New Zealand Trip Report

**Langenbeck** · 05-27-2007, 07:22 PM

Just returned from 14 days of trout fishing in the North Island of New Zealand. Base myself in Rotorua which is about three hours driving time southeast of Auckland. Here I concentrate on fishing the three lakes that can produce double digit rainbows: Lake Okitiana, Lake Tarawera and Lake Rotiiti. Occasionally fish some of the local streams for spawning fish.

This was the toughest year fishing in at least the last ten years for me. I attribute that to a very dry and mild fall. The water temperatures were higher than I had experienced before and there were reports of jiggers taking fish in very deep water during my stay. My guess is the bulk of the fish had not yet moved shoreward. Also the Rotorua area gets about 4-5 inches of rain in May. They have had very little rain during May and it only rained once during my stay.

This is an 8# rainbow from Lake Rotoiti

This is a 7# maiden fish from Lake Tarawera

This is a 5# rainbow from the Waititi Stream

Mt. Tarawera and Lake Tarawera just before sunrise.

This is a 7# rainbow from Lake Rotoiti

An early morning rainbow from my motel.

Yes I was fortunate enough to take a double digit fish. This fish with a condition factor of 52 at 70 cm in length would weigh 4.93 kilos or 10 pounds 14 ounces. This fish was taken at the Dump on Lake Rotoiti. This was my 12th double digit fish from the Rotorua area. All fish were taken on lumo smelt flies wade fishing at night except for the stream fish out of the Waititi.