ROTORUA ANGLERS ASSOCIATION February 2015 1 Bryan Taylor Tukituki River Caption This Competition. 2 EXECUTIVE & COMMITTEE These are the new office bearers and committee elected at the AGM for the coming year. Welcome to the newcomers and thanks to the incumbents for supporting the club once again. (Area code for Rotorua is 07) PATRON PRESIDENT VICE-PRESIDENT SECRETARY TREASURER CLUB CAPTAIN Joe Fleet Larry Ware Nigel Wilkinson Charlotte Wilkinson Wade Fleet Piet Otto 347 8661 348 0388 349 0336 349 0336 345 9913 350 2200 COMMITTEE Terry Wood Gavin Corbett Dave Parr Tanya Stern Wayne Woodward 345 5587 357 5247 348 3255 357 2573 357 2573 WEBSITE WEBMASTER NEWSLETTER CO- EDITORS TROPHY MASTER Eddie Bowman Carol Field Jenny Hilton Neal Hawes 348 5652 345 9534 343 1331 348 1734 SUB-COMMITTEES (Conveners) KIDS’ FISHOUT A-Z SCHOOL ACTIVITIES (Trips) Terry Wood Wayne Woodward Larry Ware 345 5587 357 2573 348 0388 SOCIAL LIBRARY BUILDING Piet Otto Tanya Stern Terry Wood 350 2200 357 2573 345 5587 All official email communication please send to [email protected] and the Secretary will forward it on to the relevant person. Please feel free to contact any of the above if you have any queries, comments or items you may like to discuss. Larry Ware President 3 PRESIDENTS REPORT I welcome you all to 2015 and I hope you and yours all had a great Christmas and New Year and at least some of you got some fishing in. It was great to see so many of you at the club rooms last Friday -the first club night of the New Year. You will notice a change with the magazine , after many many years (16 he reckons) Roger Bowden has decided to hang up his editors mantle and take up even more fishing, it is with regret that he has also decided to relinquish the Fly Tying nights each month as well. Roger has put a massive amount of his personal time into the club over the years and for that I personally thank him and also on behalf of the club members - thanks Roger. A consortium is going to attempt to put the magazine together now -co editors will be Carol Field and Jenny Hilton who will seek out and co-ordinate input for the magazine and cover distribution of the finished product and my company -Art City, will do the physical layup, and as always Advocate Print will do the final production. As Roger pointed out many many times the magazine can only be as interesting as you make it -if there is no input from you and your fellow club members well ????? we leave that up to you, so please a few words and a couple of photos of your fishing / travelling escapades each month is not a lot to ask from you. It is much more entertaining to read about your fellow RAA members than articles gleaned from the internet and other club magazines. The Summer trip scene gets underway on the 18th with a day at Hamurana Stream with a BBQ late afternoon ( also Club Captain Piet Ottos birthday) and then in February it is all go with out of town trips to Lake Otamangakau and the Mohaka River , followed in March and April with the Ohope sea trip and then the Tukituki River, please let the trip convenors know ASAP if you plan on participating. We hope to have the alterations to the clubrooms completed before winter so keep an eye out for the various working bees -Woody 1 to co-ordinate. There are no designated Rotorua District Trip locations -just dates -so we can be fluid where we go, please check the dates allocated and put your hand up and convene a trip to your favourite spot. Let us work together to make 2015 another great year for the Rotorua Anglers Association, please let the Committee members know what you want. Cheers and have a great 2015 Larry el Presidente 4 DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR Many of you will remember the old joke about the bloke who was talking to his mate about the Swiss F1 driver who suffered serious burns to his whole body around 25 years ago. It went something like “What was the name of that F1 driver who got seriously burned?” His mate answered “lauder”. So the question was asked again “WHAT WAS THE NAME OF THE F1 DRIVER WHO GOT SERIOUS BURNED?” his mate answered, “LAUDER”!; WHAT WAS THE NAME OF THE F1 DRIVER WHO GOT SERIOUSLY BURNED ???; his mate shouted ”LAUDER YOU DEAF PRICK” ! Well there were Han Hofstee and I. A beautiful sunny day on the Mohaka River. We’d fished a few places and decided to go and have a look at the area surrounding the McVicars Bridge. On getting out of the car I looked down to find a beautiful Simms clipper including its retractor that some poor sod had lost on a previous trip, remember that god still owes me for 2 lost fly boxes. A nice win to me. We walked over to the centre of the bridge for a look and low and behold below us we saw every fisherman’s dream. Imagine this; a rugby field with a line drawn across it from the top right hand corner to the bottom left hand corner. That was the scene below us except that the left hand portion of the picture in your mind was a gravel shelf with approximately 15cm of water flowing briskly over it and flowing left to right. The line from top to bottom