Rotorua Fly Fishing Report - 1st July 2012
Having spent most of Saturday showing a group of Hamilton Anglers Club members around the fishing spots on Lake Rotoiti and giving the members tips and techniques to use, we headed off to Lake Tarawera to do pretty much the same thing. Having told them, amongst other things, that they needed to be at least two or three rod lengths away from any drop-off when fishing, it was gratifying to have a large bunch of trout turn up right at the edge of the drop-off at the Te Wairoa Stream mouth, where anglers, who don’t know any better, stand. When the bulk of the rain fell, anglers had a ball with some very large fish being caught from the orchard, the landing and the stream mouth, but within a day or two the numbers of fish dwindled significantly. Those that were still hanging around were very spooky, especially during the day. If the long jetty at the landing is free, try casting a line along the outside of the weed bed from the end of the jetty. A slow or medium sinking line is best used there but the addition of a weighted nymph or a small split shot above a woolly bugger will get results. As with most of the lakes the best time to fish is when there is an on-shore wind as this seems to bring the fish in close at this time of the year.
Two of the largest rainbows for many years were caught in Lakes Rotoiti and Okataina late last week. Both were well over the six kilo mark and I guess are destined for a visit to a taxidermist. Lake Rotoiti, in particular, has been fishing well to trolling and harling over or along the edge of the weed bed that stretches around the shoreline of this lake. Ruato Bay has produced quite a few fish over the 4.5 kilo mark, mostly at night and good fish have been caught during the day over the weed bed by shore based anglers at times as well. The other popular spots on this lake have produced good numbers of fish after dark, though the fish are moving in and out depending on the weather. The strong winds from the sou-west have brought in a lot of weed which has been floating on the surface. Hopefully it will be driven into the trees or up onto the bank otherwise it will be a pain in the neck. Thankfully the Wai iti Stream mouth has not suffered from this problem and has fished well.
Lake Rerewhakaaitu continues to produce rainbows up to almost three kilos both from the shore and from a boat. The best method for boat fishing is to anchor off the reed bed and cast back to it using a black woolly bugger or black marabou, the latter as long as some tinsel has been tied into the fly. Dead slow or short fast retrieves seem to get the fish interested enough to take one’s offering. The concrete boat ramp off Brett Road, the sand ramp at the Doc Camp on the same road and reed beds at School Arm have all produced good numbers of fish. Heave and leave has also caught well anywhere you can get to the lake edge. For those not into fly fishing the addition of a small running sinker and floating egg pattern is very effective when standard spinners aren’t working.
Lake Okaro has an amazing rise around 10.30am last Sunday. Once the wind died out from the Nor-west there were fish rising everywhere, mostly taking a black midge equivalent to a size 16 fly. Almost any wet fly worked as long as it has an orange head, be it paint or bead, it didn’t seem to matter. Overall fishing has been hard in this lake. A slow or medium sinking line seems to catch better than a floating line most of the time in this lake as the drop-off is very close into shore and drops into quite deep water.
The Ohau Channel has not fished all that well for most, even outside the weir, and with only days to go before closing at midnight on June 30, I doubt that it will improve much. Last Tuesday a rainbow of over three kilos was taken inside the channel but fish of this size have been few and far between. With the Okere Falls Control Gates being wide open today, the current through the upper part of the channel was very strong. Some movement of sediment from the lower part of the channel, along the wall, was very evident in the Okere Falls Arm. The water was becoming quite discoloured by the hour around the middle of the day today (Friday). Catch rates were down on the previous week, possibly due to a large increase of anglers. The fish are still there but have become very line/fly shy. Some awesome fish have been seen in the middle and upper reaches of the Kaituna River – from the trout pools downstream, though access is very challenging.