Waihou

Fishing Fishing Reports
1

Hi,

With the new baby (now just over 8 months) there’s not been much time to get out for fishing weekends. However, this year Anzac Day (Australian New Zealand Army Corp; our Rememberance Day) fell on Friday, so that gave us a long weekend. So, my wife and I each took some annual leave on Thursday as well and made a break for it.

We headed down to a farm stay just outside of Tirau. The Waihou Stream flows on this property. The Waihou is a spring fed stream, not very wide, but quite deep in places. The national fishing tournament is held on this water and recently the World’s were held here. The beat markers are still in place, though I admit i fished outside the beat a few times. The Waihou is generally known for having a lot of small fish (under 30 cm; or 12 inches). The upper section does have some larger fish which are notoriously spooky and spot you a mile away due to the clarity of the water. It’s a great place to practice precise presentations and to get the blood pressure way up there! Decided to give that a miss this time round.

Anyway, Thursday eve I tried a few dries. Took two, one on a Purple Jessie (purple floss body, silver rib, black hackle and black tail, mottle Turkey wings) and the other on a small Red Quill (but the body was two strands of dyed deer hair wrapped for the body).

After that switched to soft hackles. They worked a treat, and I think I ended up with about 10 by the time I finished up. Next morning, soft hackles were still working well. Then, things dried up. I switched to a Parmachene Belle Bucktail (size 14) and a Teal Blue and Silver (size 12), and that did the trick. Once evening came around, a Mallard and Claret (size 10) was the ticket.

Over the course of the weekend, I caught fish on dries, soft hackles, winged wets (Royal Coachman), palmered wets (bibio), palmered winged wets (a brown Invicta), and two on nymphs (the last, and one of the largest fish at about 11 inches, was on Jax’s Suicide Nymph, which was a fly of the week just a short while ago).

Looking back at my diary, I caught 30 trout. All small, all released, and all good fun.

  • Jeff
2

Thanks I really enjoyed that. Made me wish I was there with you.
I watched the Australian rules football on Anzac day. The anzac cup game. Good fun.

3

Jeff -

I got a bit dizzy thinking about all those neat flies, but really enjoyed your post, clear headed or not.

John

4

Nice one Jeff, Glad to hear you got out over ANZAC day, wish I had too! Did you hear that the fish and game guys have just released a tanker load of 2 year old fish into Lake Pupuke? Could be worth an after work fish.
All the best.
Mike.

5

Hi GBF,

Thanks. If you ever get down this way, the Waihou is a nice and relaxing river. I would be more than happy to show you the few spots I’m familiear with (or anyone else for that matter). There’s sections of water to suit everyone’s taste, and the small rainbows are often quite forgiving. It can be especially fast and furious on warm sunny days, especially if there is just a slight breeze. This gets the insect activity up and the fish are more than happy.

There’s some larger (not by much) fish in an adjacent river, but since I could just leave the car and walk to the Waihou, well, that’s pretty much all I fished this time round. Also, I was teaching my sister in law and her boyfriend how to fly fish. On the last day, I recalled JC’s article on “how to cast” and ran them through what I could remember. That really helped and they both improved greatly. I will be printing that off and storing it with my rods so that next time I can just run through the “program”.

Anyway, Tirau is only 25 minutes from Rotorua where there are lots of larger fish in the lakes, and there’s some more technical water on the Ngongotaha Stream (very close quarters fishing for very large powerful fish).

  • Jeff
6

Thanks John! I forgot to mention the most productive soft hackle was a knotted midge. Found this pattern in a book by Bill Tagg. It’s bascially just a thread covered hook, with a small black soft hackle (i.e. starling) tied at each end. It represents two mating midges. Next in line was a partidge and lavender! Well, no accounting for taste! ha!

  • Jeff
7

Thanks Mike! I hadn’t heard of the release. I knew they kept the lake stocked but I never knew when they did the stocking. Should produce some good fish for the next while.

  • Jeff