was the edge of a brilliant drop off into very deep water and right on the edge of the drop off was a Big (5lb +) Brown Trout happily feeding and contemptuously oblivious to our presence. OMG ! Let’s go. Han, being who I thought was a consummate gentleman offered me the opportunity to cast to this fish while he stood on the bridge around 15 metres above to direct my cast. And we communicated via hand held radios. First cast; “That’s good but a bit short move up a bit” “Bastard” WHAT ????? Was he talking to me or making some derogatory comment about the fish’s refusal to take my nymph? Given the cast was short and out of the fish’s sight I can only assume that he meant it as a reflection on my parenthood. Oh well, being a forgiving fellow and making allowances for Han’s now apparent frustration at letting me have ago at the fish instead of himself, I let it go. Second cast; “Perfect” “Bastard”. Now hold up a minute !!!!! That had to be a comment directed at the fish surely. I said nothing. Third cast; “Perfect, that’s right on him” “Bastard”. Now enough is enough. I turned and looked up at my friend and said WTF (and that’s not welcome to facebook) what was I doing wrong. Why are you calling me a bastard? He answered, “I’m not, but when you’re Bastard, I’m letting you know so you can cast again”. What the? CLICK ! Oh you mean “PAST IT”, Of course he replied. Oh I said I thought you said.......oh nothing doesn’t matter! We threw many more casts at the fish and changed flies many times but alas he remains there on the edge of that drop off for some other poor “past it” to have a go at ! Woody2 5 COMING EVENTS February -April 2015 February: 2nd 13-15 27-28-1st March: 1st 2nd 22nd 27-29 April: 6th 10-12 19 Fly Tying at Clubrooms Lake Otamangakau 2 nights Mohaka River Trip 2 nights Convenor Nigel Wilkinson Convenor Larry Ware Mohaka River Trip Fly Tying at Clubrooms Rotorua District day trip Ohope Sea Trip 2 nights Convenor Nigel Wilkinson Fly Tying at Clubrooms Tukituki River trip 2 nights Rotorua District day trip 6 Convenor Larry Ware Club Trip Lake Otamangakau Feb 13th to 15th Our annual trip to Lake Otamangakau is scheduled to take place (as always weather permitting) on the above weekend. I have booked basic twin cabin accommodation at the Tongariro Holiday Park which is only a 5 minute drive from the lake slipway. These basic cabins are $60 per night for 2 people. Other cabins are available which may be of particular interest for married couples. Ensuite cabins have queen beds & bathrooms and are $90 per night for 2 people. As in the basic cabins, pillows & mattress protectors are provided (provide other bedding yourselves). Cooking facilities are in the communal kitchen area. If you would like to know more about the site use the following link: www.thp.co.nz/tongariro-holiday-park/tongariro-national-park/ holiday-park-facilities From previous experience it is a good idea to make sure you have sufficient cooking & eating utensils of your own as, unfortunately, items have been taken from the kitchen in the past. Make sure that you bring enough food (& drink) for the whole weekend as I believe the cafeteria next to the site is still closed. Traditionally we have had a BBQ on the Saturday evening (there is a BBQ next to the kitchen) & the club will provide meat again this year, bring along salads / veges / desserts to share. As for the fishing, firstly make sure you have a variety of clothing to cope with potentially, very warm, cold, windy or very wet weather. The location has the potential for any combination over the entire weekend and those of us who have fished here over the years will no doubt confirm the truth of that statement. With regard to gear, take all sorts of flies (wet, dry, nymphs, woolly buggers etc). Fly tying before this trip for the last 2 years has focused on tying cicada patterns & guess which particular insect did not make an appearance? In all seriousness however, you should include these in your armoury as if they do come out when we are there the trout will be onto them. Be prepared, this lake can be hard fishing, but the rewards can be some large hard fighting browns & rainbows. 7 Please be aware that shore fishing is very limited on this lake. Very Important: You will need a Taupo Fishing Licence from the Department of Conservation. You may have seen in the press that there have been issues with regard to their ‘online’ processing of applications. I believe you can obtain these from The Outdoorsman as well as Hunting & Fishing here in Rotorua. For those who have not made contact with me regarding a place on this trip, do so as soon as possible please as I need to know numbers for finalizing accommodation & purchasing meat for the BBQ. Send an email for preference, (don’t rely on my memory with a ‘maybe’ in the bar on Friday nights!) or name on the board. Those of you who are intending to live in your motor homes / camping please make any bookings direct with the Tongariro Holiday Park Tel: 07 386 8062 yourselves. Please make sure you let me know too for the BBQ on Saturday night. My contact details: Tel: 07 349 0336 or 027 3055155 Email: [email protected] If you have any queries regarding the trip please feel free to make contact. Regards: Nigel Wilkinson, Convenor. 