Hi,

I was on a club trip to the Rotorua Lakes this past weekend. Below is a link to a photo of a 1.5 kg, 50 cm (3.25 lbs, 19.6") hen rainbow, my only fish of the weekend (taken on a yellow cosseboom).

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g142/ ... _25lbs.jpg

This was caught, and released, in Lake Okataine. The fish put up almost no fight at all, and was a bit slabby. As she was still in her spawning colours, it appears she was just on the feed again. Despite not much of an effort to land her, it still required some effort to get her to swim off again, but eventually she did.

We fished Lake Rotorua near the Waiteti Mouth but no luck (apart from one fellow who landed a bra!) Apparently the Ngongatha Mouth is fishing well, but we didn't give that a try this time around.

We also fished Lake Rotoiti, and although a small rise occured at dawn and dusk, there wasn't a lot of action. However, I spotted some small olive mayflies around, as well as some caddis. So, expect the change of light rises to start heating up soon.

A large number of fish were caught at Lake Rerewhakaaitu by some of the novice members of the club. Most being taken on a smelt pattern that involved yellow of some sort (i.e. Parson's Glory and Yellow Dorothy's were both very popular). I tied some yellow "jelly beans", but no luck this time. Most of the fish landed were in the 2 lbs range, however one of 4lbs was landed by a new member on his first day of fly fishing! That was good to see.

For those not familear with the Rotorua Lake district of New Zealand, here's a good web site to check out.

http://www.rotoruanz.com/activities/lakes/index.asp

- Jeff