Weekly Fishing Report- Central South Island 22 April 2021

Be sure to make the most of the last weekend of the “summer fishing season”.

For many Central South Island waterways, Friday the 30^th of April marks the last day of the fishing season.

If your planning fishing trips through winter then be sure to review the regulation guide here to see what waters remain open all-season and our selection of waterways that re-open in June for their “winter season”.

In the meantime, we have an ANZAC holiday weekend to enjoy.

The weather forecast is a mixed bag of easterly and westerly fronts but there are certainly some big spells of fishing-friendly weather in the mix.

I’d suggest you do the forecasting yourself this long weekend to pick your best windows of opportunity.

I base my forecasting on metvuw for a regional/South Island overview of the weather and then use YR.no for site-specific forecasts - especially rain predictions. 

Above: A salmon is measured and a DNA sample collected before its return to Deep Creek in the Rangitata Catchment-Photo: Richie Cosgrove.

CSI staff and volunteers from McKinnons Creek salmon hatchery are currently undertaking a project to collect DNA samples from our sea-run salmon. 

The project is on behalf of the Winnemem Wintu people of McCloud River, California. 

Our Chinook salmon came from the McCloud River and it is hoped if the DNA samples from salmon in Canterbury waterways match that of the McCleod River that we can assist with the Winnemem Wintu’s fight to restore a salmon run to their original spawning grounds.     

So far, we have collected 10 samples from Deep Stream and 5 from Deep Creek, with a goal of collecting 50 samples from the Rangitata Catchment by the end of May.

We are also aiming to collect sea-run salmon DNA samples from Lake Heron tributaries, in the Rakaia catchment. 

North Canterbury Fish & Game are undertaking further DNA sampling within their Reginal boundary. 

Our sea-run salmon harvest survey was sent out via email early this week. 

Please take the time, just a minute or three, depending on your fishing activities this season to help us with this important survey. 

In a couple of weeks we will be following up the email survey with a phone survey, so if you reply to the email survey we won’t have to call you. 

The sea-run salmon harvest survey estimates the number of sea-run salmon caught and kept from each river for the season and we pair that with spawning survey information to estimate the total run for each river each season.   

Next week is the last weekly fishing report for the season and while you are still in the mindset of reading these reports each week, I would be happy to receive some feedback on the Central South Island reports. 

What do you like or dislike about the CSI fishing report? What do want to hear more about or less about?  

Email feedback to me directly: radams@fishandgame.org.nz  

Tight Lines

Rhys Adams, Central South Island Fish & Game Officer