Trout Fishing on Lake Taupo – Day 301

Today we are going trout fishing on Lake Taupo which is a world class fishing lake.

This morning we are leaving Base hostel right in the city centre and we head straight for the local harbour. Despite me looking like a salmon, we are going trout fishing today.

It’s almost the case everywhere in New Zealand, as soon as you arrive somewhere the birds are already here and there’s no exception at the Taupo Harbour as we are waiting for our captain we are checking our a ton of different ducks and even some water hens.

But today we are not here for the birds we are here for the fishes. Today we are joining the team from Pinnacle Charters for a fishing trip around Lake Taupo. Our Captain today is going to be Richard. He has been fishing on Lake Taupo for a very long time in fact, he has been fishing in New Zealand for all his life so it’s needless to say he is a fishing expert and he will be able to share all his knowledge with us during this awesome tour.

There’s some trout right there and if you look a little bit higher, there’s some bait fish up here which is the snout.

Just let the rod do the work we do that we catch trout.

Alright Laura goes first.

Alright let’s get up and do some fishing.

As you can see Richard has some pretty fancy fishing gear and the type of fishing that we’re gonna be doing today is something called Champagne Fishing because it’s that easy you could be drinking champagne.

But the real word for it is trolling and that’s not to get confused with trolling on the Internet but basically a weight line is attached to the line of your rod lowered to your desired depth then the boat is moving around you don’t even touch the fishing rod you just wait for the tension on your rod to be released and that indicates that you’ve got a bite.

Once we’ve got a bite that means I can pick up the rod and start reeling in and sure enough we have our first rainbow trout of the day.

However there are a few fishing regulations on Lake Taupo to keep the fish population at a sustainable level and this one was a little bit too small for us to keep so we let it go.

Catch and release is a really popular way of fishing in New Zealand it’s all about the sport here. Or at least what Richard is telling us at least but I can understand why because oh my God fish are biting every second as soon as I put the rod in the water I already get something.

This one didn’t really put much of a fight so I successfully reeled it in really quickly but again it’s a really small one so we release it.

The rods are back into the water and in only a few seconds Laura already gets something else.

Lake Taupo is a massive reservoir of fish in fact it’s the largest lake in New Zealand and even more impressive, the lake is actually formed into the crater of the second largest volcano in the entire world. What about that for an epic place to fish?

Needless to say, Lake Taupo is a fisherman’s paradise you see us catching fish after fish after fish it only takes us minutes to move to different spots and start catching fish again plus Richard’s equipment is absolutely amazing champagne fishing is absolutely easy we literally let the rod do most of the stuff and as soon as something bites we then get the fun part of fishing happening.

And because with all those fancy rods we were not cheating enough Richard also has a fish finder it’s kind of a little radar that tells him where the fish are on the lake so we know where to get to get our next catch.

Got a fish for dinner! What am I gonna cook it with?

That last fish that we caught is a big one and Richard insisted that it would be an amazing trout to eat so we’re taking it back to our hostel and cook it up this evening. So we do exactly that and we are getting back onto the rods to see if we can catch ourselves another treat for tonight.

And sure enough, here comes another one. I’m getting really surprised at how quickly I’m getting the hang of this whole fishing thing. And Richard is helping with the net every time we’re taking the fish out of the water straight away and then we can hold the fish in our hands for that awesome Lake Taupo fishing shot.

And speaking of pictures, there’s actually loads of picture opportunities to take around Lake Taupo on this beautiful lake surrounded by a few cliffs covered in forest we’re even pretty close to the Maori rock carvings that are really famous on this lake so we’re gonna be getting a closer look at those later but for now it’s time for robin to have his turn on the fishing rod.

Now a quick note about the paperwork fishing in New Zealand usually requires a license it’s not necessarily super hard to get but going on a tour like this one with richard is making thing so much easier because the operator like Richard in that case, is taking care of the license for us making it a breeze we literally just have to show up catch our fish he’s even cleaning it for us, bagging it and then we’re ready to go back to our hostel and cook ourselves a treat.

And speaking of going back to our hostel, we are already starting to make our way back, we had an awesome time with Richard on Lake taupo which again is an amazing place to be. Look at this amazing carvings that we stop by on our way back.

this tour really feels like going on a trip with a mate going fishing with your best friend. Richard is a no-frills kind of guy so we’re having a really authentic Kiwi afternoon because yes, fishing is such an iconic Kiwi pastime.

And as we are leaving the boat the debate starts raging who is going to be cooking the catch?

So we’re going home with dinner for tonight. Robin is going to be cutting off the head and the tail.

You’re cooking.

I challenge anyone to actually do a good job filleting a fish with a blunt hostel knife this was the biggest challenge of the day but to be fair, the fish tastes absolutely amazing.

Despite the fact that I look like a salmon today we are going trout fishing.

We’re crossing here.

Oh, stop ruining my lines.