September Rainbows

In the old days, before year-round fisheries, keen anglers had to wait patiently till October 1 before indulging in the new season. So, when Greg Morton targets spawning rainbows in September, he always feels like he’s opening his Christmas presents a month early.

In the Central South Island region, they even created two opening day happenings in September last season that saw many big fish anglers descend on two fisheries.

Firstly, ballot-winning anglers were allowed to fish designated beats for mega-sized spawning rainbows in the upper Ohau River. Secondly, the winter-closed ‘magic carpet’ area of the Tekapo Canal was re-opened. Grip and grin photos on social media showed many happy September anglers, and good on them for releasing most of the larger specimens. These two regulations are positive Fish and Game initiatives.

Chasing late-arriving rainbows in September is addictive as the trout hooked are fighting fit and stunning to look at. Years ago, my father used to take me regularly in spring to the mouth of Timaru Creek, where it flows into Lake Hawea. This spot is famous for its voracious sandflies, but it could also fish well. Timaru Creek, like the Dingle Burn and Hunter River, are well-known rainbow trout spawning fisheries. Our trips would start in late August and continue to early December. We would cast red spinners and black wedges out into the lake. The quarry was big rainbows, and a limit bag was achieved quickly if you struck things right. The best fish I ever landed there was a 2.5kg hen. When we crossed the Timaru Bridge to access the parking bay, we would often see shoals of rainbows in the pool below the bridge.

Some other lakes I have fished successfully for spring river mouth rainbows are Lake Coleridge, Lake Ohau, Lake Tekapo and Lake Dunstan.

This September just past, I decided to have one last trip on my old licence. I focused on a local lake that I believed would have some rainbows still hanging around in the inlet delta. March and April are the peak spawning months for brown trout, and though most are back in the lakes by September, many are in poor condition. The rainbow trout spawning run is much later and seems more spasmodic, which means some September-caught rainbows can still be fat as butter – good eating fish. There is much less lake weed around in September due to plants dying down over the cold part of the year and the weather being much warmer.

I headed inland to Lake Dunstan one afternoon and selected a bay in the Clutha arm close to where the large river spilt into the lake. This river is massive, so shoreline angling involves nibbling at the edges of the distant current. I had been lucky to strike a mostly calm day with a very light breeze. The water was clear where I was, and some weed beds were visible, so I decided to use light gear and fish with a lightly weighted curly tail grub.

I used my specialist 8’3” soft-bait Tansui rod with a very soft tip. The jighead weight was 1/16oz, and the grub colour was chartreuse. Spooled with light braid and a fluorocarbon leader, it was capable of relatively long casts. I was surprised to see occasional rises in the calm conditions, but they were spasmodic and a long way apart. I had no idea what fish species I was dealing with since the lake has rainbow and brown trout, perch and landlocked salmon. I began exploratory casting with a slow twitch retrieve pattern and moved quite quickly around the bay. Because the bait is retrieved slowly, and trout have time to spot it, I don’t tend to repeat cast in the same spot when soft-baiting. It’s interesting how often a bite occurs on the first cast.

The rising fish were quite close to shore, so I was hopeful that fish and lure would eventually say hi to each other. Finally, I felt a light grab, then another, but no hook-up. I assumed it was a small fish. Little grabs happened again, and then a solid bite and a splashing rainbow indicated success. I am starting to realise how incredibly gently trout grip slow-moving bait like a soft-bait. It is as though they just want to stop it swimming before figuring out how to eat it. I have had the same experience fishing the canals. Had it been a perch, I am sure it would have grabbed it aggressively as soon as it saw the bait swimming by. I landed him and could see spawning had already occurred. A quick photo, and he was released.

A great end to the season – a post-spawn Lake Dunstan rainbow hen that was released to fatten up.

The green soft-bait was shredded, so I replaced it with a motor oil-coloured replica. Spotting another rise ahead of me close to the bank, I did a flanking movement to get ahead of the fish. I began casting, and one of my twitches came up solid. Initially, I thought it was a snag, but then the snag pulled back. This fish had taken a great chomp at the bait and was well hooked – fish on. Like all rainbows, it fought hard, but a jig-head hook embedded in the top of the jaw doesn’t often fall out. She was a beautifully marked rainbow hen who, like the earlier jack, had already spawned, so she was released after a photo. It had been a fun September experience and a good way to end the season.

November 2022 - Greg Morton
New Zealand Fishing News Magazine.
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