Thread: Waikato river.

Does anyone fish the river around Hamilton - Cambridge ?
15-20 years ago I used too get good numbers ( a strike every 20 min on a good day ) because I was out fishing alot.
Im starting too get out more lately (last month or so ) since I sold the racer and built a new boat .
Heres what ive found so far as best as I can remember
1.5 hr trolling between horotu bridge and pukete -2 small browns.
around pukete ramp tried 5 or 6 times - average a fish every hour all browns
south of narrows ramp can really go off , tried a dozen times and average a fish every 20 -30 miniutes . All browns but was a dead rainbow at the ramp
Fished between Cambridge and the dam , boat ramp full of sand , not good for large boat .
boated 2 rainbows in the first 10 miniutes then 2 more strikes over the next 2 hrs.
Im out all the time so pm if your local and want too come along or any tips.
Im just dragging a toby and ball sinker on my spinning rod , but also use a little boat rod with 5 colours of lead line .
If anyone else can add too this please do.

Welcome to the forum Mohawk. Good to see you having success

Thank Rushy.
Also for those who didn't realise they have started realeasing rainbows at Cambridge again .
They also released a heap of them in Hamilton and pretty much lost the lot , so if anyone comes across a taged rainbow please let F&G know because they will probably never do it again.
( will probably try the narrows again today ).. Will tryu post some pics later.

better off going to lake arapuni and lake karapiro IMHO

You could well be right . Ive spent more time fishing arapuni and the top of karapiro over the years than anywhere else , but when they used too release fish at Cambridge it was as good or better than either.
But then I was asking for info and reports on the Waikato river !!!! .

Last I heard of the river below karapiro it had a koi carp problem dunno if they are still there or not

I spend allot of time spearing koi aswell , it seems there are a lot less lately but until sumer comes its hard too tell .
I don't think they have any effect on the trout though ???
We caught a good size turtle in the landing net last year too , there are quite afew starting too show up through town.

Do you try other lures or just the toby?

Originally Posted by Toby

Do you try other lures or just the toby?

A good Toby is bloody hard to find. Ha ha ha ha

Big black toby with a green lightnng bolt works all year round.
I like too stick with one lure and look at depth , speed and other factors if im haveing a slow day.