I've been having a ball the last few weekends on a virtually unknown fishery just out of Wellington, in the southern Wairarapa. This is just a few of the pics.

Exploration really pays off sometimes, we took a punt... and it paid off! Some of these virtually unknown floodways and channels were just chokka with Whitebait feeding fish, all to eager to smash Whitebait imitations stripped past their nose! The area is just immense in size and potential, so will think twice about rushing off to the central North island next time for a stillwater fix. The bonus is there is far more species to come to the net as well, with Mullet, Kahawai, Browns & Rainbow's, Perch, Carp and potentially Salmon as well. They aren't monsters (although a few run 5-6lb), but great fun, great fighting and hugely rewarding.

I bet there is so much water like this over the country that never gets fished, as it's not a "named fishery"... in fact, the waters below... even a google search turned up not a single mention about them holding trout!

Bloody awesome fish to catch mate, agree, I get excited about trout, but a Perch is even better!... until you start catching a gizzillion of them!

Mostly resident fish John, but certainly a few estuary run fish, true sea-run fish have mostly gone now, but a few stay in the lake, pretty easy to tell them as you know.. scales falling off all over the place and those awesome star-burst spots!