Tongariro Trip July 2003

On the weekend of July 26th, 19 members descended on the mighty Tongariro in an effort to save the town of Turangi from flood waters by, using application of Archimedes theoretical principles of displacement*, depleting the local waters of large trout. This story has a happy ending - the town was spared and the locals rejoiced, do to the combined efforts of: the weather (It hadn’t rained much in the past few weeks so the situation was stable) and the anglers on the stream, removing fish with completely unselfish motives. I like to think our club played a small part, and our efforts were later rewarded.

Most of the anglers arrived on the evening of the 25th, however some were able to arrive earlier and do some fishing during the day. We met in the lodge for a 9pm meeting to discuss the rules of the sweep, and to pair up for the next days fishing. I paired up with Russell on Saturday, and off we went.

I think it is important to say that I am a beginner when it comes to
fly-fishing. I am still learning, and probably wouldn’t catch any fish if
it weren’t for the tutelage of other members of the club. Prior to my first trip, I was worried that I would be stuck, bored and frustrated. On every trip I have been on with the club, the more experienced fishers are reaching out to the less experienced and saying – “come on, join us and go fishing and we’ll be more than happy to help.” A big thank you goes out to all the members for making the trips heaps of fun for all experience levels.

We started on Saturday in the lower reaches, below the bridge pools,
possibly going to the log pool and as far down as Smallman’s reach. I started fishing with small glow bugs behind a bomb, but as the sun rose, I switched to a nymph. Russell and I weren’t having much success there so we wandered upstream to about the swirl pool. After about an hour there, we had each landed a fish (each in the 4 pound range), and Russell had broken one off, that felt larger.

For the afternoon, we fished some pools in the middle reaches. We started at the island pool, went to the hydro pool, and finished at the birch pools. Not much action at the island pool, but at the Hydro pool, we were able to watch John hook into something big. At the Birch pools, we arrived just as an angler was about to leave. He had been fishing the pool for a couple of hours without success. Russell hooked one, unfortunately foul, on his second cast, renewing the interests of the other angler.

Saturday night, we went into a local club to watch the rugby. Of note are the facts that: the All Blacks won and one of our members won a $148 bar tab in a draw (remember the mention of being rewarded by the locals? Thought I was kidding, didn’t you?). I am not sure if it was due to cheap drinks or a lack of stamina, but try as we did, 12 members of the Hamilton anglers club couldn’t finish that bar tab.

I fished a little on Sunday, and saw a few club members pull fish out. I
don’t know how many fish were ultimately caught, or the names of all the members who caught fish, but I do know that everyone who went looks forward to returning to the Tongariro for some more fishing.

Pete Young

*Courtesy of the “Curtis Creek Manifesto” who’s author escapes me at the moment.

N.B. About 10 fish were weighed in with at least another 10 landed up till 1 pm Sunday. Pete Young won the sweep, hence he had to write the article.
Allison and Gail both caught good fish over 4 lbs with Gail out fishing
Gavin, her husband.
Editor.