Fishing Reports index > December 2008

LAKE ANIWHENUA & RANGITAIKI RIVER SYSTEM

Lake Aniwhenua has been fishing brilliant. Some days, it certainly hasn’t been hard to catch & release 15 - 20 fish. There’s been a mixed bag of sizes. If you’re boat fishing the catch has been mainly be rainbows, but if you want to target the browns then you should be shore fishing. The fighting quality of the fish, pound for pound, is top of the line. The weed growth has been drastically stunted so far and is still diminished as per last report. There’s lots of muddy bottom or sandy areas for fishing with sinking lines. The late evening rises have been mind boggling. These fish are selectively feeding on emergers.

The rivers, in general, are still firing well. Nymph fishing is still the way to go and there seems to be a reasonable range of patterns working. The darker coloured nymphs have been hooking the better quality fish. There are some rises throughout the day but if you want to fish the top water, try fishing a dry fly with a dropper as the fish preference has still been the nymph at this stage. On the bigger water areas, fishing a sinking line and wet fly, especially a beaded woolly bugger, has been good.

We wish you all a very happy and safe Christmas and New Year.

Joan Ryder
Lake Aniwhenua Lodge
trout.guide@xtra.co.nz
www.troutguides.co.nz

Joan Ryder is an independent fishing guide; her reports are not officially representative of Fish & Game NZ

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