Te Hoe River Trout Fishing

The Te Hoe is a medium sized tributary of the Mohaka. This underrated river flows through the Whirinaki forest park and holds a good population of rainbows mostly in the 3-6 pound range. This river is accessible by tramping and helicopter. In the upper reaches near Upper Te Hoe Hut it is a small river, it looks like reasonable water but I didn't encounter any trout in about 4 hours of fishing. Further downstream near Central Te Hoe Hut. The river is larger and holds some very nice rainbows.

My only trip to this river was in April and there seemed to be at least one good fish per pool, plus the occasional one lying in shallow water near fallen trees. Possibly this was a bit of a spawning run up from the Mohaka but this river is definitely worth exploring further. I only fished about a km either side of Central Te Hoe hut. I spoke to someone who had walked the river through to Upper Te Hoe Hut, before the ridge top track was put in this was the main way between the central and upper huts. The river flows through a gorge in this section and it is impassable during high flows. I have no information about the accessibility of the river downstream from Central Te Hoe, but it's well worth exploring. Te Hoe river, looking upstream from the swingbridge near Central Te Hoe hut.