It's All Go

With the new season well underway, I hope most have managed to sneak out for a fish at some stage. The weather around opening was pretty average which seemed to put the fish down a bit and the fishing became tough. The Mangatutu was particularly tough on opening weekend and we heard that from a few different sources. Well done if you managed to snare a few during that time.

In the last few days though, we have had some weather that is getting us excited for summer! We have also noticed a few improvements in the fishing. On most small streams, plenty of bugs are hatching and the fish are not hesitating to come up to the top for them. With this said, the fishing is not quite back into full swing. We tend to find that you have bursts of success throughout a days fishing at the moment, the 12-2pm period has been particularly good.

Typical Waikato small stream fishing

Standard hares ear and pheasant tail patterns are working well as per usual and a bit of flash in the fly has been very effective. Fish are still holding pretty deep as well so it is worth having a fair bit of weight in the fly to get through the deeper pools. As the weather gets hotter and the flows get lower, we will see the fish start to move into the more oxygenated riffles, making them much easier targets.

The highlight of the season so far has been the fact that several fish have been more than willing to come up for the stimulators we are using as indicators. Although I love all fly fishing, it does not get any better than seeing a fish come up and sip a dry fly off the surface.

Watched this guy come all the way up for a size 10 stimulator

The weather should only get more and more stable from now on. Also, the Lake Rotorua temperature is rising so we will be hanging out at the stream mouths at night very soon. Get out and get in amongst it.