KEY POINTS:
New Zealand is blessed with wonderful trout fishing and cursed by El Nino and its accompanying winds, which until this week had delayed the good summer fishing by two months in the popular Rotorua and Taupo fisheries.
But this week El Nino dropped its winds long enough for Lake Rotorua to heat up and send the trout into the shoreline to chase smelt and seek the cold water at stream mouths.
Predictions are for great fishing over the next six weeks. However, the weather is not to be trusted and the return to chilly evenings could slow the smelting feeding cycle.
The best fishing has been in the Bay of Plenty back country, especially at Lake Aniwhenua and on the Rangiteiki River and its main tributary, the Whirinaki, and on the Ngongotaha Stream near Rotorua, which is one of the most consistent year-round fish producers in the country.
The Ngongotaha has been the success story of the summer. Trout up to 4kg are being taken off the mouth at night and on the lower and upper reaches at first light and often throughout the day. One angler landed 26 in five days on the lower river.
For harlers, jiggers and trollers, the action throughout the region has been slow, apart from excellent catches on Lake Rotorua this week. Jigging is improving on Lake Rotoiti and Tarawera has produced the odd good fish at change of light but the smelt are staying deep.
Lake Rotorua offers the best chance for boat fishers, particularly the area between the Waiteti and Ngongotaha mouths and off the Awahou mouth.
The Taupo region is improving after a slow start to the summer.
On the lake, jigging is the preferred method and has been firing this week, particularly at Stump Bay, the Tokaanu Hole and the Western Bays. One group using various methods on the lake landed 70 trout in a week.
Smelting on Lake Taupo has been sporadic at the stream mouths such as Kuratau, Omori and Whareroa but improved markedly this week.
Back country fishing in the region has been patchy because of inconsistent weather, and at the trophy lake, Otomangakau, the fishing has been brilliant some days, dead the next. But the damsel flies are now hatching and the cicada is on the wing.
The Tongariro offers pleasant dry fly fishing on afternoons and evenings, and small runs of lake-spawning rainbows are still coming up. It's a matter of being in the right place at the right time, especially early morning with small natural nymphs and a bit of lead shot to sink them. Plenty of large spawning browns are coming into the lower river and require careful stalking.
The major fisheries remain unpredictable while El Nino huffs around the place, and back country Bay of Plenty offers the most consistent fishing.
At Lake Aniwhenua Lodge, Joan Ryder says the lake has been fishing wonderfully since last winter. Plenty of fish up to 3.6kg have been landed and they are in splendid condition. The most successful method is to anchor and fish from the boat using wet flies and nymphs.
Pick of the back country rivers is the Whirinaki, which has been producing trout close to 4.5kg to nymph fishers. The Rangiteiki is also fishing well to the nymph. Anglers need to vary their flies. Stomach contents show the insect diet of the trout varies widely from one spot to the next.
