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The Trout Man, Rotorua (2025)

06/04/2025

More and more headless anglers around the world are popping up on Facebook. Yes, it is the fish we are mainly interested in seeing, but surely a man is entitled to have his head!

01/04/2025

A tourist woman from Finland hooked a mighty brown trout at the Ngongotaha mouth at dawn this morning. Unaware of the regulations, the lady used a lamb roast embedded with large hooks on a surfcaster. The fish made a beeline for the airport, flipping two kayaks on the way, but she was able to turn it near Mokoia Island and drag it back to Ngongotaha. The woman, 22-year-old Aprielle Fuelldae, from Helsinki, was reaching for the baseball bat tucked into her waist to slug it on the head when a vast sinkhole opened up and swallowed both her and the fish and a couple of people on horseback giving their steeds a swim. Bit of a disaster all round to kick off the month. The rangers are investigating.

20/03/2025

The stream-mouth fishing at Rotorua is coming to an end as the weather and the lake cool. But just look at all these trout with their mouths wide open waiting hungrily for your fly. You'll get them on the streams from now on as they start moving up for their spawning. Any of the flies pictured will do the job at this time of year. Last April/May I had success with the wee-wet Red Tip Governors. The globug/Grey Ghost rig under an indicator has always served me well. The 101 stonefly pictured, and any rubber legs, will nail the browns. Tiny nymphs such as midges and willow grubs in sizes 16 and 18 are great fish-catchers. And if all else fails, go for the size 16 or 18 Pheasant-tail with the bright copper thorax.

04/03/2025

A couple of browns and six rainbows to the net during today's dawn raid on my stream at Rotorua. It was particularly pleasing to land the browns after losing six of them this summer, mainly because bad legs prevented me from jumping up the bank from the lake beach to follow them along the stream, and they ended up breaking off or spitting the hook. This time I hooked them on the stream itself, so no need to jump around on steep banks, and I was able to make sure of them. Thanks to the locals who assisted with the net. It was a great morning.

27/02/2025

Early bird catch ... client Kevin Finlay, from the Rotorua region, with a fine catch at dawn today.

26/02/2025

AN AFTERNOON TO REMEMBER
Left the dentist at 11.30 this morning after injections, fillings, and a lip feeling like a hippopotamus. I was heading home to rest but at the last second turned down the road to my stream at Rotorua. Calm and clear, fish spooking easily from lines and splashing indicators. Just give it half an hour, I told myself. First requirement, two rod lengths of leader so that the nylon lands over the heads of the fish rather than the splashing line. Second requirement, a very small nondescript indicator like a bit of leaf. Tried a small Grey Ghost without success. Switched to a size 18 flashback and landed two, then went dead. Half an hour later I switched to a Category 3 101 and the action was immediate. Hooked 14 and landed 11 like the one pictured. My half hour turned into three hours. When the fish are there and the bite is slow, change your fly and change again and again. Eventually the rewards will come.

23/02/2025

GHOSTS AT DAWN
I had splendid fishing at dawn today on my local stream at Rotorua, experimenting with a self-tied mini Grey Ghost under an indicator, dead drifting or slowly retrieving on the swing, but not so fast as to leave a wake behind the tiny indicator. Seven landed on the Grey Ghost in an hour and a-half. Nothing touched the Pheasant-tail above it. The Ghost, tied on a size 14 hook, is slender and underdressed, just a strip of chicken feather and a bit of rainbow thread. This was my 33rd dawn raid in the past 40 days, either alone or with clients. The least number caught was two, the most 15.
I find the break of day a wonderful time to go fishing, before the world wakes up and starts revving engines, and when the only people around are your soul-mates sharing this special time.

20/02/2025

The marker peg on the point of the True Right Bank at the mouth of the Awahou Stream has been moved upstream so it is in line with the peg on the True Left Bank. This brings the hole where fish congregate just below the big willow within reach of anglers. It is still illegal to cast across the imaginary line between the pegs. Those who try it on will end up with their flies in the willow. Stick to the rules, stay behind the marker pegs, don't push in and everybody can have a wonderful time.

18/02/2025

Another dawn raid on a Rotorua stream this morning for me and Aussie Tony Dunk, another nine fish to the net to top off his annual fishing holiday. He's had about 70 hook-ups and more than 50 landed. He's a pretty good example of why Australians love our flyfishing. See you next summer Tony.

17/02/2025

Rain and wind, but also hot and sticky in the Rotorua humidity ... this morning's weather at 5 o'clock had it all. These conditions kept everybody in bed at 6am first light except for Aussie client Tony Dunk and myself, and we made a killing on my local stream -- 14 rainbows to the net and a handful lost. No humans to be seen at this hour apart from the occasional dog-walker. Just the ducks, the cormorants, the swans and the Canada geese giving us a dawn concert. That's the way we like it. What a wonderful time of the day to go fishing.Tony has one morning left on his fishing holiday, so we'll be out there again by 6am tomorrow.

