Reel Life November 2019

With summer officially starting on December 1, it's time to start thinking Christmas holidays, which for many of us is our main angling effort.

The holiday season offers the chance to explore many fisheries without the pressures of trying to achieve it all in a weekend.

One of the greatest things about fishing is the ability to explore and experience many different parts of our fantastic country.

Insect populations are obviously on the rise and the mild winter conditions experienced during 2019 are likely to have enabled good growth and wild fish survival.

Don't let fickle weather put you off, quite graphically this week I've been shown how a couple of minutes driving and exploring can take you to a spot that is sheltered from the wind and offers some prime fishing territory.

Each Fish & Game Region has a Fishing Locations and Access page, full of info on where and how to fish,  at the bottom of each page is downloadable pdf brochures with more helpful details for you.

Click here to take you to  a map page where you can select your region and the select the Fishing Locations and access tab on the top right.

A messy spring has made it hard work for anglers to fish our rivers, but don't despair each of our regions has some fantastic lake fishing for those times that the rivers come up and are dirty.

Lake fishing is also a great family opportunity as well, you can combine a bit of fishing with a picnic, short tramp  or just chilling in the shade, for the non-fishing devotees while you getting some angling time.

December is also the start of the salmon season in the South Island, North Canterbury Fish & Game are running a DNA and Otolith microchemistry project where they need your help and the heads of any salmon you catch.

They would like anglers to keep any salmon heads they catch in the Rakaia River in Dec/Jan, recording the date and location caught, weight, length and sex of the salmon, call them on 03-3669191 for more info.

An interesting fishery that you may not be aware of is the sockeye salmon fishery in Lake Benmore in the South Island, the team at Central South Island Fish & Game have put together this short video on how to target these exciting fish.

Don't forget to check out Hugh Creasy's musing on fishing here.

Tight Lines.