Fishing Reports

With most of the soil surrounding lakes and rivers now at their water holding capacity small streams are forming from the run-off.  These streams only run with high rain falls so they soon stop flowing as the rain eases, but while they are flowing trout are attracted to them for a couple of reasons.  One is the abundant food being washed down into the lake or river and the other is seen as a potential spawning area. 

The main thing to remember is that most of the lakes here don’t have many spawning opportunities and the hatchery trout will colonise whatever they can as their need is so great.  If any of these streams are not running they will leave a visible scar as they scour their way down to the nearest water and anglers should make sure that they are there when the stream starts flowing again.

Lake Okataina has two such streams, one to the left of the beach and one halfway down the beach to the right.  Stand well back from the water’s edge, especially after dark, and cast no more than the length of your trace over the water.  The rest of the beach is fishing ok too so don’t think that you have missed out on a productive fishing spot.  The small point to the left of the beach has been quite consistent as has the inside of Te Koutu Point.

Small streams such as the Transformer and Cafe as well as the Pipe have all produced fish on Lake Rotoiti.  The straight where the refuse transfer station was is well worth stalking along during the day as you will gather a lot of information on where the fish are spawning and will know where to start fishing after dark.  Hauparu Bay is also worth a visit with all this rain. Any of the jetties, especially to the right of the stream as there is another small stream entering to the right of it.

Blue Lake has a few fish hanging around the point to the left of the boat ramp and fish have been moving along the beach as well so there are plenty of opportunities for rainbows up to 3kg at times.  Jigging continues to work well at the opposite end of the lake from the boat ramp.  There are plenty of 50mm smelt in this lake so size 4 grey ghosts have been successful when jigging.

Lake Okareka has fish moving into the shallows chasing smelt on calm days.  The smelt in this lake are very hard to see as they are a similar colour to the lake bed on top and have transparent bodies with a black line through them.  Many of the lighter coloured smelt patterns have taken fish during the day.  At night small doll flies have taken their toll on the fish population in this lake as have the standard night patterns such as craig’s night time and scotch poacher.

Rainbows are moving up into the Te Wairoa Stream and are coming into the beach at the landing on a regular basis.  These fish are in superb condition and tend to put up a good fight.  During calm periods, a slow sinking line works best due to the lack of wake on the water that a floating line has.  If nothing much is happening simply change your fly every 20 minutes of so.  Stony Point is starting to fish well from the shore, though casting has become very restricted due to the high lake level. Some of the jetties in Rangiuru Bay, to the right of the point, are also fishing well during the day to heave and leave or boobies and at night using a slow sinking line and doll flies.

Lake Okaro continues to surprise with the size and condition of the fish, though with the large smelt in this lake as well, it probably shouldn’t be.  Both the boat ramp and the second stream mouth have fished well day or night.

Lake Rerewhakaaitu has been patchy when fishing from a boat as opposed to harling or trolling but shore based anglers have done well at times.  One needs to find where the fish are rather than turn up at a spot and start fishing.  A good starting place is Gumboot Point or to the right of the DOC camp on Ashpit Road.  Some of the islands in the lake may also have spots where trout try to spawn.

A number of fish have been holding in the Haumurana Springs Stream over the past couple of weeks.  Those few who have fished outside the mouth have had a lot of fun with smallish but feisty fish, usually later at night though.