Reel Life October 2021

The start of Hawke’s Bay’s new trout season is only days away, on Friday, October 1st.

From an angler's perspective, the beauty of the Hawke’s Bay region is the sheer number of options for early season trout fishing.

Pick up a map and consider fishing that small stream or waterway that you often drive over but never stop to fish.

You never know what may be lurking in there!

These smaller spawning streams will fish best early season.

As the water levels drop and temperatures increase, trout will quickly drop out into the cooler main-stem rivers.

The Mangatutu and Mangaone, both tributaries of the Tutaekuri, are worth a try early in the season although some walking may be required to find the fish.

Similarly, the Ripia and Waipunga rivers (Mohaka tributaries) can also be worth a look during October/November.

Small orange glo-bugs can be very effective for spawning trout at this stage in the season, but flashback nymphs and hare and copper nymphs will also catch fish in clearer conditions.

The upper reaches of the Esk River can fish well early in the season and can be reached off the Ellis Wallace Road.

Other popular early season options include the Ohara (Ngaruroro tributary), Tukipo (Tukituki tributary) and Mangaonuku (Waipawa tributary) streams to name a few.

Our access maps have recently all been uploaded online – please follow the link to check them out: https://fishandgame.org.nz/hawkesbay/freshwater-fishing-in-new-zealand/fishing-locations-and-access/

Long range weather for opening day looking good!

Most of the rivers have had a good fresh through them over the last couple of weeks.

Some decent rain is forecast for early in the week running up to opening weekend and so options might be limited if the rivers are in full flood mode.

At the time of writing, the weather for opening day is looking excellent with no rain and light wind.

This settled weather looks to continue through the weekend so fingers crossed the rivers and streams will hopefully all be running clear, enabling anglers to pick and choose where they fish over the start of the season.

It pays to check the river flows first online before venturing too far afield. These can be found on the following link! https://www.hbrc.govt.nz/environment/river-levels/

Above Right:long range forecast for opening day

New date for the ‘Take me fishing’ day at the Game Farm

Due to the Covid-19 restrictions we were unable to hold the kids ‘Take me fishing’ day on August 29th as planned.

This has now been rescheduled to November 14th.

For those that have already booked in your child do not worry, your booking will be carried over to the new date.

There are still some spaces remaining so get in quick!

We are also still looking for some volunteers to help us run the day.

Please contact the office on 06 844 2460 or email hawkesbay@fishandgame.org.nz to book or put your name forward to help.

2021/22 Season Angler Diary

Anglers can submit their fishing information directly from their smartphone on the riverbank or their home computer once they return from their day’s fishing.

The information is automatically formulated into a spreadsheet and is available for staff to analyse.

This project has been trialled and will only strengthen with input from more of our anglers.

The information gathered will be used in conjunction with data obtained from other monitoring programmes to better understand the present state of the region’s fisheries.

The advantage of online angler diaries is they are relatively inexpensive to implement and gather a large volume of information on fish abundance, condition and angler use.

In order to provide good data, we require information from reliable and motivated anglers that fish often and on a number of the region’s rivers.

Gathering a sample from a decent number of anglers throughout the region will enable us to monitor anglers’ catch rates and the condition of fish.

This will help guide the future management of these fisheries and is a great opportunity for anglers to be directly involved in the collection of angling data.

Individual fishing information will be kept strictly confidential so that you can continue to keep your favourite fishing spots secret!

If you are keen to assist, please follow the link https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GD87386 and save it as a favourite! Tight lines!

CLEAN CHECK DRY

Didymo can have a notable impact on a waterways’ insect life and can form massivealgal blooms.

Monitoring and strict biosecurity has successfully contained the spread around the country and to this day, we have not had any discoveries of didymo in the North Island.

Part of this protection and success of containment has been self-enforced by anglers and other recreational users of our waterways so thank you everyone for playing your part!

F&G staff in conjunction with HBRC continue to work together to monitor our regions rivers for presence of didymo.

Samples are taken from drift nets and sent off to a laboratory for analysis. So far, the results have always come back negative.

You can do your part by remembering to CLEAN CHECK DRY between each waterway.

At the Hawke’s Bay office we have didymo packs with everything you need to keep this pest at bay. Call in when you are next passing by for your complimentary pack.

To avoid the last minute rush be sure to get your licence now and any other fishing gear you need to stock up on.

Early preparation will make your opening day less of a rush giving you more time on the water. But your licence here: https://fishandgame.org.nz/licences/fishing-licence-info/

Good luck to those heading out on opening day/weekend and good luck to all for the new season ahead!

Tight Lines

Nick Page, Hawkes Bay Fish & Game Officer.