Eastern Reel Life Jan 2017

'Solid fish’ from Lake Rotorua in spite of the weather

Lake Rotorua’s shoreline fishery has been slow to get underway this summer due to cooler and windier than normal conditions.

The lake currently sits around 20 C and hasn’t climbed much higher due to the conditions which have slowed the inshore fishing.

Anglers at the stream mouths are catching fish, but having to work quite hard for those they get.

Right: Craig McEwan shows off his 3.65kg fish from Lake Okataina.

On a positive note, the Lake Rotorua fish appear to be in solid condition.

The recent Tangaroa fishing competition on Lake Rotorua produced fish with condition factors as high as 55.

Whiturangi Tahuriorangi took part in the Tangaroa competition.

The Rotorua brown trout have wintered well too; our Ngongotaha Stream fish trap caught several 10lb-plus browns in November and the average fish for the month of December was an impressive 3kg and 55cm.

The region’s back country rivers are in top condition and we’ve received encouraging reports of good fish numbers from the Waioeka.

At this stage most are being taken on sunken nymphs, but terrestrial insect activity is on the increase so we’re again hoping for some top cicada, beetle, lace moth activity in the Waioeka catchment later this summer.

Of note recently was a superb 5.5kg (12lb) 67.5cm rainbow caught jigging from the Hauparu Bay area on Lake Rotoiti.

The fish was a hatchery released ‘14R’ tagged fish released in May 2014 at Ruato Bay.

At the time of release it measured just 18cm and weighed 60g; impressive growth and an indication that the lake can still produce trophies when conditions are right.

Our Tarawera boat fishing talk on January 8th was well attended by anglers wanting to increases their chances of success on the lakes.

If you missed it, our informative boat fishing brochure with tips can be downloaded here

Eastern news tippets

• The deep Rotorua lake’s thermoclines currently sit at 15-20m, See here for details
• 98% of the fish from the Ngongotaha stream run in December were brown trout
• Kaingaroa forest access updates with some road closures due to logging operations have been posted here