Thursday Update 12/18

Fishing Report

It’s still quiet on the river. There are hardly any anglers around. I received the Turangi Chronicle on Friday after posting my blog on line last Thursday. A story with photo showed a very nicely shaped and good size trout trapped by DoC at the Waipa trap. The photo shows that good fish are going up the river and certainly I have heard of good fish being caught, But this year it has not been my experience to catch fish that I think is worthy of the Tongariro river.

The Tongariro River Trail (TRT)  Develops

I have been involved with the back room planning to get this small section of track completed. We have been lucky to secure a workforce that knows what they are doing. We had to create a trail to the swamp so as to allow the boardwalks to be constructed. The Boardwalks were always going to be the slowest part of construction. The finishing crew have worked until now for DoC constructing tracks. They know what they are doing and do a good job. The key to progress is having the small digger create the track. The key to completion of this section of track will be the section DoC is to do at the National Trout Centre.

Turangi has its own website.

The website at www.tongarironz.com,     is well worth looking at and is a credit to the team that have put it together. The aim of the website is the promotion of Turangi

Tree Felling in the Prison land

We were pleased some years ago when access was increased upstream to the Fence Pool. We used to park at State Highway 1 and walk in to the upper pools. Many don’t know despite the signs that this is access through prison land.

The walk from the Blue Pool to the Fence pool has signs on parts of the track advising tree felling and one hears the sound of the chainsaw and falling trees as you walk along the track. It’s quite safe.

One tree is in the river in the top of the Reef, between the Sand and the Blue pools. I guess it will move into the Blue in the next flood. Certainly an obstacle for the rafters.

It could be a tale by Ripley.

I visited the Tongariro River Trail workers on Tuesday afternoon and then went fishing in the Whitikau pool. As I posted on Facebook on Tuesday, it was beautiful but cold. I have just renewed my line and it sinks a bit fast. I know that I am on the bottom. This day I didn’t take my waders. Just Redbands. I cast and snagged and broke the hook off but somehow at that moment my rod tip came out of the ferrule and slid down the line. I contemplated a number of options, none of them palatable and the rod tip of my favourite Loomis rod floated quickly downstream. The comment was that of the dog on the back of the Toyota. I went home. I couldn’t go to the river on Wednesday but at noon today (Thursday) I went back with waders. I simply walked downstream in the quieter water where there is some spillage from the main channel and no more than 20 meters from where I lost the tip, there it was, resting against a rock with 10cms sticking out of the water.

Eric Wilson

Secretary Treasurer