New Zealand Tongariro

Hard Fighting Trout in New Zealand’s Tongariro River
By David Williams

The world famous Tongariro is a large, strong river with an amazing average fish weight of 3lbs (45cms approximately).  It also contains browns up to 10lbs and rainbows up to 7lbs.  The Tongariro is situated in the middle of New Zealand’s north island and it drains into lake Taupo, which is enormous and probably holds millions of trout.  Access points are also very easy from nearby main roads and bridges.

If you have the opportunity to fish the Tongariro, do so as we are truly spoilt by this great fishery in New Zealand.  This article describes a day I will always remember, but such days are easily repeated on this magnificent river.

Planning considerations

With Christmas over, it was time to re-focus to the main cause and organise a New Year trip to the Tongariro river.  There had been sufficient rainfall to entice some fresh run fish up from lake Taupo in early January (which is mid-summer in New Zealand) and the weather forecast was fine.  So we were off for a trip full of promise at a wonderful time of year.  The long golden evenings are one of the best times to be on the water, even if you don’t catch a fish, and the warm weather allows you to dispense with heavy waders and sweaters. 

Immediate action!

On my second cast the indicator vanished with an aggressive take and my fly line was instantly out straight with a pulsating trout on the end, jumping high above the water and taking 30 metres of line in a downstream run.  After the third, similar, exhilarating run I considered that the fight was uneven: I had a rod designed to tire fish out, but the fish seemed to have the strength of three horses!!  I was dragged fifty metres downstream with the tussle and it fought like no other trout of equal size that I had encountered.  After a sensational fight, a fine 4lb rainbow jack was on the bank, which it was a pleasure to release.

The early morning mist soon burnt off and the sun began to beat down.  By 10 a.m. a steady stream of small mayfly duns were hatching across the water.  I find this is a good time of day, once the water temperature has increased slightly and the nymphs have started to move.

After catching a smaller fish, I then hooked into another heavy beast which made a very deep run which I just managed to turn before it reached a big snag (more luck than skill!).  This turned out to be a 3.5lb hen which again fought all the way to the bank.  That is the excitement of the Tongariro, picking up smaller fish….and then bang! …. hitting into bigger, solid, fighting machines that test your tackle to the limits.

During the afternoon I picked up a few more fish at the 2lb mark and the clear skies made for awesome mountain views in the background.  The dragonflies which came out in the heat of the afternoon were amazingly large.  If they land nearby, you can actually stroke them.  

Flies and techniques

Using upstream nymphing, the most successful pattern during the day was a simple tungsten weighted pheasant tail, which is my favourite nymph.  The typical brown nymph works really well and so does a red pheasant tail, with either a red body, tails or both.   I fish with a size 16 and will change to an 18 if the fish are particularly shy.  Black and horned brown caddis also accounted for a few fish.  Flies weighted with tungsten beads (and lead wire for larger flies) are essential to get down quickly in the fast, deep water.  A black tungsten bead looks more natural, but some days the fish love hitting anything with a gold bead on it.  I use a small indicator, cut down to a third of the shop size.

Although Tongariro trout can often be caught on size 12 hooks or larger, the water clarity in summer means that considerably more takes are gained using small hooks and fine line.  You have to be a little more cautious when playing the fish…..boy they are strong…..but once you get used to that, you will enjoy landing more trout.

So that my point fly moves attractively in the current, I fish this at the end of two and half feet of tippet tied onto the bend of my size 10 hare and copper heavy “bomb” fly.  If you get no takes, increasing tippet length can often help to pick up fish.  4lb or 6lb flurocarbon is a must on the tippet and I also use 6lb fluro on my leader as this thinner line gets your flies down to the fish fast.  I like a number 7 weight forward olive floating line with plenty of backing for those searing runs.  When the fish are feeding avidly they will often take the bomb – a size 10 seems like a large fly, but the mouth of a good sized Tongariro trout, particularly the jacks, is huge!

The Tongariro is quite forgiving of imperfect technique (like mine at times) because of its size and the sheer number of fish it holds.  But getting the basics right certainly pays off, as trout can still be disturbed on such a big river.  Study the lies, then make the first few casts count by getting into the correct position to reach them.  I always fish the slack water in front of my feet first and have hooked some very decent fish this way.  Then concentrate on detecting the seam(s) between the fast and slower water, which is usually the most productive line.  In January, the fish were sitting a little closer in than usual because of the higher than average water flow.  I find the next most productive areas are the tails of pools as the browns often sit in this slower water.  The faster riffly water is also worth a few casts in summer.

 
Fish can often be seen in the pools because the water is very clear for many months of the year.  Careful casting to sighted fish can certainly produce hook-ups, which is very exciting, but the trout can be just resting on the bottom and difficult to catch.  However, when I see fish my adrenalin always pumps as it indicates a fishy spot where there are very likely to be other trout, slightly deeper, that will be easier to tempt.