8 LAKE NGAPOURI Same Date, Same Place, Different Year At the beginning of 2014 Nigel and I spent many a day on Lake Ngapouri, avoiding the crowded bigger lakes, and mostly having the lake to ourselves. The fish were not quite jumping into the boat and on the 3rd January 2014 Nigel had caught 13 fish and I caught 6 fish in about 3 hours. So it was with great expectations we returned to the lake on 3rd January 2015. Dave and Carol joined us with their new Smartwave boat. The weather was perfect, just like last year and the fish finder showed plenty of fish BUT for some reason this year they just didn’t want to be caught. The tactics used last year was a green wooly bugger and a fast sinking line, letting the line sink to the bottom and then a very slow retrieve (as noted in my fishing diary). The same tactic did eventually work and I caught two in fairly quick succession but only succeeded in getting one of them to the boat. David and Carol had been using floating lines but I shared the secret with David and he also eventually caught a fish – the first for his new boat. Over the few hours we were out I hooked four but succeeded in only getting one to the boat. Nigel hooked one and lost it and David hooked two and got one to the boat. How can one year be so different to the previous? Someone has told me it is all to do with the phase of the moon, someone else has said it is the late start to summer but actually it really doesn’t matter. Just getting out there and enjoying the fishing, the scenery and the company is what matters. 9 AGE NO BARRIER It was always going to be a challenge. Alf wouldn’t see seventy again, but he was determined to re learn the art of fly casting. His motivation was Dan, his son , who had emailed to say that he would be flying in from Perth,and wanted to spend a few weeks fly fishing with his dad.. A chance to relive the fishing adventures of father and son, all those years ago. The problem was that Alf hadn’t touched a fly rod for at least three decades, and the wear and tear of advancing years was evident in the weakened right arm that he held close to his body. But, the desire was there. Alf was convinced he could master the skill required and I knew that if he could cast the line a mere twenty feet or so, he had a chance of catching a brown trout from the Buller river. We headed down to the classroom that the locals laughingly called a boat ramp. It was little more than a track ,carved between the foliage that lined the banks of the river, but it did provide a rarity on that part of the Buller . A relatively gentle stretch of water and a clear casting space behind for the novice angler. Alf waded out knee deep and the lessons began. The focus was on the two techniques basic to all fly fishing, the overhead and the roll cast.. Alf was an eager student, but he endured the frustration of all beginners. First the forward cast falling in a heap at his feet, and then the mirror image as it collapsed on the back cast. His early attempts to generate more power created that classic whip crack sound as he hurried the forward cast , and his language bore testament to his impatience. Timing, I counselled, wait for the rod to load His ageing body denied him the flexibility to twist and observe his backcast. He had to rely on feel, touch, instinct. That certain feeling when he knew that the rod had loaded and the power was there for the forward cast. Learned behaviour, latent memories of a younger Alf fishing thirty years ago. 10 We spent the best part of an hour there, wading about and thrashing the water with the good ,the bad and the down right ugly attempts at casting. Alf was managing to get a modest length of flyline out, so I thought to end the lesson with a demonstration of how to mend the line up stream. An essential skill that he would need to master if he wanted to keep his fly in a dead drift. My own rod was handy, fully rigged from a previous session nymph fishing. I flicked out a quick cast and as the fly line began to bow ahead of the following leader, I executed a quick mend. Almost immediately, the indictor dipped and the weight went on. I quickly got the line on the reel and under control ,and then passed the rod over to Alf. A few minutes of fumbling excitement, and he had a well conditioned brown of about two pound or so in the net. Now the question is, had that fish been there all the time that Alf was practising without a fly attached to his tippet, or had it just arrived within the last few minutes? Whatever the answer, Alf was most impressed and had a story to share with his son. Gavin Corbett A BIG Thumbs up to those members who have responded to the call for articles for our Magazine!!!! Come in store for Airflo Fly Fishing Combos starting from $149.00 and a new range of Pat Swift neck capes. Darryn and Janine Simpson 1113 Eruaera Street, Rotorua, New Zealand PH/Fax: 07 346 0178 E: okeefesfishnz.co.nz Check out the website for details of the Fish of the month competition! 