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The Trout Man, Rotorua (2025)

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.

27/01/2025

Bit of a madhouse with holiday crowds and six horses at the Waiteti mouth today. Too many rods for my liking. I saw two fish caught by anglers when I visited briefly. Not sure how the horses got on but they probably did okay considering they didn't wear white shirts or bright colours.

24/01/2025

I just love it when a client tells me he's a beginner but he can flycast like a seasoned pro and you know instinctively that he's going to catch fish. It means I can sit back and enjoy his fishing without having to do too much. Ed Currall, a country primary school principal from Australia, landed about six and lost about four with me at Rotorua this morning. And I just love it when my client is the only one catching. It means I can jump up and down and make the most of it ... because it won't last. Tomorrow will be the turn of that envious guy just down the bank from us ... he'll make a killing while we blank. That's usually the way it goes. And I love it, too, when my client is an Australian, because the Aussies love our fishing and are so easy to please. Ed is such a pleasant bloke to take fishing on a beautiful morning. Well done mate.

20/01/2025

A strong easterly is blowing a load of w**d from Lake Rotorua into the lower Waiteti stream. No current, no drift, no sign of the 200 trout that have been here recently .... they've either gone up the stream, back out into the lake or lying under the w**d. I've never seen it like this in the 30 years I've fished here. The rain that is promised over the next few days should inject some life into the local streams and stir up the fishing, especially for browns, but the rainbows need constant sunshine on the lake surface to bring in good numbers and we're just not getting that heat. If you want browns, fish the shallow lake flats and stream mouths. If you want rainbows, wade way the hell out to the w**d beds where you might find the schools. Good luck and wrap up.

19/01/2025

First tomatoes of the new season. Late arriving. Their ripening usually coincides with the arrival of the trout in big numbers along the western coast of lake Rotorua, so I better get out for a look. It's been a poor shoreline season for rainbows so far this January, which is usually always a top month. The southerly onslaught that cooled the lake has now finished, so that's a good sign. But the houseflies are not in yet and we need them giving us the buzz. When the flies are in, the rainbows are In. Some anglers are saying the trout won't come in at all now at the usual spots. But I have faith. Late seasons have happened before. Tomatoes do not lie.

17/01/2025

To that heading I would add "... and places visited." I have always preferred to fish alone if possible, and my most cherished memories are not of big catches but spectacular, lonely places where I felt like the only person in existence. Much of my early fishing was done In Fiordland with its unparallelled scenery and sparkling rivers where silver rainbows would leap in the sun. Fishing memories are treasures, and at 81 years my treasure chest is overflowing.
(Photo from The Fly Fishing Community)

13/01/2025

Big trout in my local stream at Rotorua this morning. The photo is not clear enough to see them still giggling after laughing at all the passing anglers waving rods at them. But just upstream a bit, round the bend and under the trees, there's a monster brown licking his wounds after being caught and released by a local lad softbaiting this morning ... 12lb is the story doing the rounds.

08/01/2025

WESTIES ARE WINNERS
Another woman outfishing the men! Olivia McGarvey spent three hours with me on my basic flycasting tuition course this morning and she breezed through it like a pro. An hour and a-half on the grass learning the rhythms, then an hour and a-half on the water. From her first cast she was getting hits on my special Tongariro Euro nymph while the guys nearby were blanking. The secret? West Auckland! Olivia is a Westie. I was a Westie for 20 years. My son is a Westie. We catch heaps of fish. Our fortunes really are outrageous. I will tie a new fly and call it a Westie. Olivia missed her first strike -- the beginners usually always do -- but made up for it landing this beauty, and was unlucky to lose another. Well done Olivia. Westside rules!

06/01/2025

New Zealander Berwick Settle, working in Asia and Europe for about 10 years, has come come home on a mission of extreme importance: FLYFISHING! He'd been sorely missing the drift and bobble of the indicator, the exhilarating moment of the strike and the leap of a silver rainbow on the run. He got his rewards with me yesterday on the Rotorua lakefront but the fishing was tough and he really had to hang in there in the wind for a brown and three rainbows. The brown surged off on a mighty run and we thought we had a monster until we realised he was hooked in the tail ... and we weren't the first -- a piece of trace with two hooks was already embedded in the tail. Great to catch up Berwick. See you in another 10 years when I will be aged 91 and at the peak of my game!

The Trout Man