KEY POINTS:
Most New Zealand towns have a stream nearby where, says local lore, lives a monster trout that slurps ducklings off the surface and spits out the feathers, has a mouth embedded with flies broken off from anglers, and grows a kilo or two on each of its rare
sightings.
The school holidays bring out fisherkids all around the country, their homemade flies pulsating with allure and promise, imaginations fired by the impending hunt on their local stream for one of these big, wily and easily spooked brown trout.
The Utuhina Stream flows through Rotorua and down to the lake two minutes from the CBD. It's an attractive spawning stream well known for its large population of brown trout and often ignored by visiting anglers who want to fish well away from cities.
Many of Rotorua's anglers learned their flyfishing as kids on the Utuhina, which is an outstanding stream for beginners to practise and perfect their techniques, and easily accessible just a walk or short bike-ride from home.
According to reports from Rotorua, in the past week an adult angler nymph-fishing on the middle reaches of the stream twice hooked a large brown trout that broke him off both times. An experienced fisher, he estimated its weight at close to 8kg (17lb).
That's more than big enough to set alight the local kids, many of whom by age 12 can flycast as well as the pros, having grown up with fishing in their blood, a rod in their hands and the Utuhina beckoning full of promise at their doorstep. Rotorua boys have taken several trophy fish (4.5kg) from the Utuhina over the years. In 2001 a monster of 8kg was found dead on the bank.
A boy wanting to hunt for this week's big Utuhina fish should wear dull-coloured clothing, sunglasses and a hat to help to shade the eyes, and above all, stalk quietly and invisibly.
And, in the absence of camo cream, he could smear a bit of river mud on his face. A brown trout will easily spot an angler's face and disappear faster than a rat up a drainpipe.
"The Utuhina is a small stream requiring great stealth," says Mike Cotter, of O'Keefe's tackle shop in Rotorua. "You can't let the fish see you."
In the deeper pools, he says, a boy should use a heavy weighted nymph with a small natural nymph trailing behind, both tied on 4.5kg monofilament (unless he can bludge some expensive fluorocarbon off the old man).
"If you hook it, be prepared to run after it because it'll take you on a fast ride," says Cotter.
Nymphs he recommends are the well-known Scruffy and Pheasant Tail, or a Bloody Mick, which is similar to a Hare-and-Copper but with a red bead head and no copper wire ribbing.
The Utuhina usually fishes best after a bit of fresh rain, says Cotter.
* The battle to prevent didymo - the "rock snot" that smothers trout habitat - spreading from the South Island to the North reached anglers' wading boots this week.
Niwa has discovered that the felt soles of wading boots are almost impossible to decontaminate and will harbour the disease for up to 100 days.
The problem is that anything that stays wet, such as the felt soles, can transmit didymo, says a statement from Fish and Game Rotorua and the Department of Conservation in Turangi.
"Walking on didymo pushes the cells into the felt material where cleaning agents are unable to reach ... so we are encouraging anglers to wear rubber boots or neoprene waders which dry quickly and are easily cleaned."