10% RAA member discount with membership card. 11 MONTHLY FLY TYING NIGHTS After too many Monday nights at the Club Rooms Roger Bowden has decided to call it a day and pass the fly tying mantle on to someone else. We would love for one person to step up and take over organising the classes for the period February to December but if not can you handle just 1-2 nights thru the year. Wayne Woodward (Woody 2) will cover the first night in February. For those that attend regularly why don’t you pick a fly -get the instructions together -and have a group tying session helping each other , tie the flies you really want to tie (or try to tie at least). If you can /will help please let us know. Larry. Bring Your RAA member’s card and receive 10% off your purchase! New Instore! New Zealand Made Strike Tool. $19.90 6 Tarawera Road Rotorua P: 07 345 9333 OPEN 7 DAYS New Zealand’s Greatest Outdoor Outfitters 12 Ray Punter on Lake Rotoiti 31.12.14 .3.39kg 7.8lb. 61.5cm. First ever Brown Trout he has caught in Lake Rotoiti. Fish of the month for October was Chris Taylor. Brown jack caught at Ohau Channel 3.66kg, 70cm, CF 38.55 No entries in November, so no FOTM Only two entries in December. FOTM Ray Punter. Brown Jack caught L. Rotoiti. 3.39kg, 61.5cm, CF 52.65. Will drop the photo in to you. There have been a total of only 16 entries so far this club year (6 months!) Can we please have for more entries over the next 6 months , as so few enter anything caught has a great chance of winning Regards Neal Trophy Master Fishing Joke The rain was pouring and there was a big puddle in front of the pub. A ragged old man was standing there with a rod and hanging a string into the puddle. A tipsy-looking, curious gentleman came over to him and asked what he was doing. ‘Fishing,’ the old man said simply. ‘Poor old fool,’ the gentleman thought and he invited the ragged old man to a drink in the pub. As he felt he should start some conversation while they were sipping their whisky, The gentleman asked, ‘And how many have you caught?’ ‘You’re the eighth,’ the old man answered. 13 TROPHY REGISTRATIONS Trophy Registration: Forms available below. (At Clubrooms) Complete & place in YELLOW folder (at Clubrooms) or if you have a computer scanner, scan your form & email to: [email protected] or post to : Neal Hawes 35 Icarus Place, Rotorua 3015. If you take a digital picture of your trophy, indicate on your form & email it to me also. Club Trophies 2013-2014 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Hamills Sports Trophy – Heaviest Rainbow trout – caught by Male Senior member. Richard Randall Memorial Trophy – Heaviest Rainbow trout - caught by a Lady member. Jack Bell Memorial Trophy – Best c/f Rainbow trout – caught by Male Senior member. Doug Lynch Memorial trophy – Best c/f Rainbow trout - caught by a Lady member. Jack England Cup – Heaviest Brown trout – caught by Male Senior member. Maureen Doherty Memorial Cup – Heaviest Brown trout – caught by Lady member. Dave Ellery Trophy – Best c/f Brown Trout - caught by Male Senior member. Wyn Johnson Memorial Trophy – Best c/f Brown trout – caught by Lady member. Kilwell Prize – Heaviest trout (Brown or Rainbow) - caught by a Junior member. Honey McGregor Trophy – Best c/f Rainbow trout - caught by a Junior member. Gerry Watt Memorial Trophy – Best c/f Brown trout caught by a Junior member. Presidents Cup – Heaviest trout caught overall (judged from winners of 1,2,5,6 & 9 above) Beamish White Trophy & Honours Board – Best c/f trout overall (judged from 3,4,7,8,10 & 11) Ces Taylor Cup – Highest aggregate c/f for bag of 4 trout caught on 1 day (inc.catch & release) O’Keefes Cup – Heaviest trout caught on a club trip. Westpac Trophy – Heaviest trout caught out of the district & not on a club trip. Ken Nairn Memorial Trophy - Heaviest trout caught on lightest line (any member). Bas Jackson Memorial Trophy – Best Newsletter Article Stephen Hutton Memorial Trophy – Most sporting Junior angler of the year Art City Photo Award – Photo of the year 14 OFFICIAL WEIGHMASTERS O’Keefe’s Fishing Depot. Outdoorsman HQ. Neal Hawes. Roger Bowden. John McCarron. Terry Wood. Eddie Bowman. 1113 Eruera Street. Tarawera Road. 35 Icarus Place. 3 Rostrevor Place. 53 Rimuvale Street. 6a Holden Ave. 34 Westbourne Ave. 3460178 3459333 0272755012 3487816 3461967 3455587 3485652 IF POSSIBLE PLEASE PHONE BEFOREHAND FISH OF THE MONTH wins a $10 voucher sponsored by Hamills Don’t forget to weigh in your fish! Weighmasters are listed above or you can weigh your fish on registered scales with a witness. Scales can be checked and registered at the Clubrooms on Friday nights. You can even weigh and release your fish. Trophymaster Neal Hawes Sponsors of ’Trout of the Month’ Come in and meet our Manager Brad Hill who is also our Surfcasting specialist. 10% RAA members discount with membership card, excluding items that are already on a special price. 