Central South Island Fish & Game

Spring lake fishing success promises a good opening.

Graeme Hughes, Fish and Game Officer.

While it appears winter fishing has not been as productive as some expected, in the last few weeks, coinciding with some warm sundrenched days, the spring season has injected some life into the fishery.

After an unspectacular winter season spring has arrived and with the warm weather some excellent fishing, a good omen for the new season. G. Hughes.

Rainbow trout in the 1.0 to 1.2 kg have been very active taking both dry and submerged imitations and although it is only September the conditions factors have been good and their strength and stamina impressive. The large numbers of fish observed and the better than average catch rates augur well for the approaching season.

Cruising “rainbows” were keen to snatch small nymph patterns tossed in front of them, this one along with others falling for a #14 “Flashback”. G.Hughes.

Prospects for the new season.
Graeme Hughes, Fish and Game Officer.
Anglers want to know what kind of season they can expect. It’s difficult to know. The success of the season or otherwise is largely dependent on habitat and the population of fish the habitat can support During the closed season without the visits of anglers the trout population is left undisturbed to migrate to spawning grounds, to excavate redds and to lay their eggs. After ova deposition some adult fish will remain to replenish stocks and repopulate areas where angling effort or natural causes has removed or dispersed fish..

Drought and floods limit fish populations. Floods are a natural process and important for river system maintenance, clearing and cleaning the substrate of aquatic plants and accumulated silt. Severe flooding however can be damaging to the aquatic environment, to fish, especially juveniles, and the food of fish.
Since the floods in May the rivers of the Central South Island Region have been relatively stable the downside of the early flooding being the disruption of spawning salmon and brown trout. Fortunately nature seldom puts all her eggs in the one basket and while early redds (nests excavated in the substrate of the river in which eggs are laid) may have been lost, the ova from those fish which spawned later should have incubated and hatched undisturbed. Aquatic invertebrates the larvae of many insects found in clean stony rivers and the most important food source for fish are similarly affected but the drift and crawl recolonisation is amazingly rapid.

Sport fish, including indigenous species, are most resilient and their ability to survive large floods is quite extraordinary.

To the south the Waitaki River although unaffected by the rains of May experienced fives times it average flow during December and January reaching 1677 cumecs a result of norwest storms along the main divide. Since that flood event the waters of the Waitaki catchment have cleared noticeably from a grey green to a glacial blue.

The Waitaki River upstream of the Maerewhenua River confluence , September 2011. sarahrowland.blogspot.com

Usually, winter turbidity dissipates as the season progresses and by December the river is running clear. During the flood event of January December inflows into the hydro storage lakes exceeded those of recent years and it will be interesting to see if water clarity will resume in the normal time frame. All other rivers of South Canterbury and North Otago within the Central South Island Region are running clear however the flows are still trending downwards.
On Saturday 1st of October, casting into waters undisturbed by line and lure for 6 months will be an exciting prospect. Expectations for an opening weekend are always optimistic but in truth are never a certainty. The optimism and the unknown is an important part of opening day magic.

Opening on the Rangitata?
Hamish Stevens, Fish and Game Officer.
With the opening of the fishing season fast approaching most anglers will have already chosen their opening weekend angling destination. For those of you who haven’t the upper Rangitata could be worth considering.

Traditionally the Nor West winds would have started by now but for some reason they are late in arriving this year. The winds bring with them large amounts of rain in the headwaters that quickly turn the river a milky colour, cutting down the visibility. Once the rains hit the river usually holds some colour right through until mid to late summer when flows reduce again. This coloured water is an ideal for the salmon angler but not so for the fly angler targeting trout. With salmon not showing up until late October early November early season Rangitata angling focus will be on trout.

So providing the winds and rain don’t arrive until after opening weekend there could be some great early season trout fishing opportunities in the upper Rangitata. A recent visit to the Rangitata showed a crystal clear river where spotting trout was an easy task. Deep Creek and Deep Stream provide another option for upper Rangitata anglers as they open to angling after being closed for the past five seasons.

Deep Creek with the Rangitata valley in the background, Deep Creek is open to angling for the 2011/12 season. H.Stevens.

A helpful tool when planning a trip into this area is the ECan website that has both river flow and rainfall information. The two key areas to look at are the rainfall gauge at Mistake Flat and the flow recording site at Klondyke if there is significant rainfall or the flow is increasing then you will likely find the river carrying some colour. Of course this site also has info on a host of other rivers that can help you prepare for trips to other waters.

Lake Opuha
Winter spawning surveys showed good numbers of brown trout had gone about their business in the various tributary streams of Lake Opuha. Very few browns remained in these streams suggesting they had fallen back quickly to the lake to gain condition lost over spawning. What was interesting was the rainbow trout that were released two years ago were not present in the spawning streams so there should be plenty of fat maiden fish available for the angler this opening. These fish were around 1kg in weight at the end of last season so should make some reels scream come opening day. Targeting rainbows from the boat trolling a lure should give the best results while brown trout cruising the shallows on the western shore will provide fly anglers with a challenge.

ENDS

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