Fishing after the flood

It's been an exciting year for fish in the Tongariro, writes HARVEY CLARK. Now it's the turn of the anglers


There's a brand new river flowing into Lake Taupo. The Tongariro River was reshaped by the February flood, the second-biggest in its history, creating some wonderful new vistas for anglers, walkers and picnickers.

So, with the peak trout-fishing period approaching, anglers have a rare opportunity to be among the first to cast the first flies into the first new lies on one of the world's acclaimed rivers.

From now till October, spawning runs of top-conditioned trout will enter the river from Lake Taupo. They will lie in new pools, runs, fish-holding water and spawning redds created by the flood, which cleaned out decades of silt and debris and destroyed three popular pools but formed many more.

The explorers are out there now, but the biggest discoveries will be made on the river when the trout make their first major spawning run up from the lake. They are gathering now at the river mouth, awaiting their first whiff of sex when the next storm brings down the smell of the back country they were born in.

Everybody you talk to in Turangi believes the river has improved and that the fishing will be the best in years. Some say the river is at its best since the 1958 flood, the biggest in its history, when kids chased trout around the streets of Turangi. This time, locals picked up fish in puddles in the bush.

At the height of its tantrum the Tongariro heaved pine trees and rocks at bridges, ate cliffs, belched boulders, flooded floors, took out vege gardens and sheds and frightened the hens, and broke into the National Trout Centre to free 9000 of its offspring, which got away laughing, judging by the number of juvenile fish in the river.

"Fish mortality has been low," says John Gibbes, Taupo Fishery Area Manager for the Department of Conservation. "Few dead fish were found, and monitoring shows good numbers of juveniles. The resident fish are built like footballs, indicating good survivability.

"I've known the river for 40 years and it's now in better shape than for decades. All the sites we've been monitoring are showing good depths and the main channel has deepened. The holding water is as good as I've seen and I think the fishing will be brilliant."

Fish had no time to head for the safety of the lake during the flood because of the speed at which the river rose and fell after rain poured on to an already-saturated catchment. Normally a flood has an extended peak, which flushes the trout downstream. But this time they had to ride it out.

So how does it feel to be a fish in a flood?

If you're a fry, one month old and happily munching on your yolk-sac down in the gravel, you can wave goodbye cruel world. If you're a fingerling, having finished your yolk-sac and left the gravel after a month to have fun swimming and eating tasty-crunchy leg-waving insects, you're still going to die but at least you'll get a spectacular view.

Up to 6 months old, you're in for a rough time. Even if you can make it down to the lake, you won't be strong enough to chase your main diet, smelt, to survive.

But the older fish get an early warning of doom: increasing current pressure, followed by the rumble and growing vibration of a million boulders on the move, and they head for refuges in holes under banks, behind giant boulders, in numerous back-eddys and flooded shallows, hollows, ditches and riverside flat spots. There, they congregate and wait it out, walls of logs and boulders stampeding past metres away.

The Tongariro is a magnificent scenic and self-generating wild fishery that has long been a mecca for New Zealand and overseas anglers. Those planning their first visit will find the river easily accessible from Turangi, whose four tackle shops can outfit you for about $35 a day or $160 a week, including waders.

Visitors will find top pools behind Turangi down side roads and tracks off Taupahi Rd, which runs parallel with the river. This is also where you'll find much of the area's trout-fisher accommodation, costing from $55 a night double. Elsewhere, basic cabins can be found for less than half that.

Anglers unfamiliar with the area should visit the pools at Turangi, and the middle and upper pools, which you can reach off the main highway within 15 minutes of Turangi. The fish-holding water here is as good as you'll ever see.

At Turangi itself there're the Upper and Lower Bridge Pools below the State Highway 1 bridge and the Hydro, Breakfast and Major Jones Pools behind town, down Kutai and Koura Sts, off Taupahi Rd.

Further afield, in the middle river, the Birch Pools area is four minutes along State Highway 1, with an anglers' carpark posted just before the hatchery, and the Red Hut Pool area, with its carpark posted, is a couple of minutes further on.

In the upper river, the Blue Pool area is a few more minutes down the highway and over the Potu Stream bridge, then hard left on to an access road, which brings you to the Blue Pool carpark at road's end after five minutes.

But Tongariro isn't just a place for anglers.

It is becoming increasingly popular with holidaymakers for its scenery and wilderness, a great place for kayakers and rafters, birdwatchers, walkers and picnickers.

The wonderful network of riverbank tracks washed out by the flood has been repaired and you'll find details of some fantastic riverside walks under "tracks and walks" on www.doc.govt.nz/Explore.

The trout centre, with its hatchery, excellent riverside picnic areas, underwater viewing room and new displays, has reopened after suffering heavy damage. You can find out about it, and get a lot of information on trout fishing on the Tongariro River, under "hunting and fishing" on the same website.

May on the Tongariro is often warm, peaceful and settled. You'll get a dawn chorus with bellbirds, then tramp the river's scenic tracks all day from rapid to pool with volcano in the background. Stop and lunch at an attractive pool. Ask an angler to show you how to release a fish. Listen to the river. And in spring the paradise ducklings are cute beyond belief.





General information:

Log on to www.laketauponz.com, call the Turangi Information Centre, Ngawaka Place, (07) 386-8999 or email turangivc@laketauponz.com Accommodation:

Waimarama Fishing Lodge is the newest luxury fishing lodge in Turangi, overlooking the Major Jones and Breakfast Pools.

Contact: (07) 386-0030

Waimarama Fishing Lodge

Other luxury accommodation: Tongariro Lodge, (07) 386-7946

Other accommodation: Bridge Tongariro Fishing Resort, (07) 386-8804; Creel Lodge, (07) 386 8081; Sportsman's Lodge, (07) 386-8150; Extreme Backpackers, (07)386-8949; Brown Trout House, (06) 385-8026; Turangi Cabins & Holiday park, (07) 386-8754