I decided to take Dan on a little adventure and test the edge fishing technique on some new water. I decided we should start with some of the smaller Rotorua Lakes so we headed for Waiotapu. I fished Lake Okaro from the shore like 20 years ago and caught plenty of fish. I remember using a soft plastic with a woolly bugger above, like a ledger rig. I have some recollection of going back there in the canoe and catching trout on the fly. I was saving this gem for evening as I was confident we would catch fish.
We headed to Lake Ngapouri on Waikite Valley Road. I once looked at this lake when my son, Beau, was at a Scout camp nearby. He is 18 and away at university so it had to be 10 years ago. Today we would test the waters. Like the others we will talk about, they are all stocked. It is a small lake and has a nice edge all the way around. The problem was that it got deep quickly in most places. When edge fishing with a woolly bugger and a floating line, it is all about covering the shallow edges quickly. I reckon if a fish can see your fly in shallow water, it will eat it. Casting into deep water is pretty random for me. Unless of course you see one rising. That was not likely to be an option today as the south westerlies were howling.
I paddled Dan around the right hand edge form the boat ramp starting around noon. It was not until we got to the far shore that we picked up a few fish. The wind was doing most of the work for us and I wish Dan had not decided to leave the anchor in the truck. We decided to get the anchor and drift that shore again. When we found a likely spot, we used the anchor to at least slow us down so we could get a couple of casts in before we were swept away. I think we hooked half a dozen fish and landed some of them. There were a lot of ducks and almost as many mai mais (duck blinds).
Next was Lake Ngaewa located right on SH5. Anyone travelling Rotorua to Taupo has seen it many times. The wind was blowing still and we decided to just do a quick paddle around the edge while Dan cast. It did not feel good. The water seemed quite black. I imagined a muddy bottom and could see no weed beds poking out. Dan raised a tiddler as we got to the southern end and mostly out of the wind. Then he went in the penalty box for a bad cast into a tree. I managed to hook and land a small rainbow almost all the way back around to where we started from. That was enough. I will give that lake a miss next time.
Lake Okaro was windy but we set off with Dan casting to the edge. We made it all the way around the lake without a single strike. I could not believe it. Dan cast to a rising fish just on dark but could not get in front of it. It is a little annoying but, oh well, that is fishing.
I really want to go and try all of the Rotorua Lakes now and report back. Rerewhakaaitu is next on the list. We will try to hit them all but duck season is looming and there are many rivers to jump shoot.
