This week I popped down to Turangi and caught up with a couple of friends Greig Cousins and Simon Chu to fish the Tongariro Delta.

We'd heard that the tongariro river had been fishing fairly slowly so figured the fish must be stacking up at the river mouth......and we were right !

The fish were all in great condition and although not the 5-6lb fish that we'd got so used to in the river four or five years ago, the fish were certainly better than last year. This fish was taken on an Otters Soft Milking Egg Cluster. We fished either Di-7 shooting heads with MRM running lines or 40+ lines in Di-7. On the point we fished floating glo bugs with Otters eggs tied on a dropper half way up the 6 foot leader.

This was a typical fish for the day. We put the sounder on 100m off the mouth and found stacks of fish. Once the river starts to get some colour and increased flows over the next month or so these fish will start to make their way up the river. If you want to keep an eye on how the fishery is going then do what I do and keep an eye on Barry Greigs daily fishing report. Tim who writes the report fishes every morning without fail so this is without question the most reliable source of info on the river.

The central plateau is a stunning part of the country at this time of the year. Here's a shot of Mt Ruapehu in all its splendor.

As I write this it’s persisting down outside.What’s for sure is it suddenly is feeling like winter is setting in. I’m planning a fair bit of fishing over the next few weeks and all I can think of is how I’m going to need to get myself out of summer dry fly mode into getting down and dirty winter mode.

A nice brown trout pulled from dirty water

At this time of the year one of the things I make sure I always have on hand is a fast sinking line (or at least a 10’ Ex Super Fast Polyleader) and a bunch of woolly buggers for when the rivers come up in flood.

Looking at big brown flowing rivers is often off putting as the first thing that comes to mind is how am I going to get fish out of the middle of that. When in fact you’re quite right you’re not going to catch anything out of the middle of a big swollen river, it doesn’t mean that you won’t find fish along the edges of these rivers as the move into quiet water to get away from the flows; here’s a few tips to catching these fish.

The Tongariro River in high flows, the fish haven't dissapeared they just require a fresh approach

1. Don’t be tempted to cast to far, stay focussed on the edge of the river. (ie 1-5 m off the bank).
2. Make sure you control your swing and/or drift in swirly currents along the river edge so the fly doesn’t move too quickly or un-naturally.
3. Try swinging a wetfly under an undercut bank or overhanging branch, often swollen rivers open up new exposed area’s which trout slide into.
4. You could also try a nymph under an indicator, don’t be scared of keeping the leader quite short and work on controlling the drift and taking your time to let an potential fish find your fly.

A winter sunrise in the misty lower Waikato

We're about 7 days from delivering the new Airflo Ridge supple fly lines to the NZ market. This is a great new technology with three awesome tapers that we've designed for the New Zealand market.

Design - Since we started Manic I've been working with a team of New Zealand's top guides and fly fishing experts. You may have noticed that I'm fairly opinionated myself, in spite of all of my idea's and opinions I think it's critical to get a high quality team of guys on board to help with product design. That way we end up with a product range that suits the entire NZ market, not just product that suits Rene Vaz and my style of fishing.

This design process has been particularly important when working on this new range of fly lines from Airflo. What Airflo have created is a new supple coating that performs well under temperatures from sub zero up to + 35 degree's celcius. For us here in NZ this is a great new technology. We end up with lines that even in the dead of winter on a cold Tongariro morning these lines come off the reel soft and fishable rather than hard and wiry. Also it means that the lines float well on the surface and ride the currents for better drag free drifts and improved mending.

The next part of creating the right line is our part and that is getting the right colours and tapers for the NZ market. This is what we've ended up with.

New Ridge EGO - This line has the biggest head so we called it the EGO. The total head length is 64 feet long which is made up of a short front taper to bowl over heavy nymphs and indicators and ensure good turnover even at distance, next is a long belly which improves mending on big rivers and aids distance casting and the Tongariro roll cast. Lastly this is backed up with a long rear taper that helps control the long casts and helps transfer energy on long mends. This line is a perfect Tongariro or big river fly line, it also performs well for distance casting on lakes. The colour is a Mid Tan colour which is visible on large rivers for good line control whilst still being subtle enough not to scare the locals.

New Ridge Explorer - This is our agressive back country line. Designed for bucking over heavy nymphs and punching through the wind the Explorer has a short front taper a mid length belly and a long rear taper. It's produced in a dark olive colour perfect for clear back country rivers and is an ideal line for loading fast rods at any distance for easy casting and maximum line speed.

New Ridge Tactical - Our popular Ridge Tactical taper is being reborn with the new supple coating. The line features a long front taper for ultimate presentation of dry flies and small nymphs. This is the perfect line for the technical angler where presentation is paramount. The Tactical comes is a pale lichen green.

Non Stretch - All of the new Ridge supple fly lines are built on our non stretch cores for maximum energy transfer during casting and mending and also for instant hook sets.

I managed to sneak a day out this week on Lake Otamanakau with Gary Lyttle from Taupo Hunting and Fishing and his good friend Paul. Despite fishing through blizzard conditions we managed a few nice fish and I got a chance to try out a new rod.

One of my favourite types of fly fishing is fishing lakes from a drifting boat, so despite the doubtful weather forecast I couldn't turn down the opportunity to fish with Paul and Gary.

Fishing in one of the many down poors of the day ..... that's what a good jackets for!!

This trip was a great opportunity to try out the new Scott S4 10' #5. I managed to land fish well in excess of 7 pounds without too many problems (except when they swam under the boat), the rod had the power to cast a full intermediate fly line and enough feel to pick up even subtle takes. I can't wait to get the rod out onto the rivers and see what it's like for Czech nymphing. 

Gary Lyttle is an expert stillwater angler, having cut his teeth on the stillwater fisheries of the UK. To learn more about this style of fishing check out my article on Modern Loch Style Fishing.

We fished a variety of flies for the day, from woolly buggers to nymphs. The real key to success was good line control in the windy and turbulent conditions.

This is what Otamanakau is reknown for, Trophy Rainbows.

What really made the day was Paul's trophy brown.

We've just added to our video trailer section the pre release trailer for Once in a Blue Moon by On the Fly Productions.

This is a slick production, due to be on sale via amazon some time next month. On the Fly Productions consists of husband and wife team Carl McNeil and Jeanie Ackley. Carl is one of New Zealands only two qualified FFF master casters (there are only 100 or so in the world), add to that he's an uber talented fisherman and a hard case. To add to Carl's skills Jeanie is herself a sought after adventurer and film maker having spent a large portion of her resent career heading the Natural History New Zealand s dive teams.

Anyway point being why this is so good is there is a guy who know what he's doing with a fly rod and a girl who knows how to put together professional quality documentary's, add a few funky swimming mice, aerial footage and some smoking trout, this is going to be a great production.

The On the Fly guys are worth keeping an eye on over the next few years. The best way to do this is join their VIP club, rumour has it there is going to be some more pre release footage made available to VIP members only over teh next few weeks.