point putting slabs back.    To get a better idea of what is really going on you need to talk to DOC's fishery scientist Michael Dudeal.

Nice going Mr FQ - Still to do a first on Rotoiti this season - give me a yell if in for a mad day mission

Nice one. Good report.

The Tamure Kid wrote: Nice one. Good report. I did that Tron to Turangi drive many times when I lived there. Great to be able to fish the rivers on a day trip if you feel like a big mission. The Stag is a beautiful pool. Tricky from the SH1 side if you're right handed. You always feel like you need to get another metre further and then the damn flies catch in the brush behind - but if the fish aren't too disturbed they sit surprisingly close, particularly nearer the tail of the pool.  I've lost a few which were hooked lower down and then took off into the fast water, so you did well to get that one back up to the net. Looks like one of the better seasons in recent times. Great to see. I know a lot of people favour 6 wt rods on the Tongariro these days, rather than the 8 or 9wt used back in the day. So it's interesting you went with a bit heavier. it must allow you to put more heat on the fish in what is still fairly big water in places.

Right handed! Both were hooked only 10 metres away.I only have a 4 Wt CD and my 8 Wt son the 8 was the only option.

Fished the Tonga during the week between the last two floods and had a good time fishing.   The first part of the week was mostly rain and high wind while at the end we had a couple of good frosts.      Surprisingly few people considering the last week of the school holidays.     Fish still in very good condition with only one slab for the whole week.     Did mostly wet lining with my new Guideline ULS 3D shooting heads.     Fished places with little back cast room and had them mainly to myself.     Back there for the Trout Fest 13th of Aug.     Not surprised the Hine had dark fish as they run early there      I never fish there too small for me!!!      Some Taltac members found the TT full of fish and fishers.