Reel Life March 2022

Auckland Waikato Region

Lake Arapuni comp has been cancelled but there are still some big prizes!

Although the official Te Awamutu Fish & Game Association Lake Arapuni Fishing Competition has been cancelled due to covid restrictions, you can still win some big prizes.Auckland/Waikato Fish and Game and Te Awamutu Fish & Game Association are joining forces to offer some big prizes for fish weighed in on March 19^th& 20^th. Fish & Game desperately needs data from tagged fish in Lake Arapuni and needs help from local anglers, so we are offering a spin rod combo and $120 voucher from Fish City Hamilton as prizes. These will be randomly awarded to anglers that weigh in fish. Te Awamutu Fish & Game Association will also be giving away a $50 voucher from Wright Fishing & Outdoors Te Awamutu and a second $50 voucher for Hamills Waikato.

To win, all you need to do is show up at Bulmers Landing between 2pm and 6 pm on the 19th or 20th of March 2022 with a valid fishing licence and weigh in a trout caught in lake Arapuni. Any legal trout caught on the weekend will get you one chance to win a prize. Unfortunately, we can’t have the annual prize giving or BBQ so winners will be randomly selected on Sunday evening from all fish weighed in.

Fish & Game staff count on the annual Lake Arapuni Fishing Competition to monitor the health of trout in Lake Arapuni.This year the data is even more important because staff are evaluating the growth of sterile fish released in lake Arapuni in 2020, so data from tagged trout will be very important to the future of the lake’s trout fishing.

What to do when you get a tagged fish

Catching a tagged trout is a pretty rare event for most anglers but the data is very important to managing fish stocks, so we want to make sure you are prepared if it happens.At a bare minimum we need a length, the tag number, and the location the fish was caught. Especially with our Lake Arapuni fish. It is also critical to get an accurate weight, we would rather have not data at all than have someone guess the weight.

We don’t expect anglers to walk around with scales or to kill all the tagged fish they catch, so there are some simple things you can do to be prepared.A small piece of electrical tape with a tab on the end can be moved up your rod to measure an accurate length and a camera can be used to record the tag number of fish quickly if you plan to release them. Our tagging team have been working on the Mangatutu this year, so please be prepared if you fish on the river this fall. You can report tagged fish on ourwebpageor call (07) 849 1666.