Weekly Fishing report for the North Canterbury Region Friday 23rd March 2018

Hello and welcome to the North Canterbury region fishing report, the weather looks to be clearing for the weekend. 

It is cold and showery today and this is set to continue through to Saturday morning. 

Above Right: The sun rises over the annual Rangers Competition on the Waimakariri River on Monday.

The weather then improves Saturday, while Sunday is mainly fine.

There is snow falling currently in the high country down to 900 metres.

At the time of writing (Thursday night), all of the alpine rivers are starting to rise due to rain in the back country. 

It is my guess that they are going to be unfishable on Friday and possibly Saturday, but could be marginal by Sunday. 

There are some salmon about that are spread out through the rivers. 

However, it is a matter of being able to target them in between dirty rivers.

It looks as if all the foothill streams will be high and dirty after the southerly rain.

So what is left?  Anywhere that is spring fed such as the Lake Ellesmere tributaries, spring fed streams within Christchurch and just north of the city such as the Kaiapoi, Styx and Otukaikino. 

Although even these might experience some run off depending how heavy the rain is on Friday.

Sunday looks to be the best day for the high country lakes as Saturday still looks a bit showery and windy. 

The water temperature of the lakes should be cool after the recent cold snap, but I am still picking the rainbows will be in the deeper areas of the lakes. 

As usual for spin anglers early morning and evening fishing will be most productive for you.  

Fly anglers however will hopefully enjoy sunny conditions on the Sunday for cruising brown trout.

For junior anglers there are still plenty of salmon at the Groynes.

There are also plenty of fish in Lake Lyndon due to a release of catchable fish for the Lake Lyndon fishing day a couple of weeks ago.

Remember the following weekend is Easter which will be very busy on the salmon rivers and the high country lakes.  So if you want to fish with some solitude you should go this weekend.

Tight lines.

Tony Hawker Fish and Game Officer, North Canterbury Fish and Game Council