It was Sunday, 26 April 2021 when we arrived at the shores of Lake Rerewhakaaitu about 11 AM, 30 km from Rotorua. The southerly was blowing again. We checked out the reserve by the Mangakino Stream then drove around to the Bretts Road campsite. We opted to start in the stream as it was more protected from the wind. Being flat ground all along the lake, there did not appear to be much shelter.
I brought along a spinning rod and an old 7 weight with a slow sinker. I set that up with a good three rod lengths of six pound fluorocarbon tippet to do a bit of trolling on the lake. Dan had his six weight with floating line. Then I realised I forgot my six weight Sage that I use for casting. Oh well, Dan would target the edges today.
So Dan cast his way up the creek which was clear, fairly wide and had some deep holes amongst the weeds. He did miss a fish on our standard bead head krystal olive bugger, but that was about it. I pulled out the spinning rod and cast a silver spoon of some sort. I landed a nice rainbow and lost another. It was not a bad start.
We headed out onto the lake and got blown around. It did appear quite shallow along the edges with lots of weed. The lake itself looked to be quite low. It did not look promising for cruising fish on the edge. We tried finding areas near points and anchored where it got deeper and cast some flies. I cut back the leader on the slow sink line and cast a krystal olive jigging smelt; clearly, the bead head was not required with the sinking line. We found no joy. Even the spinner was not working.
After a couple of hours we went back to the boat ramp and had a chat with a dude on a kayak. He had landed 17 fish but all early before the wind came up. That's what you get for sleeping in.
We had lunch then moved down to the Bretts Road Campsite. We paddled and cast all along Awaatua Bay and beyond. We found a very shallow edge and no fish. The sun was setting, the wind was calming and we got back to a little point near the campsite. I located where the water got a bit deeper. It was just as you start to lose sight of the weeds below. I told Dan this was a place to catch a trout. Sure enough, I was hooked up in no time. Then it was pretty much fish after fish as we moved along the drop off in front of the camp ground. I even caught a tagged rainbow trout.
Dan hooked and landed a good rainbow with a wonky jaw. That was his only fish for the day. The bead head bugger on a floating line was just not getting deep enough. I am not real keen on fishing a sinking line if I do not have to. But on this lake on this day, it was required. Lesson learned on a new lake.
It was probably a good thing that I left my Sage with the floating line at home. It forced me to improvise.