15 Brief Visit to the Waipunga On 2nd January 2015 Larry & I agreed to pay a brief day visit to the Waipunga & duly set off at 7 a.m. from Rotorua. We intended to fish upstream from its confluence with the Mohaka. Including a brief coffee stop we parked up at the bottom of Jock Sutton Road at about 9.40 a.m. in bright sunshine but unfortunately with an at times stiffish breeze downstream. Those of you familiar with the location will know that to get to the Waipunga involves wading across the Mohaka River first of all. The confluence is marked by a deep pool with strong currents and eddies necessitating heavy nymphs to have any chance at all of getting down deep. We got off to a good start here as I was fortunate to hook into a rainbow of about 3 lbs in a fast run just above and Larry got into a couple in the fast water below the pool. We then moved on up into the Waipunga itself proper. Those of you who have fished this location will know for that for approximately the first 250 metres or so, dense vegetation on either side confines you to walking up the river itself which on this occasion brought about the immediate realization that the river level was somewhat higher than was the case on both my 2 previous visits. Larry and I had decided that we would wet wade on this particular day. Fortunately being quite long legged I was able to avoid major discomfort (cannot say the same for my mobile phone) for the rest of the day – but only just! I will leave the reader to follow any logical extensions of that particular statement which may just have occurred and you may take the responsibility for your own thought processes. Eventually we were able to step out onto dry land which immediately provided evidence that few if any people had been through the area recently. The river involved a number of crossings because of the confined state of the valley, density of vegetation and periodically having to walk upstream again in the river bed itself. Generally the crossings were made in the shallow areas with gravel or small stones making for secure footing. However the river also has significant boulders and rocks in it making good wading boots and a wading stick a must. We spotted a number of fish including one which was, because of the complexity of the currents and the depth, impossible to get a nymph too – we tried, both on our way upstream and on the return journey. It was certainly the biggest fish we saw that day. Further upstream the highlight for me was when I managed to entice a 4lb 16 rainbow to take a Copper John which was duly landed and weighed. Otherwise we both had something of a frustrating day by hooking and missing a few more. However, despite that I do enjoy this river and will return again soon – certainly on the Mohaka River trip at the end of February, if not before. As for the one we couldn’t get to – next time I think I will try a large dry fly and instead of my trying to get the fly to him, I’ll try and get him to come to the fly. Nigel Wilkinson I wanted to do this trip to see how long it would take to get to the Mohaka, in a reasonable car driving legally you could be fishing above the main road bridge in 2 hours, and the Waipunga in 21/2 hours -so a day trip is perfectly feasible. This trip the river level and current flow was right on my “comfortable “ limit, the level was mostly knee deep but the current flow due to the physical drop was very strong-good boots and wading stick are essential to a safe crossing ; no fish is worth a life. I am looking forward to the Feb/March trip when the blackberries will be ripe. The Summit cafe is once again open with new owners. Larry With QCard Located at Rotorua Trade Central 17 RESIDENTS FISHING TRIP Woody hosted residents from the Malyon House Rest Home in Te Puke in late November Thank you once again for yesterday. The Residents are still chatting about it and I’ve printed out all their photographs to remind them of the visit. Here are the ones which Sarah has asked me to send you. I asked Robyn to write a few words, so this is from Robyn: “Malyon House Resthome Residents from Te puke spent the day at Ngongotaha Trout Hatchery recently. Thanks to the team of volunteers, all the Residents fished and caught their own trout, bringi9ng back memories for many of earlier times spent fishing. The biggest catch of the day was bagged by Tai Neketai, a 66 year old resident who moved into Malyon House earlier this year. This was Tai’s first time trout fishing and he said the only fishing he had done was for whitebait. Tai is looking forward to catching another one next year. Also awarded certificates for the day were 89 year old Jean Mole with her first trout and Jean Lamberth, who was so excited with the first fish she had ever caught in her life, went back and caught two more! A big thank you from Malyon House in Te Puke to all those who made the day so enjoyable and left us with new memories to share and lots of fishing stories to tell” Thanks again for your time and effort and hope this is not too early to wish you all Compliments of the Season and hope next year will be a good one. Kind regards: Thelma, Robyn and Sarah 18 19 A TO Z SCHOOL 20