Reel Life December 2024 - West Coast

Angling Over the Holiday Period

Many anglers will be looking forward to their Christmas break to get out fishing and who can blame them, the fishing on offer is fantastic! With everything from action packed perch fishing to reports of very large lake trout, there is no shortage of excitement on offer currently. Getting out with the family is often popular over this period and with the lakes fishing extremely well for both perch and trout recently, I’m sure plenty of families will make some great memories over the break. Over the Christmas period you can expect more people out and about fishing so I highly encourage you to look further afield. Rather than fishing the bridge pool, why not speak to landowners and get out to stretches of water not commonly fished. Alternatively, try rivers with higher fish densities, which handle higher angler pressure, as fish line up to take up feed lines when other fish are spooked to the depths. High fish densities are typically found in lake outlets and mid/lower reaches of large river systems that are relatively stable.

Regular Rainfall Creating Great Fishing Opportunities

When prolong periods of stable weather happen the fishing can get tough, lucky for us anglers that has not been the case. The regular rain stops rivers getting low and clear, which keeps the success rate of new and casual anglers up, which we love to see. The lakes are continuing to fish exceptionally well with regular rain keeping food plentiful and temperatures ideal. Giving soft baiting a go is fantastic way to increase your catch in many cases, the realism to your typically toby can make all the different when targeting cunning brown trout. Choice in soft bait is important to consider, with bold bright ones great when water clarity is low, but as rivers clear up go for more realistic looking ones.

Fieldwork Update

Staff and volunteers have been busy completing drift dives when conditions allow. Overall counts have been average, with plenty of catchable size trout. A big thank you to all our volunteers, without them we would get half as much work done!

Staff also have been electric fishing, identify spawning stream and as part of ongoing research projects. Despite a wet spring, good numbers of juveniles have been encountered in many spawning streams, so our fisheries are set to have some recruitment coming through.

Lastly over the last month we have ran some educational courses, one spin fish course and two fly fishing courses. Thank you to everyone who came along and supported the events, it was great to meet keen anglers from across the coast, at the start of their fishing journey.

Hope to see you out there!