Reel Life November 2020

Prospects for December

This spring has been dominated by Nor westers, this isn’t unusual at this time of year and is a common frustration among anglers.

December usually brings more settled and weather and brings the first of the real hot days.

This is good news for the angler.

Insect activity starts ramping up and trout become more active.

Above: Danny Pye with a 3.8kg brown trout caught on Lake Selfe.

December in the high country is the month of prolific beetle hatches around our high country lakes.

On a still day or even a gentle Nor wester, lakes will be brimming with rising fish as the bright green beetles start hitting the water.

Anglers have the immediate advantage of knowing where the trout are as they give away their position.

Trout can be hard to catch during these hatches, a good imitation of the beetle is needed and a mixture of luck and skill to put it exactly in the trout’s way.

November has been quite for salmon anglers, mainly due to the rivers being high and dirty.

December should see some ideal salmon fishing conditions.

The water has been nice and cool for November.

A little bit of a lift in temperature in December will be ideal.

There are also plenty of sea run trout around this month after some impressive whitebait runs in the main rivers at the end of November.

December is a great time for fishing back country rivers.

Remember there are not as many non resident licence holders this year so this month would be a good time to explore a back country river that you may have been put off from in the past.

Fish will be more actively taking from the surface this month so anglers can fish likely looking water with a big dry fly.

Lake Coleridge Competition

Thanks to the team at Hunting & Fishing for helping us celebrate opening with another awesome competition at Lake Coleridge.

Visit our North Canterbury Fish & Game Facebook page to see the heavily viewed video of the weekend, including an interview with competition winner Danny Pye from Cust pictured above.

Pye claimed the biggest fish at the Coleridge Fishing Competition with a 3.8 kilogram brown trout from Lake Selfe.

Salmon Heads

This season North Canterbury Fish & Game are looking to see which of our rivers have significant “spring run” salmon entering and improve our understanding of how these early run salmon contribute to the fishery and angler harvest.

For this to be successful, we need anglers who catch a salmon in November or December in any of the North Canterbury rivers to record the date, location caught, length (from nose tip to the fork in the tail), weight (if possible), sex, fin-clipped or not, as well as keep the head with pectoral fins attached, stored in their freezer to be analysed by Fish & Game.

A $200 tackle voucher will be drawn from each river for information collected (one entry for each head returned). Please contact Fish & Game (03) 366 9191 to arrange pick-up of these heads.

Notice of North Canterbury Fish & Game Annual General Meeting

You are warmly invited to attend our AGM. See details below.

Location: North Canterbury Fish & Game, 595 Johns Rd.

Time: Wednesday 9th Dec – 6.30pm

Tight Lines

Tony Hawker, North Canterbury Fish & Game Officer.