Nymphing Strategies for Taupo's Winter Trout
- Johan Kok
- 9 hours ago
- 7 min read
Understanding the Taupo Trout Environment
It's that time of year again, the temperature is dropping, and the rainbow trout have started moving up the Lake Taupo tributaries. If you haven't fished the Taupo Rivers in winter before, there are a few things you should know about the trout fishing in this region during winter.
The rainbow trout live in Lake Taupo for most of their life, feeding on smelt and koura while growing big. Once they are sexually mature, the fish swim up the Lake Taupo tributaries during winter to spawn in the headwaters. The trout behave like anadromous fish except that their ocean is the lake. Catching them on this spawning requires different strategies than you would use in summer. It's these different nymphing strategies that I will cover in this post.
The biggest differences with the spawning run trout in winter are that they are not actively feeding, move around in schools, hug the bottom and move upstream in response to significant rain events, often referred to as a 'fresh'.
Essential Gear for Nymphing
Two main nymphing methods are used to fish the Lake Taupo tributaries during the winter spawning runs. That's indicator nymphing or euro nymphing. Both have their pros and cons, and each has its dedicated following as well as those that use both methods. I fall into the latter group, often preferring an indicator setup on the bigger Tongariro and even the Tauranga-Taupo, where there is more casting room while using euro nymphing on the smaller and overgrown Hinemaiaia and Waitahanui Rivers.
For indicator nymphing, you can go as light as a 6wt or as heavy as an 8wt. Modern 6wt rods allow you to cast the big, heavy flies with relative ease, but an 8wt rod can be a really easy setup to fish with all day. The heavy flies and long leaders often used in winter can become taxing on the casting arm with a poorly set-up rod. It's best to match your rod with a good weight-forward floating line designed to cast heavy flies to aid you with casting and a reel with a decent drag to deal with the big trout using the current to their advantage.
Terminal tackle on my indicator rig starts with a 6 foot butt section of 2x to 3x tippet down to another 6 foot of 4x tippet to my dropper fly and 2 more feet of 4x tippet to my point fly. On the 6 foot butt section I will have a New Zealand Strike indicator made from wool that is big enought to keep a 4mm tungsten bead fly afloat.
Euro nymphing requires more specialised gear. I like a 10'6 or 11' 3wt euro nymphing rod with a euro nymphing reel like the Flylab glide. Pair this with a euro nymphing fly line, which is required in Taupo, and you have a top fish-catching setup.
My leader setup for euro nymphing is simple. I use 12 foot of 2x to 3x bicolour sighther material attached to my euro fly line via a micro loop or back to back unit knot followed by 4-5 foot of 4x tippet to my dropper fly and another 2 foot to my point fly, totalling no more than 18 foot, as the maximum leader lenght is 6m. This is a much heavier leader setup than I will use in summer, but it is very handy with the number of snags as well as the size of the trout in these rivers.
I'll get to fly choice later on.
Reading the Water: Identifying Hot Spots
Trout aren't evenly distributed through a river at any time, but it is especially the case with spawning run trout. They move upstream in schools and stop for periods in stable pools. At the peak of the season, there can be hundreds of fish in many pools, but at the start of the season, only a few pools may hold fish, and they can move through very quickly. The key is to find fish. They tend to hold in pools and like to be near structure like fallen trees. If it's clear enough, you are likely to see them. Later in the season, you will see spawning trout in the shallow gravel areas on redds. These fish are probably actively spawning, and if paired up on a redd should be left alone. It is frowned upon to catch trout off redds.
When fishing aim to cover a lot of likely looking water until you start catching fish. There is no point flogging a pool unless you know there are fish in it. It's best to keep moving if you aren't catching as long as you are confindent you fished well and had your flies at the right depth.
