Reel Life January 2020

Fish and Game hope that all anglers got the chance for a fish over the holiday season, and want to remind anglers that some of the best fishing is yet to come.

Trout are cruising around looking up, ready to strike at any large terrestrial food items that crash onto the water like dragonflies, cicada, grasshoppers and mice.

If you are a newbie to flyfishing this is the ideal time to learn and don’t be worried if you make a hash of the odd cast.

At this time of year trout will go out of their way to investigate what has smashed into the water.

This also means spin anglers can profit by targeting those deep pools where fish will be keeping cool.

Anglers throughout the country are reporting on the great condition and size of trout that have been feasting on mice this summer.

Right: Dave Robertson with a nice Te Anau rainbow, which is typical of the fish being caught this year, with everything fattened by a few mice in their diet.

While there are double figure fish to be caught by those prepared to persevere through the darkness, families trolling the lakes are reporting spectacular catches too.

The more settled weather means you have the opportunity to make fishing a family affair with " a fishing picnic" as the team from Southland Fish & Game have suggested in their column.

Fishing for other "species"

Fish & Game Rangers are out all over the country checking  anglers for compliance in all sorts of places and at all sorts of times.

A Ranger travelling along Lake Wakatipu on Saturday saw a young couple (Jacob and Caitlin) fishing near Devils Creek and stopped to check their licences (which they both had).

However noticing that Jacob was dripping wet he asked if they had given up on fishing for the day?

To which he replied,  "nope I went fishing for those" and pointed to to Caitlin's hands which were holding a bunch of lures that they had recovered from the water.

They had spotted them in the crystal clear waters of Lake Wakatipu, and since it was a hot day Jacob stripped down and jumped in the lake to recover 10 lures from the popular fishing spot.

Whilst a couple had some rusted hooks, Jacob was going to replace the hooks and use the lures.

Definitely some "upcycling" that deserves to be rewarded! and if you've lost a lure a Devils Creek recently, take some heart that it might have been one of the ones Jacob and Caitlin recovered.

Imagine next year’s fishing licence having your photo on the front.

Fish & Game are giving you an opportunity to get a photo you have taken on the front of the 2020 fishing licence, and that’s not all.

You could be one of the four monthly winners from January through to April 2020 with prizes of a $500 voucher each month from Kilwell Sports.

To top that off, the overall winner will walk away with a $2,000 Kilwell voucher to spend on any gear available through Kilwell.

You can check out the awesome range of gear available here www.kilwell.co.nz. 

All entries are subject to terms and conditions which you can read on the entry page.

Get your camera or mobile clicking and enter your photo on our website.

Just make sure your image is a .jpg between 1-5Mb and it complies with the competition T&C’s and you are in with a chance. Good luck!

Click here to enter

North Canterbury salmon podcast

The Complete Angler this week has had a 30 minute talk with North Canterbury Fish & Game's new CEO Rasmus Gabrielsson on salmon, and the steps they are undertaking to help the recovery of the wild salmon fishery in North Canterbury, you can watch it here.

Tight lines