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Lake Ohakuri Trout Fishing

As the last of the typical Waikato Hydro Lakes on our list before Taupo, Lake Ohakuri was time for another overnighter. Upstream from our last excursion to Atiamuri. In typical Trout Tickler fashion we ignored the forecast and put the boats in the water not long before dark and anchored up slightly upstream of the geothermal attraction Orakei Korako....

Lake Atiamuri Trout Fishing

Nearly a year after our trip to Whakamaru, we were on our way to the next Lake. After some very early breakfast from Tokoroa McDonalds, we pulled into the carpark at the boat ramp for our Atiamuri day trip. Out in the Lake we could see a regular series of splashes, swirls and bow waves that looked promising. As we slowly motored out to where we'd seen the splashes, we proceeded to fish a mix of different flies but with no success. The splashes told us there were fish there but we couldn't get a ...

Lake Whakamaru Trout Fishing

This was our second overnight mission and the next Lake after Maraetai. We arrived at the boat ramp at dusk and it started absolutely pelting down with rain. One of the boats has a really nice rain cover system but Dukes of Hazzard skipper Kingy fashioned a refugee shanty out of sticks and a blue tarp. As we slowly motored out into the darkness, we wondered what our next instalment of the Hydro Explorer Tour would have in store. Needless to say, the spotlight was pointed at the floating shanty f...

Lake Maraetai Trout Fishing

After a successful trip to Waipapa, we decided to stay the night on the boat, for the first of our overnight missions. This time we had just the one fibreglass boat and slept 4 lads in it. We didn't get any fish the first night but we enjoyed some delicious beef cheek stew from Chef Mazzer. Hot food is great when you're staying on a boat in Mangakino in May!...

Lake Waipapa Trout Fishing

The boat ramp on Waipapa is just up from the Waipapa Dam at the bottom of the Lake, with Lake Arapuni below that. The fact that there's no carpark at the boat ramp suggests it doesn't get much fishing pressure. From what we'd read, we could expect small rainbows and a chance at some 4kg browns....

Lake Arapuni Trout Fishing

After our success at Lake Karapiro, we again focussed on the faster moving water at the top of the Lake but this time we ditched the tinny's and went with a larger fibreglass boat that we could all fit on. With comfortable padded seats, this was definitely an upgrade from the tinny's!...

Lake Karapiro Trout Fishing

As Cambridge locals, we had been on Lake Karapiro many times before – house boating, wakeboarding and a few failed attempts at shoreline fishing. With a range of experience in the crew from saltwater bait fishing to small stream fly fishing, we were all still water fishing noobs – and it showed, by failing to get any fish to the boat on this maiden trip. However, we followed things up with a much more successful Karapiro Part 2....