Weekly Fishing Report– Central South Island Region: 08-12-2017

For the coming weekend the biggest weather feature will be a westerly front running up the West Coast on Saturday and that might spill a bit of rain into the headwaters of our main divide draining waterways like the Rangitata or Ahuriri, flows could rise as a result.

Other than that expect a bit of gusty wind, cloud and sun, don’t forget your sun cream.

I have been in touch with a few anglers and can share a few stories, Lake Opuha is high and trolling a pink toby has been successful.

Alan White has fished the lake everyday through the week and has caught a brownie every time he’s trolled, with the highlight being a 5lb brown.

Don Tilson and friends fished Lakes Emma and Clearwater last week and said “The dry fly fishing was excellent with us all landing good fish each day and very good numbers of fish spotted in both”.

Don and Co. hooked brown trout of 2.5lb and 4.5lb size on #14 humpy and parachute Adams dry flies.

Allan Gillespie and a mate fished the shore line of Lake Alexandrina on Wednesday, between them they were a bit disappointed to only spot 3 fish.

Spotting conditions were generally good but a bit of wind made it tricky at times, Allan hooked and lost one brown on a Royal Wulff dry fly.

Linn Koevoet has been fishing the Waitaki from his jet boat, he said the trout fishing around Kurow is excellent currently.

An observation he had is that the further downstream he fishes from Kurow, the smaller the trout are.  

A run of salmon hit the Rangitata River last week but it looks like it’s quietened down now, 19 fish were recorded on the South Camp tally board last week – all caught from the surf.

Only one has been recorded this week, I’m not sure how many have been caught throughout the river, the tally board is just observation from below the poles and fish weighed in at Bill Whipp’s hut.

There is also news of large catches of salmon as by-catch by commercial fishing boats off of Banks Peninsula.

A local angler was aboard a vessels as a verifier pursuant to the Salmon at Sea Agreement between Fish & Game (CSI & NC), Salmon Anglers Associations and commercial fishing operators.

394 salmon were caught with 22 of these being identified as wild fish and the other almost certainly escapees from the Akaroa salmon farm.

The farm fish are identified by their worn tail fins, which results from rubbing against the ocean pen nets as pictured above, the salmon were all legally landed.

Click here to check out the media release on the matter. If you would like to volunteer as a verifier please get in touch with us. You will need to be physically fit and tolerant of sea-sickness and be available at short notice for multi day trips to sea.     

Volunteers may also be required to assist staff with salvage operations over the summer.

As an outlook, if we don’t receive a substantial amount of rainfall in the coming weeks some parts of our rivers will diminish in flow and disconnect. It is expected rivers like the Hakataramea, Te Ngawai, Pareora and Hae Hae Te Moana could disconnect.

Just today we had staff investigating the Hakataramea River which is prone disconnecting around Wrights Crossing.

A braid was found to be drying up and a dozen or so fish were captured and returned to the permanent water. Some of the browns were in exceptional condition while the rainbows still looked to be recovering from spawning.

What are the brown eating?

The river won’t be connected for too much longer at Wrights Crossing.

Keep in mind good fishing can still be had in better flowing parts of these rivers and the flow can change dramatically over a couple of kilometres.

It would be great if anglers could keep an eye out for disconnecting rivers and stranded fish and gives us a heads-up so we can plan to relocate fish and monitor the situation.

In general if the flow is still connected between pools the fish will survive and for us to capture the fish we need very shallow water, about knee deep or less.  

Another important point to consider when you’re fishing in summer and water temperatures are warm.

If you choose to catch and release your fish, extra care needs to be taken as trout are less robust in warm water.

Click here to check out this excellent video on best practice catch and release.

And finally a message for Tekapo Canal anglers from Genesis Energy, Pukaki Irrigation Infrastructure Partnership (PIILP) will be commencing the construction of an Off Take Structure this week at the Tekapo Canal Stilling Basin (aka the fish bowl).

Pipes will be installed in the Tekapo Canal under the existing road. The majority of the off take physical works will not impact access to the Tekapo Canal Road through to the salmon farm.

Some works will require small portions of the Tekapo Canal Road to be closed temporarily. Initially, there will be a two-day road closure, scheduled for the 19^th and 20^th December 2017.

During this time you will be able to drive to the stilling basin and have walking access to the penstocks and around to the far side of the stilling basin and canal beyond but will not be able to drive to the salmon farms.

No construction works will be occurring during the 23 Dec – 8Jan period, we will pass on updates as received but if in doubt contact Genesis Energy.

Tight Lines

Rhys Adams, Fish & Game Officer, Central South Island Fish & Game Officer.