Lake Otamangakau

Trophy Trout Fishing
The Big O

The Big O, or Lake Otamangakau as the map will show it, has a special memory for me as it was the place I caught my first legal trout. I had visited it once before in the company of that trout fishing fanatic – Austin Harris, who showed me how and where to nymph the inlet canal. Harris was well-known around Turangi for the things he got up to in the pursuit of the real big one. His most infamous trick was to park under the road bridge over the Tokaanu outlet canal and then proceed to undress down to his Tuku Morgans. Anyone looking on could be excused at thinking Harris was doing a ‘Reggie Perrin’ and was about to end it all. But instead of that, he would enter the water holding his clothes and rod over his head and proceed to dog-paddle to the middle pier of the bridge 50 metres away. The current here is not fierce but it is still a pretty good effort using only one arm. He would then climb on the base of the pier, dress and proceed to hook the huge trout that fed on the chopped-up food coming down from the powerhouse turbines. Of course he only landed those fish that chose to cooperate as his options of following the fish down the canal were rather limited – zilch in fact. Still he always ended up with a fish or two as well as a story about the huge one he had not been able to convince to come back upcurrent.
These expeditions went well for some time until he was persuaded by a nephew to take him to ‘a real good’ spot. Having checked that the 16-year-old could swim, they launched themselves into the cold waters of the canal. It was not too long before Austin realised that the nephew’s assessment of his swimming abilities was somewhat overrated. Austin was forced to cast his rod and clothes aside to rescue the struggling youth and drag him to the shore. Needless to say, future expeditions never included company again! But I digress…..

Read the rest of the chapter in Ron's new ebook Troutfishing New Zealand here