Nymphing Techniques Tailored for Winter
Nymphing for trout during the winter spawning runs in Taupo is all about depth, presenting your flies as naturally as possible at the right depth to get them in front of the trout. Depth matters. The trout might move a bit sideways to grab a well-presented fly, but it's not swimming a couple of feet up to grab it. You need your flies to spend the majority of the drift close to but not dragging on the bottom. You want those flies right smack in the trout's faces. Remember, these trout are not actively feeding, they are on a mission upstream to spawn. It can be frustrating watching a pool with 50 trout refuse to take a fly. That can happen at times, but chances are your fly isn't being presented to them exactly right; otherwise, at least one will eventually take it.
With an indicator rig, we use long level leaders to ensure we get down deep enough and have a natural drift. The adjustable New Zealand strike indicator lets you adjust for the depth you are fishing at, as this changes constantly. Your indicator should be roughly 1.5x the water depth from your flies to ensure they will get down. When your indicator starts "tapping", it is a good indication that your flies have reached the bottom and are now dragging. This should be happening toward the end of the drift before you go to recast. If you never see it happening and you're not catching fish, you're not getting down deep enough. If you are constantly snagging the bottom, you are too deep.
Similarly with a euro nymphing rig you will feel the flies dragging on the bottom. Again this should be periodicallly toward the end of the drift not all the way through. The trout won't be digging your flies out from between the stones on the bottom.
No matter which method your choose, you need to ensure you get the drift right to get the flies as naturally as possible down to the fish's level whatever depth the water is. Your fly selection plays a key role in this.
Fly Selection for Winter Nymphing
Depth matters, and weight is what helps you get to the right depth. There are two ways to do this. Weighted flies, e.g. tungsten beads or added weight like split shot or tungsten putty. Maybe even a combination of the two.
A popular choice is heavy flies like a 4mm or even double 4mm tungsten bead fly, often referred to as "bombs". Hare and copper variations and flies like Simon's ugly are popular choices. These flies will get taken by trout, but they are normally used in conjunction with either another smaller natural like a pheasant tail or with an egg pattern like a globug, soft egg or slushie. The latter is my preference in winter. Some fly anglers will pull up their noses at an egg pattern, but in reality, the trout eat other trout's eggs that wash down the river, so it is as much a natural presentation as any other and often far superior, especially in peak season.
The same applies to euro nymphing. With a heavy fly at the bottom and a smaller natural or egg above it on the dropper. However, rivers like the Hinemaiai can be very taxing on flies with all the snags. Therefore, my preference is a dropshot rig with an egg pattern or a single heavily weighted egg pattern like a 4mm or 4,5mm tungsten bead slushie. Both of methods are far cheaper than losing two expensive flies at a time. I tie my own slushies so it works out a lot better losing one fly at a time, plus a split shot. Euro nymphing with a split shot on the point is often referred to as dropshotting, which I think is a bass fishing term for a similar rig.
Adjusting Strategies Based on Conditions
Conditions can change quickly in winter. One trip, you will turn up to crystal clear low rivers with fussy trout, the next it could be raging brown torrents. The trout can still be caught in all these conditions, you just need to adjust your strategy.
When the rivers are super clear, reduce your indicator size, fly size and tippet size. FIsh more carefully and even go fully with natural flies. Althought I have not found that to be any more beneficial than fishing an egg. Just be more stealthy, don't splash your line and be careful not to spook schools of visible trout.
When the rivers turn chocolate, be careful and ensure safety first, but don't be surprised to still catch trout right in the brown much but on the edges in the shallow margins where it is calmer. The will still take a well-presented fly if you can get it in front of them.
The best time, however, is when the rivers are clearing and levels dropping with just a bit of colour still in the water. If you can time your trip with this in mind, you can be in for exellent fishing with fresh trout having come up the river to boost the numbers and the trout are often less wary
Conclusion
The winter fly fishing in the Lake Taupo tributaries is substantially different from what you would normally expect in summer but by adjusting your normal nymphing strategies to suit the trout's behaviour you can have some exceptional fly fishing for big average size rainbow trout.
If you want to learn more about fly fishing for these winter rainbow trout in Taupo rivers consider my online course below: