/ TARGET TAUPO A newsletter for Hunters and Anglers in the Tongariro/Taupo Conservancy NOVEMBER 2003, ISSUE 44 Published by Taupo Fishery Area Department of Conservation Tongariro/Taupo Conservancy Private Bag, Turangi, New Zealand Telephone (07) 386 8607 Front cover: Trolling beneath the cliffsat Whanganui Bay, Lake Taupo. Photo: Brendon Matthews. ISSN 0114-5185 Production and advertising by Fish & Game New Zealand Contact Peter McIntosh: Telephone (09) 634 1800 Facsimile (09) 634 2948 CONTENTS Taupo Fishing DistrictMap .................... .................................................................3 Downriggers - down and di.rry or just fishing smarter? ........................ ....4 vy Jofm Gibbs Winter fishingmirrors 2002........... ............................................. .....................11 byGle1111 Maclean Tongariro ltiver tagging update ........... .......................................................................... 18 by Mal'k Vem,um and Rob Hood Tongariro River rescue ,..................................... ,................. .......20 by PetrinaFrancis Anglers numbers on'Jltupo rivers ..... ............ 22 vyGlenn Maclean Boating safely.................... ..............................................................................................24 by Rob Kirkwood Free sturuner lake angli.ogseminars ...................................... ...25 Women who just love fishing!.... .......................... 26 �' Petrina 1'rt111c1$ Compliance and 11w enforcement ................................................................................29 byDaveHa,-t Alf's big brown ............................. ............30 byRob MCIAJI Blue-Green algae in l.'\kcTau po - is it safe to cat trout? ................................. .............. 34 byDr Michel Oedua/ Fishing in Scotland ........................................................................................................ 38 byMark Vemna11 All in a day's work ..... by Glenn Maclean ....46 T/Je views expressed In \Vh.io- o,u wild water wonder ............................. ........................... ................... ........47 TargetTtmjJO are I/Jose of by Nie Etheridge t/Je contributors find do Exciting developments at theTongariro NationalTrout Centre .................................... 52 not ueccssm·ily reflect byPetrina Francis Depa,-1mem of Sonoma Creek - where it all began for New Zealand rainbow trout .... Conservation policy byDr Michel Oedua/ . .....54 Fish pain and angli.ogethics ....................................................................................... .. 56 vyDr Michel Dedual Organi.salions and A sustainable future for theTaupo catchment........................ ........................................60 agencies are welcome to byJ ennifer Parsons, Communications AdviSOI' 2020 Ta11po-11ul·a·T/a J)r/111 articles In an p 1111t1/lered/or111/rom Ibis Progress with lans to reduce nitrogen inUlkeTaupo ... ........61 byA-n gell11a Legg, Communicalions Consultant for Environment lVaikato p11bllcatlo11, providing Ji1/I ack11owledgeme111 is 'learn Profi.lc ............. ....................................................................................................62 given to /beDepartment ofCo11ser11atlon. Tbe pri11li11g of informat/011 /11 (111)' otber form requil'es tlJe e.>.1Jress pe.-mlsslon of tbe Consen:ato,; To11ga.-i.-o/laufJO Co11serva,1cJ� Depa,-tmentof Conservation, n,rangl. 2 Tongariro/Taupo Conservancy � I -N- �"Cr Conservancy Office WANGANUI 0 � � Conservancy Boundary 0 CON§ERVANCY Land Administered by DOC 0 10 / 20 30km 3 ! • • j ' .., . : • ,: .. : • ; I- '.1-l'l'J�J]:::::-:,:: �t:t�=� : ,: { � .. down and dirty or just fishing smarter'? n July last year issue 40) I from advances in the materials used in rods, by Jobn Gi/1bs (TargetTaupo wrote about various aspects of the tech· lines and lures. fly 6shers still wade, cast and nology of trolling for trout on Lake retrieve much as they aways have and in Jolm is /be 'liwpo Fisbe�y I J Taupo. I promised then to continue the much the same places. Boat fishing though A11?a1lfar1tJge, : He bas series with articles on the specifics of has undergone a huge evolution from the oar· .fisl>etl u,ke Taupo since dit'ferem trolling cechniques and in this one propelled clinker dinghy with a silk or cotton tbe 1950s mrd bis we will look at downriggcr fishing. line and large wet fly traili ng behind,seardl.ing :vorkl11g l1111olveme111 only the top few metres of the lake waters. witb 11,e fisbery goes Nowadays kayaks, dinghies, runabouts and back to t964. Jobn bas a Where it all started large launches built from all sorts of once­ pass/011/or 1/Je lake anti Trolling, or towinga lure fron1 a moving boat, exotic materia s pl)' the lake. With propul­ its ecologJ� ()11tespeci£,lly has been pare of the 'faupo fishing scene as l sion ranging from simple paddles to its trout long as trout have been present and chac·s electronically-controlled petrol and diesel about 100 years. Much of the early writing engines producing several hundred horse· focuses on fly fishing in the rivers and there power, dismnces have shrunk and au points are few accounts about trolling. However, in of the Jake are within reach of mosc day its various forms uomng is now the most anglers. These bOats provide platforms that commonly prJCtis<:d technique in the whole allow anglers the choice of using a wide fishery. 