Sand Pool

2011 Pool Rating revised by fishing guide Andrew Christmas for Pool Rating Chart.

Pool Rating 12 (out of 20) Reduced from 2009 rating of 14.  Looks great but does not live up to its promise…

(Fantastic photos all taken in late January 2009 by TRM’s unofficial photographer…)

(Above – 2007 Googled Aerial with Sand Pool located on extreme right hand corner flowing to North/west,)

Access

Go to the Blue Pool car park.>
(Photo right – Buses and trailers are for the rafts which land at the Blue Pool after the trip down the upper gorges.  This is about 10 km from TRM – 8 km to the Poutu Bridge, turn sharp left into Justice
Department access, after 1 km take right fork. For ladies, it also contains a DoC longdrop Loo.) Path leaves from behind the hut, follows the river up to the Sand Pool, where it then turns hard
right, and the only thing up there is the Fence Pool.

Pool rating

Sand Pool

Often photographed, a pleasure to fish. In the motel, there is a photo of an angler up to his waist in the Sand – gin-clear water.  The river crashes down from what used to be the Whitikau, and smashes into the
cliff. In days of yor, when men were men, we fished it from the other bank, and getting down that cliff was ”an interesting exercise”. It involved grabbing tree branches (a convenient kanuka) and climbing down the tree to the pool. It often involved a rifle as well, for pigs and deer, but that’s another story.  There have been no major changes since 2008 summer, although the near (TLH) bank is silted and gravelled up, pushing the main flow across to the far side. Tail of the pool is much
as normal, and fishes well.

Fishing

In general, the fish move quickly once they’ve spotted you, and they do in the very clear water. Wading is easy – across until the far bank is in range, then start drifting a nymph close to the cliff – and wait for the hits. Your nymph should be drifting down the main flow line, reasonably long leader.

I’ve not taken many fish with a wetline. (BM says I don’t take many fish period, and shouldn’t qualify
the statement with “with a wetline”) The head, with a drifting Rabbit, can be quite good. Hardy and brave souls who wade across to fish from the far bank can have a great time. Personally, I like living.

I’m not sure if I’m allowed to tell you about the tail of the pool, and the water just below the Sand. Perhaps the less said the better – don’t go there with a short-trace nymph rig with dry fly indicator. Stay away.

Best Season(s)

Winter. In summer, pool seems too clear for the fish to hold. Right. And tomorrow someone will take 10 fish in an hour in mid-summer. Although one would expect good dry fly
action, it seems to be scoured so often that the aquatic life doesn’t develop. And tomorrow Andrew Christmas will have a field day on dry fly in the Sand! Previous pool reports spoke of this as a holding pool – well, I doubt it, frankly, but if does hold, it would right up the top, past the point where the main flow comes in. The observable trout are
less than (for example) Duchess, Rustlers, Stag, and even Red Hut.

It’s a very pretty pool, but does not hold large quantities, although maybe that is the writer’s perception. The writer does not care to wade, so has in the past been restricted in
access to the pool (except the tail….) Since its very pretty, with
beech trees, a small beach, clear water, etc etc, most people have a throw in it. And why not?

This was the favourite pool for many TRM fishos like Brent Purser >(before he got seduced by the Braids).

One of the problems with the Sand is the rapid changes in bottom configuration. The wading conditions are subject to rapid change, so check carefully.

>(Photo left is the biggest rapid in this section below the Sand Pool)

Sand Pool 2008

 

 

Rating (out of 20) 13

If you need a pool to show off the Tongariro trout at any time of the year this would take some beating… There are always trout to be seen resting but TRM suggest you iignore them and head for the end of the feed line on the RHS under the cliff.  The Sand Pool was not subject to an individual pool report in 2005-2006 as it was still subject to changing contour – hence the name Sand Pool – and settling down following the last big flood of February 2004.  During 2007 much of the pool was blocked by a fallen pine until the next flood removed it.  Now it has matured into the main holding pool for loads of spawning trout who mingle there waiting for someone to decide whether they should migrate up the Whitikau or continue the slog up the main river.
It appeared to have lost much of its previous holding capacity but now we have received sufficient good reports to reinstate the top status it enjoyed pre 2004 flood.

Late last season anglers reported good numbers usually queued up in the Sand Pool.  With  the destruction of the Whitikau Pool, just below the confluence – the Sand Pool now appears to replace the Whitikau as the holding pool for trout waiting while they decide whether to go up the main tributary – the Whitikau River, or continue their slog up the Tongariro River.   These major migration direction decisions cannot be hurried.  Particularly first time spawners wait here for a new leader to show them which way to go.  Well, so we are told, as we are not aware of any trout interviewed yet.  Their usual lie is under the far RHS bank (of course) and the pool can now be waded from the tail.  The trout usually seen lying in the middle of the pool are just posers and too easily spooked.

 

Access

The Sand Pool is about 10 minutes level easy stroll up above Blue Pool car park.  The access road is about 7km south on SH1 from Tongariro River Motel.  The turn off, which has an AA sign pointing to the Blue Pool, is immediately over the Poutu River on LHS, then double back on the road through Justice Department land.

This gravel road has now been widened (January 2007) as far as where it forks (left fork  leads to Boulder Reach).  Take the right fork for just over 2 km emerging at Blue Pool car park.

(photo – Brent Purser, ex Kiwi and regular Tongariro River convert almost being pulled in on the Reef below the Sand Pool Sept 2006).

Note the Blue Pool is where many canoes and rafts finish their trip down the Tongariro River from Beggs Pool, or family groups start their raft or canoe trip, so drive carefully and look out for rafting buses.  The large car park also has a real DoC organic loo to settle anticipating nerves before bodies are enveloped in waders.

 

 

(photo – Unfair but true – on Aussi BP’s first cast on the Reef – a beautiful top conditioned fresh rainbow spawner being landed above – Don’t you hate it when that happens to someone else!)

Reef Pool Angler Profile

“Aussi” Brent, is an ex-Kiwi, who was subject to a TRM crash conversion course on the big T.  He has successfully converted from a boring statue freezing on the Waitahanui Rip to become a live dedicated Sand Pool junkie.  Originally a refugee from Lower Hutt, he is now a retired builder from Noosa.  Brent used to trawl the original real dinkum Tongariro River using piano wire, pre the Kiwi version of the Snowy River scheme, which indicates his real age. As such he only ever wet lines his own unique style i.e. he patiently waits for the trout to catch themselves – just like Shane’s Waitahanui Rip?.

Unfortunately he confuses age with experience.  He still tries to trawl olive woolly buggers and rabbit patterns with his 1950’s vintage – don’t make ‘em like they used to – Eagle Claw fibreglass rod with heavy Alpha bakelite reel, but we think we may have gradually weaned him off his ancient equipment.  He has been seen now using motel guest rods. (only because he imagined it would not cost him) Brent slaughtered the river for three weeks in September 2006 hooking far too many fish from the Sand Pool down to the Bends. Relying on his elderly  “experience” and failing memory, like many old timer anglers, he is always comparing the pre flood conditions last century – “back in my day….”

He claims the Sand Pool has it all – a dinkum bonza ace pool.  So we take his word for it.

(Editor Note:  He really fishes in the Reef Pool and tells everyone he has been at the Sand Pool.  Confused?)

NOTE:  Pool Reports for the Tongariro River are prepared from guest/anglers experiences.  As such, Tongariro River Motel do not accept any responsibility for the opinions of other anglers who are traditionally acknowledged liars about their best fishing pools.