Central South Island Reel Life Mar 2017
Use April to 'go explore'
April is the last month of the ‘summer’ fishing season.
After that it’s time to focus on the year-round fisheries like the canals and those with winter seasons like Lake Alexandrina.
In the meantime why not use the last month of the summer season as an opportunity to tick the box of a goal you've never achieved.
In a region with so many fishing options there are plenty of boxes to tick.
One of these options could be taking a rod with you on a hunting trip and having a cast in a back country river seldom fished, or with that bridge you've crossed and wondered...'any fish in that stream?' Why not fish it?
That lake you've never trolled because you always go to your ‘honey pot’ is not far away - why not wobble a Tassie there?
What about that possible ‘spot’ you’ve seen on maps but a Google search offers no clues about its fishy inhabitants…
Top right: Rhys Adams returned to this river he found while hunting.
Helping the browns at Lake Alexandrina
Since 2011, the Lake Alexandrina Conservation Trust have been working hard to enhance the habitat of Outlet Creek, Lake Alexandrina.
This February, thanks to funding from Mackenzie District Council and Pub Charity, the trust was able to complete the final stage of habitat construction over the lower 100 metres of the creek.
Over a week a digger and loader worked away to scoop out a channel to design specifications, line it with huge boulders and then fill it with graded spawning gravels.
The enhancement works are designed to provide brown and rainbow trout with improved spawning habitat.
Where once the creek only offered a few small areas to spawn, now it provides about 20 large gravel beds for hundreds of trout to use.
In addition, in the upper section of the creek deep holes and rocky areas provide shelter for both spawning adults and their offspring and habitat for invertebrate and fish prey to grow and feed the trout.
Lake Alexandrina and adjoining Lake MacGregor have always held big fish in great condition.
The trust hopes the enhancement works will increase the population of fish and continue to boost the scenic aspects of the outlet area.
Ongoing works will be required, spraying of riparian weeds and unwanted plants will continue along with annual maintenance of the gravel spawning beds.
Sockeye salmon turn up in numbers
Sockeye salmon are unique to the Waitaki Catchment in the Central South Island Fish & Game Region.
They live their adult lives in lakes and spawn in March in tributary streams.
This year they have caught the attention of many anglers and the public, turning up to spawn in their thousands throughout the Waitaki catchment.
The real benefit to anglers is the food source they supply in the form of their juvenile offspring.
Left: A 26 sockeye meal extracted from a trout’s stomach.
Trout and Chinook salmon will fill their bellies with juvenile sockeye given the opportunity.
With thousands spawning throughout the Mackenzie Basin this year, we anticipate that trout in Lake Benmore, Pukaki, Ohau, Aviemore will be well fed come next summer.
This phenomenon was graphically illustrated back in 2009, when an angler discovered 26 juvenile sockeye salmon in the gut of their five pound Lake Benmore trout.
Recently Fish & Game Officer Jayde Couper was accompanied by our Fish & Game media expert Richard Cosgrove to film the sockeye spawning and shared his knowledge of the sports fish species. Here’s the link to the video.
Categories
Archive
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- August 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- March 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- May 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017