Graeme Christie | Tuesday, 1 September 2026
New Zealand is stuck in a weather pattern at the moment. Cooler, and windier than our usual conditions. Not much rain either, for a lot of the country. Once again snowing on the central North Island mountains adjacent to Lake Taupo. Given Taupo sits at 400m above sea level, it's cool.
Mixing life with fishing is a challenge. I try to make my chances. My daughter had football at one of my favourite fishing spots, so I drove down early. Heavy winds, but on a big lake there is always a shore where the wind is behind you and the casting is easier. Taupō is New Zealand's biggest lake, and after three days of wind the waves on the beach were substantial by lake standards. I avoided those. But they gave me a thought, which I filed away to test later.
I finished the day's work and hit the road. Late, but thinking I'd fish the night anyway. A local expert had written that the river mouths are off their best right now. Fair enough. It was still my best option for the evening, so I set the rods up in the failing light, prep not ideal, and walked twenty minutes into the dark. I don't know about others, but I struggle to finalise what I'll need until I'm actually standing at the spot.
The lake was low at the mouth. A cool dry winter has no doubt led to a draw on the lake to provide hydroelectric power downstream. Mercury's chart read 356.46, about the middle of the operating range. It felt lower standing there in the dark. I set up the HT 7wt with a floating line, a 15 foot leader and one of Ronan's woolly buggers, then waded out to find the drop off. Which is its own risk at night. Casting in the dark is done on feel. You can't see the loop, so the park hours have to do the seeing. Pretty soon I was into a lively fish. Landed!! Two to three pounds. Reward for the effort.
I fished on but nothing came, so I changed to the intermediate and a lumo woolly bugger. Often a favourite. Even as the glow dims, the bigger cruising browns that patrol these mouths will take it. I gave it a proper go. Not a nudge.
Depth is always part of the thinking on approach to a river mouth. Whatever you are fishing is best on the bottom, so I went to the SA sink 5 tip line and a lumo orange booby. The hope is that the line slides along the bottom while the booby bobs up and down above it, catching the eye of something passing. Fairly quickly I had one on. It shook the hook. Then a patch of bites. Nothing stuck. By now it was late and the rain had arrived. The night was heading for four degrees. A thirty minute walk and a drive sat between me and my bed. Sleep won.
Some days later, late in the afternoon, the wind was howling in with no respite. A westerly gusting to 90 km/h. But it was blowing along the lake shore, straight along the mouths. Time to test the theory from the football trip. The waves had other ideas, breaking right across the water I wanted to fish. I got a line in anyway and gave it a fair go. Not a touch. The theory survives for the next time I'm down in heavy westerly winds.
One fish for two lake missions. I think the expert may have a point about the mouths. But spring is here now and I am enjoying the lake fishing at present. Although the word is the rivers do have high levels of fish up them, either fresh chrome fish from the lake, or spawned fish dropping back. I'll look forward to testing these theories again, hopefully in calmer wind conditions and soon!
Tight lines to you all.