1l1e 1995/l996Taupo harvest survey range of gear to fishanywhere from the very showed that 53% of fishing efforc and 61% of surfacedown to 30 or 40 metres depth. the harvest was by trolling on the lake, with One disadvantage of this development is most of the remainder being ni• fish.ins in the that until recently, an angler wanting to rivers and around the lake shore. utilise au these opportunities had to have Arguably, trolling is also the method that has several different sets of gear, each one undergone the most change over the years. tailored ,o a specific depth range. Light Fl)' flsbing techniques as practised at Taupo harling rigs ,vith limber rods fish the surface have changed little in the la,;t century, apart 4 weight with a line release clip auached. 111e monoftlament line and lure from a light fishing rig is clipped into the release and the weight Jowered to the desired fishing depth. When a fish strikes the lure the line pulls free from A. Dow11,·iggcr the clip and the fish is played and 8. \Vire cable landed with the conventional CRod&reel gear (figure I). D.IVeiglJt Originally (and often still today) E.Release clip & cable downrigsing was thought of as a E Mo11ofl/1u11ent jisbing line deep trolling technique. However G. Dacron insert this only recognises one aspect of fl. Lure E H its abilities. In realityclownriggers offer the fucility for controlled depth fishing and this can just as Hgurc I: Diagram ofa five metres; lcadlincs and shorter, heavier readiJybe close tothe lake's smface a,;;down in typical downrigger set· rods get the lures down to 12-15 metres,and the depths. They have the added aclvontage that up. Tbe broken1/nes cumbersome wire lines mounted on real only a single set of gear (rod,reel and line) Ls sbow wbat /Jappens stump-pullers probe down to 30-40 metres. n<.-<.xtcd to fish all depths and this rig can be as w/Jen a trout pulls t})e TI1e genesis of a solutione mc.rg<..-x-1on the Great light and fun to use as you wish. line from t/Jerelease c:IJJ, 1.akcs of the US-Otnadian border in the late I 960s. Enterprising anglers, seeking ways to harvest the native Jake trout and e.xpanding The gear pop,tlations of introduced brownand rainbow Downrigg er trout and chinook salmon,developed a tech­ Oownrigser designs aremany and varied as the nique using a heavy weight on a separate cable photos show. Almost all have some kind of lO take a conventional monoftlamcnt fishing boom :md pulley arrangement to gu de cable line and lure into the depths of the lakes. i on and off the ,-ioragedrum and keep it dear of the boat's gunwales. Dnuns may bevertically or Coutrolled deptb fisl1i11.g horizontally al.igncd, hand-cranked or electri­ 11\e first downriggers have been re.fined into cally driven, direct drive or geared. Some have today's range of models and while the)' have figure 2: A sftmtlard swivelling bases ,vith locking dctcnts and most different design features they all employ the config111·ntlo11for line, have some kind of counter to show the Jengtl1 same fundamental principles. Basically a leader anti lure of cable paid out as well as a braking mecha­ downrigger is a winch rnotuned to 1he boat, n sm to arrest the weight when lhe desired spooled with a cable suspending a heavy i depth has been reached.·n,e size, Strength, cable capacity and user Im dacron features are strongly correlated with price and you can pa)' 4.5 - 6kg monojilament anything from $400 for a simple hand-cranked dinghy model to $3000+ for the latest atl-elcc· 6 - 50m mono main line tronic, automatic depth compen­ sating, full fruit and berries version. All that T have seenare made in the USA or Canada rellecting the origins of the tech­ nique. Downriggers arc best mounted swivel Lure, swivel,split ring, book well back on a vessel's gunwales within half a metre of the stern, or across the transom 1-5m - 3.6 kg 1110110 if there is sufficient clearance over outboard motors and 5 sternlegs. ·n,c main thing is to ensure the weights were available locally but are appar­ cable won•, foul 1he boat's sides,duckboards ently no longer made. We tested their or drive gear when turning. Likewise, it's performance