Hi Guys, just back from the Tongariro river, we arived on Thursday night and joined the other fishermen in the club lounge for a catch up and to pick the brains of the experts for the following days fishing. It was all doom and gloom, the river is too low, too clear and not enough fish, at least 2 of the older guys had fished for a week and only had 1 or 2 trout! Things were not looking good but we only had one full day of fishing and we had to make the most of it. My mate Q set his phone alarm for 6:00 and when it went off we were up and out in double quick time, we were halfway to the river before we realised that phone clock was wrong, it was only 5:00 Oclock! we had to wait on the river bank untill it got light enough to start fishing and it was cold.
We fished the Reed Pool and very quickly started catching fish, I think Q ended up landing about 6 up to about 20 inches and 3.5lb and I landed 4 up to 22 inches and 4lb, all good eating fish so we kept 2 each.
After lunch we hit the Bridge pool on the true left and I changed from a forty plus to a Skaggit line on my switch rod. It is the first time I have cast a Skaggit line and man it is a cannon, I was casting almost to the other side and the river is very wide at this spot. I landed and released a further 3 fish, all hooked about 10 yards farther out than anyone else could cast too, Sweet!
The next morning we had a lie in and hit the Braids area around 8:30, we only had a quick flick in each pool as we had to pack up and leave before lunch, but I managed to land 2 more before we left so all in all it was a very good trip. No big fish and the average size was down a bit but they were all good fat, fairly fresh, fish.
My main focus was on casting with my Switch rod and I improved a fair bit over the day and a bit and was very pleased with it, managing to fish undisturbed water by casting further than the other guys fishing the same pools. The Skaggit head has to be cast to be believed and I am sure with a bit of tweeking and a bit of practice it will be a great long range nymphing tool.
I will try to add some pics once I get a chance to Download them from the camera.
All the best.
Mike.