The river and stream mouths that
enter Lake Taupo, and there are forty two of them, provide superb
fishing throughout the year.
In Summer brown and rainbow trout
chase right into the mouths feeding on smelt. Rainbow trout will feed throughout the day, although the bigger
fish and greater numbers are usually found at night. Brown trout
are usually found at night, usually late at night.
( For further info on night fishing see two articles published in
the New Zealand Fishermen magazine, Night Moves, and Night Moves II.)
During Winter rainbow trout
concentrate at river mouths prior to making their spawning
runs.
Most of the river mouths consist of
a ‘fan’ of pumice sand extending for some distance out into the
lake. The outer edge of the fan, where the edge of the sand fan
drops into the deeper water of the lake fish is called the ‘lip’.
On some of the smaller rivers and streams this lip or drop-off may
be only less than one metre, but on some rivers the lip may by 30
or more metres.
At most rivers it is possible to
wade out in less than waist deep water to the very edge of the rip.
But on some river mouths, the Tongariro, Tauranga-Taupo, and
Waimarino, this is extremely dangerous. As you near the edge of the
drop-off the sand becomes soft, and just as on a dry sand dune, all
of a sudden the sand can slip away under your feet, and from there
the only way is down.
There are three main ways of fishing
river mouths:
Floating line with
long leader, 4 meters (12 feet) of leader or more, to one or two
smelt imitation flies: For Day: Rabbits, Matukas, Green Orbits, Red
Setters, Silicone Smelts and Woolly Buggers. For Night: Silicone Smelts with luminous core,
any luminous fly behind virtually any black fly, especially one
with black marabou or rabbit.
Sinking Line, fast
to intermediate, depending on depth and current, with short 1 to 2
metre (3 to 6 feet) leader with imitation smelts as
above.
Fast sinking shooting
head with Booby flies. For further information see
article, Booby Flies.
For most New Zealanders the basic
rod for lake fishing is an eight to nine weight. You need to be
able to throw a line some distance, and often in windy
conditions.
However some fishers simply cast out
their floating line and let the current drift it out before
retrieving.
Etiquette:
Fishing the "rip" as it is known in
New Zealand can be somewhat crowded by New Zealand standards. Up to
10 to 15 people lined up across a river mouth. But this is unusual
and only on the most popular, read ‘accessible’, rivers.
The etiquette is simple, the first
in the rip gets the best position, the second the next best and so
on.
If one person in the rip catches a
fish and moves out to land it the anglers on either side of where
that angler was standing should ‘guard’ his place.
Moving into a hole in the line of
anglers without asking ‘permission’ from the anglers on either side
of that hole is asking for trouble.