The Tauranga-Taupo river is another one of lake Taupo tributaries well known for it’s winter spawning runs of rainbow trout. Having fished the Tongariro the day before, Angel and I were ready to explore some new water, but first we had to warm up…
We walked our way up for about half an hour before we jumped in to start fishing. The river was low and clear just like the Tongariro. I found success early on while fishing a small pocket of water across a fast current where I had spotted some fish shapes moving. This is the beauty of euro nymphing, it allows you to easily fish the other side of fast currents.
It was a good start to the day and I was hopeful more fish would follow. Not too long after that I found another fish in a small run. It was not interested in my egg pattern this time with the sun out and the water clear so I switched it up.
From here on the fishing proved tough. We did find some fish but just did not have success so we decided to make our way back and drop in on the Hinemaiaia river on the way back to Auckland. This is another popular Lake Taupo tributary and one that I have not really fished in the past so this was a nice bit of exploration for me.
Angel managed a good fresh fish to take home but I was unable to get one. Sometimes that's the way it goes. Have a look at the short video below for some of nice aerial footage of the river.