Thursday, 23rd February 2012
As often happens through January and February, the fishing close to Taupo has gone off the boil a little, possibly because of the angling pressure and the number of boats operating in the bay over the holiday period. Not so further out on the lake. We took Anthony and Sheilah from the U.K. down to the Horomatangi Reef where they both caught their limits and all the fish they brought back where in great condition and in excess of three pounds.The following day we went back with two keen anglers from Russia on a five hour charter. They would both have caught their limit in two and a half hours had we kept anything under 3lb. We are getting similar results out of Whakaipo Bay so if it is large trout and plenty of them you want then it will be worth taking an hour or two more and going further out on the lake. Best performing lures on the down riggers are Baby Brown and Traffic Light Cobras and Orange and Gold King Cobras and the depth to be is 110 to 120ft.
The early morning harling is still good for a couple of hours with a 5.30 to 6.00am start. Green Orbit and Yellow Lady were doing the job for us this week.
This is the time for good results jigging if you can find a concentration of fish out of the wind so the drift is not too fast. A small smelt fly on the top with a larger, darker pattern (Wooly Bugger) below will do the trick at 90 to 120 feet.
The Season to Date (Jul to Nov)
Reports earlier this year that the Taupo Fishery is in decline do not stack up with us at Taupo Lake Adventures or, as far as we know, with any of the other charter operators
Our records show that, for the season to date, we have caught 42% more trout than we did in the same period last year. Sure we have spent a bit more time fishing for them but our catch rate (fish caught/hour) has increased around 20%. The percentage of the catch retained has actually stayed the same but the size and condition of the retained fish has improved significantly and consequently we have released a lot more "legal" oversize fish to grow on some more.
We have had some spectacular fishing and one trip that springs to mind is a four hour charter with a Welsh visitor. She hooked up 22 times and released a lot of over size trout to stay within her limit.On another trip two rods hooked up thirteen times in two hours. They kept five fish, two of which were over 4lb, released five and lost one.
The driving force behind this very healthy fishery is undoubtedly the plentiful smelt in the lake this year. They are not only there in huge numbers, they are big, well grown and they are everywhere. This would explain why the early morning harling is so spectacular this year with the trout taking any smelt pattern you choose to offer.
And just to help things along a bit more, there are a lot of green beetle on the water, particularly in the Western Bays and these are easy pickings and a good food source for trout.
Many of the undersize trout we have been releasing have been in the 38-40cm range, fat as seals and growing fast. With all that food in the lake these will be good fish by January/February and I am picking there will be a lot more very good fishing to be enjoyed over the summer months.
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