14/02/2025

Client Tony Dunk and I landed 11 good fish on a two-hour dawn raid yesterday on a Rotorua stream. The two rainbows pictured with the Queenslander brought his personal total for his holiday to 40 so far. Later we visited my good friend Jenny who plied us with vodka until we were pleasantly pi**ed. Then we went home and drank red wine and watched the Crusaders' mighty comeback against the Hurricanes. Hangovers? Nah! We are dedicated fishers. We were up again at 5.15am for 12 hook-ups and five landed. A pretty good time all round.

13/02/2025

Queensland angler Tony Dunk is having a boomer of a fishing holiday. That's him
on the right beside exhausted me. Between us we've landed close to 60 rainbows in the past two days in the Lake Rotorua shallows as the fish start coming in close for the cold oxygenating water pouring from the streams. We've been nymph fishing all the way and releasing all our catch. No need to switch to streamers when the success rate with nymphs is so high. Tony has a week to go. Make the most of it while it lasts Tony. I've seen you putting in the hard yards over the years and you certainly deserve these rewards.
(Thanks for the photo Peter)

12/02/2025

Great fishing today on the Rotorua lakefront with Aussie client Tony Dunk. Between us we got about 40 hook-ups and landed 33 rainbows, all released. It was a magic nymphing session with the wind behind us and the fish congregating in front of us to give ideal nymphing conditions. Pictures show Tony catching and releasing our 33rd in three hours. The other guy pictured (the handsome one) is me! Most of our fish were caught on flashbacks, rubber legs, and especially tiny No.18 pheasant-tails tied by Peter Corson from the Rotorua Anglers' Association. Peter is an expert fly-tier and generous with his knowledge, so he can teach you plenty if you join the club.

10/02/2025

Queenslander Tony Dunk landed four superb rainbows at dawn today, the second day of his Rotorua fishing holiday with me. When I asked what happened to two others he hooked, he explained that they didn't get away, "They let go!" Only an Aussie could come up with that one, rather like a Tasmanian lady years ago who dropped four fish on the Ngongotaha stream and told me, "Oh no Harvey, they did not get away, they were wet releases." Tony certainly got into full swing today, leaving me fishless, depressed, disgraced and despairing. He's been rubbing it in ever since, so I made him buy me breakfast, pancakes, banana, bacon, cream, maple syrup and coffee. That helped.

09/02/2025

I'M IN DISGRACE
Queenslander Tony Dunk is all smiles hooked up on the first morning of his fishing holiday at Ngongotaha with me today. The hook-ups came readily, more than a dozen, but only five landed as the trout got the upper hand and kept spitting the hook. Tony did nothing wrong -- just bad luck -- but I am in disgrace and eating humble pie. So many times over the years I've said to my beginners: "Now that you've got him In close be very careful. Don't get too over-confident. This is the point at which most trout get away. They feel the shallows and sense the end is near, and make a final burst for freedom and break off the hook." I had a 7lb brown at my feet and almost in the net when he raced back out before I could get my hand off the line. SNAP! I should have been on high alert and I wasn't. This humble pie is crappy.

07/02/2025

Mishaps threatened our dawn start at Rotorua today, and you don't want problems when the bite might last only an hour. A fish hooked on the first cast crossed some protruding spent flax flower stems and see-sawed over them, snagging the line. Oregon client Mike Williams showed great resilience (he's not getting any younger) lurching and stumbling around in the flax without falling into the stream, and after 10 minutes he managed to lever the flax stems up out of the water with my long-handled landing net, freeing the trace and then netting the fish. He turned disaster into triumph! And he went on to land eight more in the dawn raid and 11 in an afternoon burst. We're going out at dawn again tomorrow.

06/02/2025

Back with a vengeance ... Oregon farmer Mike Williams first came to me for fishing about 12 years ago. He had been missing his yearly angling trips to New Zealand because of the Covid years and, after making it back here at last, he wasted no time getting among half a dozen rainbows with me at dawn this morning. Good keen early starters usually get the action.

04/02/2025

Good fishing on a dawn raid on my Rotorua stream this morning ... 15 hooked, 12 landed, three for the smoker. The most interesting thing about this session was the subtlety of the strikes. With five of these fish I saw no movement of the indicator, just a faint ring coming off it in the slow, unruffled current. Something happened down below to cause that ring, and it was a fish every time. No matter how subtle the movement, never let it pass ... strike like greased lightening. That could be a trophy fish on the end.

The Trout Man