To Catch a Tiger By John Thompson

Crossing female brown trout with male brook trout at the Ngongotaha hatchery breeds tiger trout. When the tiger trout reach fingerling stage they are released into Lake Rotoma.

The first release was in December 1983 and every year since, with release numbers between 100-1500 fingerlings depending on survival rate at the hatchery. In 2001 the hatchery expected to release 4000 fingerlings into Lake Rotoma. Catch information shows one angler caught 430 Tiger trout between 1990 - 1994, his ratio was 13 rainbow to 1 tiger. This angler was a serious Tiger hunter. The biggest on record is 5.5 kg or 12 lb, with staff at the hatchery having seen photos of 4.5 kg or 10 lb fish

Lake Rotoma is on State Highway 30, it is the last lake in the Rotorua lake district on the way to Whakatane from Rotorua. The Rotoma settlement is spread along the shoreline on State Highway 30 with the BP service station in the middle. Behind the service station is Merg Lodge Caravan Park, which is situated right on the lake front, with access to the public boat ramp and jetty with good parking.

The best time to fish Rotoma is first thing in the morning, e.g. 5.00 am - 9.00 am and last thing in the evening, just before dark, both for Tigers and Rainbows.

The idea is to hunt around the weed beds in 10 - 30 feet along the drop off. The other method is to anchor and fish the drop off, or around headlands or points. With trolling, lead lines 3 - 4 colours with long 4 kg trace about
15 - 20 m or with LED line with same length of trace. Lures used are gold or orange Tasmanian devil with plenty of movement, fished so the lure runs up and down the trace. The sharp end or hook is attached to a swivel with a
small split ring big enough to stop the swivel going to far up the centre of the Tasmanian devil. Between 1 - 2 m above the lure place a small swivel in the trace and attach at the lure end another trace \ the length of the lure
trace with a streamer fly attached. Patterns in rabbit or parson's glory style seem to work best.

Boat speed can vary to the lure action, other lures that have caught fish have been mother of pearl in the mornings with the fly combination. In the afternoon and evening big black and gold Toby 12 gram, with or without the fly Another harling method is using a fly rod with a fast shooting head with
a long trace and big streamer flies, the good thing with this rig is if you hook weed just strip in the line, remove the weed and cast it back. I usually fish the fly rod on the inside between the boat and weed bank or drop off, with the lead or LED line outside. When fishing this way use different lure, fly combinations to work out what is going to work on the day and don't be afraid to change lure and fly combinations.

During the day at Rotoma you can troll deep with lead lines or try jigging, having a sounder will help 10 fold as it will show you the drop off and weed edges. Also look for fish schooling off points or headland. There is no outlet to Lake Rotoma and only a couple of small streams entering the lake, one is at Merg Lodge (behind the B.P Service Station), the other is across the lake, eastern side which runs out at a little beach.

The first time I fished at Rotoma was Queens Birthday weekend in 1998. Kydd Pollock and I planned a catch up weekend, I had taught Kydd to fly fish when I worked for his Dad Rick while decking on pursuit, back in the 80's. We met at Merg Lodge on the Friday. Kydd brought out Jack from his kit bag; the
rest of the night became a haze of past memories and future fishing tales, so an early morning fish for us started at 9.00 am.
The day was one of exploration of this lovely lake, listening to CD music, drinking lots of healthier liquid and not thinking of the dull feeling in our minds. By the afternoon we decided to do some heave and leave in a sheltered bay on the western side of the lake. This accounted for 4 nice rainbows around 4 - 6 lb in a little over an hour. Feeling a lot better for ourselves we went back to the caravan, cleaned up and had dinner at the restaurant. That night we caught up on the sleep we missed out on the night before.

Sunday morning 5 am we are on the water fishing, harling over the weed beds we had 5 fish by 6.30 am, the smallest was 4 lb, but still no Tigers. After breakfast it was off to Okataina but that was another story (Kydd wrote that one for the Fishing News). Back on Rotoma just before dark we caught 3 more nice rainbows. Monday morning 4 more rainbows, no Tigers, but still an awesome weekend.

Labour weekend of the same year Barry, my father Noel and myself arrived at Rotoma on Friday afternoon to fish that evening. The wind was from the west and a bit rough, just on dark as we were coming back to the boat ramp Barry hooked up, with the wind getting stronger it was a no win situation the boat was blown over the trace, we could see the Tiger in about 3 feet of water, it was a fish of 5 - 8 lb when the brass keel strip rubbed the trace, it was all over rover. With myself getting all the blame for not doing this and not doing that from both Barry and Noel, we went and had dinner.

The next morning 5 am, the wind had stopped, it was flat and calm. The first fish was a 2 lb Tiger caught by myself. It was caught on a mother of pearl, we were on our way to becoming Tiger anglers. Over the next four years, Barry and Noel both caught Tiger trout that they had mounted. When Barry and I fished the 2001 Rotorua International Trout Tournament we concentrated on Tiger trout, the first morning we caught 4 Tiger trout in the first hour the biggest being over 61b which gave me the Tiger trout section win.

Our average catch rate over those 4 years is one Tiger to 6 rainbows, none of the rainbows were under 4 lb. Rotoma is as anglers dream, fished in the early morning and evening has produced the best results. During the day it is just a matter of finding the best place to be. As the sun hits the eastern bays, you can get fish rising taking bees and other insects that have landed or hatched on the water.

I have only scratched the surface of this lake as having only fished Queens Birthday and Labour weekend each year. See you there this Labour weekend.

By John Thompson