Rotorua Trout Guide
Rotorua Trout Guide
5
About
Welcome to Rotorua Trout Guide. Based in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand. We offer guiding fly fishing and boat fishing trips throughout the Rotorua District. We also offer saltwater fly fishing in the nearby harbours in the Bay of Plenty predominantly chasing kingfish. One of the most popular options we offer is Heli-fishing, gaining access to remote wilderness rivers that only see fisherman a couple of times at the most each year. We also offer boat fishing on many lakes in the region. Expect good catch rates of top quality trout. The world famous and highly regarded fisheries of Rotorua is a necessary part of any serious fisherman's travel itinerary to New Zealand. Trips range in length from half day to multi day trips for all ages, fitness levels and ability. Get in contact with your Rotorua trout fishing guide Julian Danby for a fantastic fishing adventure catered around your needs and requirements.
Rotorua, New Zealand
Features animals

Suggest edits to improve what we show.
Improve this listing
Travellers talk about
(2 reviews)
(17 reviews)
(26 reviews)
Detailed Reviews: Reviews order informed by descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as cleanliness, atmosphere, general tips and location information.
Popular mentions

We perform checks on reviews.
Tripadvisor’s approach to reviews
Before posting, each Tripadvisor review goes through an automated tracking system, which collects information, answering the following questions: how, what, where and when. If the system detects something that potentially contradicts our community guidelines, the review is not published.
When the system detects a problem, a review may be automatically rejected, sent to the reviewer for validation, or manually reviewed by our team of content specialists, who work 24/7 to maintain the quality of the reviews on our site.
Our team checks each review posted on the site disputed by our community as not meeting our community guidelines.
Learn more about our review moderation.
5.0
27 reviews
Excellent
26
Very good
1
Average
0
Poor
0
Terrible
0

Robert Learnard
Peachtree City, GA4 contributions
Jan 2023
I had an opportunity to fish the Rotorua area for 1.5 days in January 2023. My visit was scheduled a few days after a bad weather system hit the area and dropped a ton of rain, leaving the mountain streams unfishable. Julian made the best of my trip by sight fishing in a mountain lake and fishing around Lake Rotorua. Julian is patient and great host and guide. I caught plenty of Browns and Rainbows! I would highly recommend Julian for his knowledge, his equipment, his teaching ability and good nature!
Rob Learnard
Written 9 February 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Jacquesdb D
Gold Coast59 contributions
Jun 2021
Julian made our trip, we had a fantastic full day guided Fly Fishing Adventure in one of the local rivers.
by mid morning we had lost count of how many fish we had caught.
One of us was only fishing for the first time and managed to catch some really impressive fish.
Beginners luck?, not really, more like really good guiding and local Knowledge.
Highly recommend Julian if you want access to the best conditions on the day.
Written 15 June 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Colin Fink
7 contributions
Dec 2019 • Friends
Three of us spent two days fishing with Julian. One of the days was heli fishing which was absolutely fantastic. Beautiful scenery and hiking while fishing. The fish quality was stellar catching huge rainbow and brown trout! Would recommend to any angler to go fishing with Julian.
Written 21 December 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Grant S
2 contributions
Dec 2019 • Solo
Had the pleasure of spending a half day fishing with Julian. His knowledge and passion of the local area is first rate. He also has a great ability to adapt his style no matter what level of experience. He also has a great ability to marriage his professionalism with a friendly personality which all makes for a great day out. Can not recommend Julian highly enough.
Written 8 December 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Trev WIlliams
Coffs Harbour, Australia90 contributions
Oct 2019 • Couples
Morning session on Lake Tarawera this morning with Julian.
Pauline and I had one of the very Best Guiding Sessions.
Just on 18 Rainbow landed with Paulines best over 9lb.
Jogging with Flies, locating fish and jogging at right depth.
Watching the jigs at between 30 to 35metres and seeing the fish on the Lowrance HDS9 was helpful.
Knew his gear and boat well.
Everything well maintained and correct drag settings.
Very attentive, helpful and great knowledge.
Thoroughly recommend him as a guide and would defintely fish with him again.
Written 18 October 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Graeme
7 contributions
May 2019 • Solo
Lucky enough to get a half day with Julian fishing for some of rotorua's fantastic trout. Top bloke , patient and gave me loads of tips and instruction as well as putting me on to great fish. Knowledge was top drawer. Day was an utter success. Gutted i couldnt stay for longer or i would have gone out with him again. Cant reccomend enough. Ta mate.
Written 12 May 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

danielgriggs
Northfield, IL12 contributions
Feb 2019 • Couples
Dan and I had a "once in a lifetime" afternoon fly fishing with Julian. It was a terrific experience . I am a rank beginner while my husband is very experienced. Julian was able to shift gears effortlessly between us. The most impressive fact about Julian is that he put his heart and soul into our trout fishing experience. We had gotten only nibbles in the first hour while trying a variety of flies. Julian then began a campaign of exchanging different flies couple with different weights until he found the right fly that fell at the right level in the river for us to land trout. I caught 4 large ones as a rank beginner while my husband brought in an additional 9. (All catch and release) Julian said that the " fish were really biting " that day, but he was the necessary ingredient for us to be so successful that afternoon. On a final note, Julian is easy to spend time with. He has a very laid back manner and easy conversational style that made the time go swiftly. We will definitely be engaging his services on any return trips to New Zealand and heartily recommend him.
Written 10 March 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Lena
5 contributions
Dec 2018 • Couples
We had a half-day freshwater tour around Rotorua and it was an amazing experience to seek out the trout from the river banks and then carefully climbing down and fishing for them. Julian gave us a great experience, finding both Rainbow trout and Brown trout for us, and the combined experience of seeing them first before getting a chance to cast our fly out was really something else.
Written 14 January 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Scott E
42 contributions
Dec 2018 • Couples
I was happy with the whole experience from the initial inquiries to the end of our fishing day. I highly recommend Julian.

Was on a New Zealand cruise in December 2018 and one of our stops was Tauranga/Rotorua. My wife found Julian's company on Trip Advisor and did the initial contacts for availability. From there Julian promptly replied to all inquiries regarding fees, schedules, opportunities, etc. Julian was extremely flexible on getting paid as well (regarding when to pay, not amount which was already reasonable).

Although I was thinking about bringing my own gear I ended up not doing so and Julian provided everything needed which even included a Hatch reel setup for a left hander.

Julian met me on the beach right next to where our cruise ship docked promptly at our arranged 7:30 meeting time. The fishing locations are all around the bay and within minutes of the beach we left from. So we started fishing fairly quickly and continued fishing right up to the time I needed to get back on the ship. So certainly a full day and then some.

Throughout the fishing day Julian was very good about instructing what to do, when to do it, and full of information about how one could fish on their own in the area. He is very patient and makes you comfortable when it comes time to make those all important casts for those intermittent opportunities at the local Kingfish. I was able to catch 2 but had opportunities for a few more. Also caught a Kahawai (sea trout) which was amazingly strong for its size.

Lunch and drinks are provided as well. Menu for the day was very tasty sandwiches and some NZ sodas to choose from.

You certainly won't be disappointed booking a day or more with Julian.
Written 6 January 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

pat
3 contributions
Dec 2018 • Family
Julian is a great guy and has a great knowledge of trout fishing. We had great day with him on Lake Rotoiti, jigging which was new to all of us. He knew the top spots and we were not disappointed. Thanks for a great experience
Written 11 December 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Showing results 1-10 of 27

ROTORUA TROUT GUIDE - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go