The Trout Man

The Trout Man Do you want to learn how to flycast? I teach beginners in three and four-hour courses at $50 an hour.

AND THEN ALONG CAME IRENE ...First winter trip to my favourite lake out west today. Landed one to kick off the season bu...
01/07/2025

AND THEN ALONG CAME IRENE ...
First winter trip to my favourite lake out west today. Landed one to kick off the season but it was too calm and the fish were picky and easily spooked. And then along came good neighbour and friend Irene Hughes. If Irene is not busy cooking superb stews to share with all her friends, then she is out fishing and catching trout almost as big as she is. Ripper catch Irene.

I would like to personally thank all you fellow anglers who replied with great kindness to my post yesterday about fishi...
11/06/2025

I would like to personally thank all you fellow anglers who replied with great kindness to my post yesterday about fishing from a chair. Your words were encouraging and uplifting at a time that I've been feeling a bit low with my problems. I now feel inspired to carry on as long as I can and to continue teaching flycasting to beginners whenever possible. Tight lines to everybody and may you all land trout like this one, which was my best last summer. Chairful times ahead.

I'm unable to walk well at the moment and today I caught my first fish sitting in a chair, at a jetty on the other side ...
11/06/2025

I'm unable to walk well at the moment and today I caught my first fish sitting in a chair, at a jetty on the other side of Rotorua. The chair represented a full turn of the circle for me. When we were kids in Southland we would fish dawn to dusk in shorts and sneakers. We saw Old Guys sitting in chairs fishing and we would say to each other, "Why don't those lazy old buggers get off their bums and fish properly like us?" We never stopped to think they might be invalids, which is exactly what I am today. But I am not an Old Guy. I am a HEEG, which is a Highly Experienced Elderly Gentleman, and it looks as if the chair will become a very necessary part of my tackle. And to think that I used to wade the Tongariro and other mighty rivers as if it was child's play. And so today here's my first fish caught from a chair, a jack with a surprisingly spear-shaped nose. It certainly chaired me up!

Had to get out of the water quickly this morning. Last I heard he was gobbling down stray dogs around the Ngongotaha sho...
04/06/2025

Had to get out of the water quickly this morning. Last I heard he was gobbling down stray dogs around the Ngongotaha shopping centre.

Emergency services have been called to Turangi by Fish & Game and the Conservation Department to deal with this dinosaur...
29/05/2025

Emergency services have been called to Turangi by Fish & Game and the Conservation Department to deal with this dinosaur, which has been plundering the flooded Tongariro River and gulping down thousands of trout as well as a few anglers. Choppers circling the beast with a vast net have been bashed into oblivion with one swipe of its mighty claws. It is not safe to visit Turangi at the moment but you'll be perfectly okay learning to flycast with me at Rotorua. We keep our dinosaurs locked in caves.

This rough-as-guts fly, tied months ago with my trembling arthritic fingers, did the damage for me yesterday when all el...
22/05/2025

This rough-as-guts fly, tied months ago with my trembling arthritic fingers, did the damage for me yesterday when all else failed on the first day of my winter season. I visited Lake Rotoma. Not many fish about. Spent half an hour nymphing for no bites and lost my trace in a tree. Had to be helped to shore by a kindly angler when my legs failed me on the rocky bottom. Arthritis is a bastard! Switched to a white b***y on a shooting head and waded the sandy beach to no avail. So I put on my size 14 Rainbow Bug pictured and got three in an hour. Made my day in the sun. Three-pounders, all released. Flies don't get more simple than this. Just a bit of black cotton, some sparkle thread, a dab of glue and the world of fish is yours. You don't need exotic, complicated flies to catch trout..

Time to start my winter fishing programme tomorrow after a month's layoff giving my creaking old body a l**e and oil cha...
20/05/2025

Time to start my winter fishing programme tomorrow after a month's layoff giving my creaking old body a l**e and oil change.. So where do I start? We are incredibly spoiled for choice in the Eastern Fish & Game spawning region. I'll probably go at dawn to Rotoma (pictured), one of my favourite spots early in the season, and follow up with later trips to Okareka, Tarawera Landing, the beach at Okataina, the Pipe at Rotoiti, Kennedy Bay at Rotoehu, Okaro below Rainbow Mountain, the upper Waiteti and Ngongotaha streams, and especially that wonderful Lake of the Wandering Spirits, Rerewhaakaitu, my favourite winter place to take beginners. And if the fishing proves to be poor in our region, well the mighty Taupo fishery is just down the road. And let's not forget the local pools around Ngongotaha village and Waiteti just a short walk from home. I hear that Kiwis fed up with rising costs are leaving the country in droves. I'm stayin' right here in my little house near the lake in the middle of the best trout-fishing region on the planet. Might see you out there!

I picked up this piece of discarded nylon with illegal bait-fishing hook on the walking track alongside the lower Waitet...
29/04/2025

I picked up this piece of discarded nylon with illegal bait-fishing hook on the walking track alongside the lower Waiteti stream at Rotorua today, one of several similar illegal rigs or handlines found hidden or discarded along the stream this year. The track is popular with children playing, often barefoot, and with dog-walkers. It is not difficult to see such a hook getting embedded in the face of a snuffling dog. Unfortunately it is usually an innocent pet, duck, swan or child that gets hooked, not the dick-brains who threw the line away. Have you ever seen wildlife entangled in fishing line, struggling feebly in pain and slowly dying? It is heartbreaking.

This group of enthusiastic, rising young anglers met yesterday to plan their winter campaign over a lunch in Eat Streat...
08/04/2025

This group of enthusiastic, rising young anglers met yesterday to plan their winter campaign over a lunch in Eat Streat, Rotorua. From left, Geoff Thomas, me, Ben Leslie, Dion James, Bert Robinson. Seldom has such an illustrious and youthful team been seen together.

More and more headless anglers around the world are popping up on Facebook. Yes, it is the fish we are mainly interested...
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.

The stream-mouth fishing at Rotorua is coming to an end as the weather and the lake cool. But just look at all these tro...
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.

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