SILLY POOL
Silly Pool 2005 Report
When the Red Hut car park pools appear too crowded, take a big lunch for a longer stroll, cross the bridge and go down river, for a choice of three notable pools.
The track is improved (thank you DoC) with pumice surface winding through mature stands of old man Manuka (or is it Kanuka? Who cares - this is supposed to be a pool report). The new route has a more gentle gradient at the start to fool you. Keep a sharp look out to say hello to Molly - if you get that prickly back of neck sensation, then you are being spied on by Molly. If you hear a monotonous mournful Morepork hoot, that will be Molly - her timing is confused without daylight saving adjustments. She will be on sentry duty habitually checking all track traffic (for current fishing licences?) about 2-3 minutes from the bridge.
Then after climbing 60 steps up Jacobıs Ladder to the bluff (vertigo sufferers beware!), recover while having a peep out over the Duchess Pool. With polaroid vision, search for dark shadows sulking along like slow torpedoes, quietly moving, just beyond the reach of anglers casting from the opposite side. If these cruisers appear within easy reach you are obligated to slither down the steep track nearby.
It looks worse than it is - promise - if you puffed your way up, you will manage the descent.
Mind you, the return back up, lugging your limit bag, might be slower. Perhaps that is why so many anglers release trout here? After you have spooked any Duchess trout, you can wade up the stony river bed to our objective. Below the Duchess the river broadens, almost braided, and accelerates into three channels with the main flow concentrated in the centre.
If you continue on the ridge track to the next steep descent, (wear your oldest waders) clamber down to the Silly Pool. This track used to emerge on a stone beach, but now a quiet bypass requires wading to an island along the RHS of the Silly Pool. Most anglers follow the DoC direction board to approach the Silly Pool from the LHS via the hatchery car park past The Birch Pools - an easy 12 minute stroll. Resting trout, just out of reach (?), can usually be seen from the elevated bank under the old pine tree. The third option before the 2004 flood used to favour wet-lining, but the flow is now too dangerous for wading. A small spawning stream located above the pool is another reason for trout to pause here.
Molly maintains the prime spot is now from the RHS, above the big pine tree, where the feed line bubbles spew into the pool, easily within reach, even by my feeble casts. Perhaps more importantly, this is well beyond casting from any competing anglers on the hatchery side (unless they are left handed?). That alone should be sufficient reason to justify this cut lunch commando effort.
Then the only concern is if, after your 30 minute slog, you find some other earlier rising species of angler already there ahead of you. Do not despair - just continue your marathon tramp to Cattle Rustlers, but that is another story.
The LHS is usually more popular as it is such an easy stroll walk along DoCıs new river edge track, whilst the RHS is more strenuous taking about 30 minutes. But the 18 minutes extra effort can be the difference between a good day and a great dayıs fishing.
We wonder why it is still called Silly? The original back eddy reason for the name is now a memory only.
For the meditative angler searching for emotional peace and solitude, Tongariro style, it must be closer to heaven.
2006 Update
Anglers report the Silly Pool no longer holds the numbers of trout as well as previous seasons (?) but no one can tell us why? As the bypass has deepened perhaps access has become too difficult?
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.