Rotorua Fly Fishing Report - 24th February 2012

So long summer, roll on winter! One can only hope that this winter’s fishing will be a lot better than last and certainly better than what we experienced this summer. With a definite lack of continuous sunny days none of the lakes have reached temperatures that forced fish into deeper water or to the nearest spring inflow The positive side is that the smaller lakes have been cool enough to produce fish throughout the summer. This could also bring spawning fish a little earlier, especially as there has been plenty of food for them in the various lakes around the region. A slight change in spawning patterns over the past few years will also help anglers as there have been both early and late season spawning rainbows appearing in larger numbers. Hauparu Bay on Lake Rotoiti is one popular fishing spot that has had spawning fish coming in during March, more often than not.

Lake Okaro has produced some awesome fish over the past few weeks which is somewhat unusual for this time of the year and while most have been caught while fishing from the shore, a reasonable number have been caught from boats.

Lake Ngapouri has also kept anglers busy from time to time and even fishing from the boat ramp area has been reasonably successful, with black or olive woolly buggers taking fish. Check out the small inflow at the right-hand end of the lake as viewed from the boat ramp as fish often congregate there for cooler water as well as spawning later in the year.

Lake Rerewhakaaitu still has a very high water level, making for difficult access but those who are more adventurous have caught some great fish at times. Harling and trolling have also been very successful for some.

Fishing a cicada on the Rangitaiki River has been nothing short of spectacular as fish rise freely to one’s offering. Most of the better fishing has been in the river between lakes Aniwhenua and Matahina, though around Murupara has been fairly good too.
The Whirinaki is also fishing well to cicada patterns though if nothing comes up for your fly try going through the run or riffle with a double nymph rig just in case.

Most anglers seem to be fishing the Hamurana mouth, rather than the Awahou, though there has been very mixed results there. The water temperature below 18 metres stubbornly refuses to get above 20 degrees so fish are not really being driven out of the depths of this lake. Add fickle winds to the equation and you get a large pool of 10 or 12 degree water that keeps most rainbows well out in the lake. Brown trout, on the other hand, seem to enjoy cooler water and can be found in close to the stream mouth and in the bay to the left of the stream mouth. The next strong southerly should put an end to any thought of fishing coming in large numbers even though the lake temperature is continuing to climb by a few points of a degree
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The Ngongotaha has been almost devoid of fish in the middle reaches, those that are there are around the 750 gram mark and full of fight. As we get into the month of March there should be an increase in numbers of rainbow trout coming into this stream to spawn.

A few fish can be found in the more open areas at the upper Waiteti Stream, though most are in almost inaccessible parts of the stream. There are still a number of brown trout holding in the stream but, as usual for this time of the year, there are more rainbows, some of which are around the three to four kilo mark.