Concentrate hard when your flies hit the water as takes can be “on the drop” before the flies have reached the bottom.  Once your tackle has settled and the nymphs are tripping the river bed, the first five metres of a run are the best time for one of those heart stopping takes.  Right at the end of a run, I hold my line against the current for a second or two, so that the nymphs rise up enticingly, and then give the line a small jerk to impart further movement.  I have had some good takes this way.  I move upstream in ten metre stages, trying about five different current lines.  Having fished right through a pool with one or two nymphs I repeat the process trying two more flies, either smaller or different coloured, before moving on.  Whilst it is important to cover as much water as possible by keeping moving, I find it productive to fish a section of the river comprehensively, before changing to a completely different pool or bouldery run.

Rainbows are not usually too disturbed by a hook up provided you play the fish away from the prime runs and rest the pool for fifteen minutes or so.  I have returned to the same lie to catch fish three times in a day.

If the wind is in the wrong direction or you want to achieve a little extra distance, you can use the water to power up your rod.  This is achieved by laying out the back-cast or a forward cast (to the side of your target area) on the water before the final forward cast.  This slightly unorthodox casting method works for me and is worth experimenting with.

Action got hotter into the evening……

When it is too dark to see your indicator clearly, don’t think about leaving the river to have dinner, think about catching more trout!!  Fishing at dusk is a magical time.  The wind has usually dropped and you often have the river to yourself.

The evening insect activity began at 8 p.m.  Looking towards the lightest part of the night sky I could see the mayfly duns coming off the water like elegant little helicopters.  It’s no wonder the trout have an evening protein banquet of these big juicy insects: with 2cm bodies, these were much larger than the mayflies I had seen during the day.

No surface swirls of fish or splashy dry fly type rises were visible, so were the trout feeding on emerging nymphs just below the surface?  Given the good hatch I was optimistic the trout were taking rising and emerging nymphs. 

I quickly re-tackled to a dry fly/emerger combo rig with a size 18 unweighted pheasant tail 2 feet below a size 14 parachute adams.  You don’t need to use 4lb line to get takes in twilight conditions; 6lb is perfect all the way to the point fly and a tapered leader is unnecessary as long as the wind is not strong.  Tying on small flies with a headlamp can be challenging, so I carry a few pre-prepared rigs (on an empty line spool) to save valuable time. 

My very first cast into the twilight produced a 2lb recovering jack on the emerger (the pheasant tail) and just two casts later a 2.5lb hen took my dry and made a good run.  Being so quickly rewarded with solid fish that gave a great fight was immense fun. 

At dark, as I turned to cast I saw a dorsal fin protruding from the surface, where the water was less than a foot deep.  I had read about sizeable browns feeding this way, but never seen it – it was remarkable and looked like a small shark I thought to myself.  Browns are notoriously more difficult to catch, compared to rainbows, in the Tongariro so I put this sighting down to witnessing a fascinating insight of nature, rather than the chance of hooking up.

In the twilight conditions it is often unclear which fly has been taken until the fish has been landed and you often have to rely a lot on feel.  But the takes are usually very confident pulls with fish often hooking themselves well, especially towards the end of the run.    This is a major advantage as there is nothing worse than a good sized, but lightly hooked fish which flicks off at the last minute at your feet!
 

A memorable fight

Ten minutes later, with no further fish, I started to wonder if the prime time had passed.  But then, casting a little further, another take jerked my rod.  The first few seconds of the fight were quite tame but then the fish started running downstream.  One, two, three, then four strong runs of 30 to 40 metres, pulling out great lengths of my backing line…..this was a bigger fish!  Worrying about potential snags in the pool and whether my knots would stand the strain, I literally held on and hoped to land this fighting machine.  The fish forced me to give ground during these downstream runs and I was desperately trying to stop it reaching some rapids at the end of the pool.

After a very exciting tense battle, a fine 5lb brown was on the bank: I saw with my headlight that it had taken the emerger.  The brown took a minute or so to recover (before release), but I still haven’t recovered from such a great fight from a beautiful fish.   I had been lucky enough to contact with one of the “small sharks” I had noticed in the shallows earlier.  

I had caught three fish in a busy 45 minutes and was certainty ready for some cool refreshment after all that excitement!  Still dazed, the walk back to the car was a clumsy one as my mind was occupied with the many runs the brown had made.

In all I landed seven fish that day, with three more escaping after brief battles.  They were of varying sizes and included some beautiful fresh run silver fish.  All fish fought amazingly hard and were well worth catching. 

When it is really time to go home, take a look at the spectacular stars – a reward in itself for staying out late.  Good insect repellent is a must for evening fishing and don’t forget (as I do!) to take your glasses off before spraying your face!  You will see the benefit of repellent when you are engulfed in a huge cloud of the little biters walking home with your headlight on.  But what’s a little discomfort compared to memorable experience on a world class fishery…I’ll be back.
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David Williams really enjoys fishing the Tongariro regularly.   When he is not on the river, he is usually thinking about fishing.