North Canterbury Fishing Report Thursday 28th January 2021

Fishing conditions look favourable this weekend following a week of discoloured rivers due to a small fresh last weekend.

This kept the main salmon rivers unfishable for much of the week but they will be in good condition for the weekend.

There are currently no fronts forecast for the next week so anglers should make the most of these good conditions, with good hatches in the high-country lakes at present, with good reports coming from Lake Coleridge and Lake Lyndon.

Green beetles and cicadas are plentiful and some of the larger trout from last year's mouse plague in the high country, will be looking for these larger insects to fatten up before spawning. 

There has been a few salmon taken this season weighing between 16 – 20lbs and it appears there is an abundance of food around the coast at present, so salmon will be making the most of this and putting on as much condition as they can before heading for their spawning grounds.

We still hope to see reasonable numbers of salmon show up in all the rivers sometime over the next month, with the Waimakariri generally fishing well in this latter half of the season.

Anglers wanting to target salmon upriver would be best to be on the water at first light and use light tackle as there is usually little activity in the middle of the day. 

As the salmon rivers become low and clear, which they usually do at this time of year, we expect to see salmon numbers build up around the mouths and tidal reaches, with salmon coming into the gut and lagoon areas at high tide and retreating back to the ocean as the tide recedes and this can result in some great fishing in these areas. 

Good luck if you are heading out for a fish this weekend.