lake aniwhenua -

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    Posted: 25 Jan 2017 at 3:06pm
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Fished the lake just after new years , first time since the big drain off at the beginning of the year. The lake weed has returned in pockets but the fish life is low with browns and rainbows around but less then a pound in weight. 

6 hours on the lake in the arvo 4 browns / 6 rainbows nothing worth talking about 

The top end from the point of the bay by the earth dam up is silted up badly to the point even with my shallow draw boat and minn kota could get far up.

gave up and fished lake matahina for the morning early arvo , up from the island by the weed bed . 6 browns / 5 rainbows - of which 2 were keepers for the smoker.

so lake aniwhenua is a bust i feel for another year or so unless the power company drains it again. from talks with the lodge guys the company has resource consent to drain the lake up to 3 times a year ....so might be stuffed for good. pity as i have fished it for over 27 years since its hay day 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Micsam Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jan 2017 at 4:57pm
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Thanks for the report advtracing. Yep 27 years ago (was it that long) it was something quite special alright. My biggest fish close on 12lb brown came from then and that was one of many fish around the double digits both rainbow and Browns. Sounds like just living on memories now!!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Fishb8 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jan 2017 at 9:55pm
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Fished there on a scorching hot early March day in 1997 after some big rain.
Loads of fish rising on upper lake...couldn't catch one of these little guys....went 14..16...18, then 22 and got into them.....not little guys at all...until I broke off my fly on 1 Kg line.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Mossy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Feb 2017 at 3:37pm
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Caught up with a mate for our annual evening casting softbaits from a dinghy at Aniwhenua last evening. We got a couple of hookups from nice-sized browns; one spat the hook, the other busted the line (I should have put fresh trace nylon on prior, it was a bit brittle and perished- rookie mistake).

Tons of weed everywhere, but although we did see some rises and one big fish porpoising about, there was not the usual constant surface splashing that we've seen in past years.

We only fish there once a year, but the lake seemed in reasonably good nick. Stunning evening to be on the water.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Jigmaster Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Sep 2017 at 8:35pm
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I fished the lake last year (2016) in September after it was drained earlier in the year and it fished well. 5 people each had 15-20 fish over two and a bit days, most on fly but lures worked well for the two non fly fishers.

Heading there on Friday for a long weekend, spring has always been good to me as the winter frosts tend to kill some of the weed off and open up good channels between the weed beds. Not sure what impact this wet winter will have had, will report back next week.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote advtracing Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Nov 2017 at 1:25pm
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fishing 2 days 2 weeks ago , 2/3rds time on whenua and the other on lake matahina 

whenua is still very silted up , using down scan and side scan there is mostly muddy bottom , no fish sign and the occasional weed head starting to come back. 
fishing the structure we did find there was always 2-3 browns in close proximity and the odd rainbow.

Lake matahina is weed free now at the top and free of fish as well it seems. at the very top along the willow edges there was the odd rainbow but not much else. dead deer floating down , lots of slips 

total for the time , 18 fish , mostly browns , nothing over 2 lb , mostly 1lb 

no weed = no food = no fish of size 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Mossy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Jan 2018 at 9:24am
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Had my annual evening crack on Aniwhenua this week and found the fishing really challenging. We hooked a few little rainbows that spat the hooks and eventually landed a little brown who was sent back to put on some weight. We saw no surface activity at all.

i wonder if the floods last year changed the character of the lake, although maybe we're still seeing the effects of the lake-lowering of a few years back. Seemed to be plenty of weed about.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote advtracing Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Jun 2019 at 8:43am
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down over the weekend for a fish , hit the lake saturday arvo and all day sunday 
The lake was drained in March so didn't expect much , but good weed banks back although half the lake now is silted up wheres its only 500mm deep ...
not alot of fish movement , past spots were dead . found some new locations with deeper water and pulled 21 fish for the time spent.
nothing big , more rainbows then browns. rainbows where only hitting fast moving retrieves and baby browns were in the deeper channels (4-5m )  
looking better for spring if the fish keep growing. 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Kiwifisher1 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Jun 2019 at 9:45am
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Been fishing Aniwhenua since 1995 and it has certainly changed over the years. Was my favourite place to fish right up until they started draining it every summer 3-4 years ago. Never been the same since with far fewer fish (due to less weed and less food) and consequently the Horomunga river doesn't fish as well in May/June as it used to either.
It used to be a bad day on the lake if I caught less than 10 fish, now it's a good day if I can manage 10 to the boat.

My fishing this last summer has been mostly in the top delta area and there have been good numbers up there for once, tho still mostly in the 1-2lb class but enough 2-3s to keep me happy.
As the lake has changed in nature I've had to change the way and places I fish it, tho it's still hard fishing compared to yesteryear.

Going down this week for a day on the Horomunga and a day on the lake to field test a new kayak accessory I am developing so hoping to land a few on the bigger size to see how well my new device works at holding fish.

If the power company could just not drain the lake next summer it might actually recover a little.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote advtracing Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Feb 2020 at 2:43pm
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Headed down on Friday last week, hit the lake around 11am , fish were going nuts , jumping everywhere after dragon flys. Hit and landed 6 fish in 6 casts....total of 17 landed in two hours. nothing big but alot of 2-3 lb rainbows .
Saturday morning was quite, but the arvo session went well , chasing browns in a deep hole i know of, landed 11 browns and 1 rainbow.  best fish approx 6-7lb brown. 
everything released. 
i will upload a vid this week.


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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote advtracing Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Feb 2020 at 2:50pm
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oh please note - word is that they are draining the lake in two weeks .....
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Kiwifisher1 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Feb 2020 at 2:53pm
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Thanks for the heads up on the dewatering mate as the fishing dies big time when they do that. Shame as it was just starting to get good again .
Will be heading there again now ASAP.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote advtracing Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Feb 2020 at 4:58pm
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i would hit it now to get the best out of it. 

they are all on the rhd side of the lake heading up the lake, from opp. the stream inlet up to and inline with the break water .

drift the current line
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Kiwifisher1 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Feb 2020 at 8:47am
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Thanks for the tips Advtracing.
I fish from a kayak and was up there last month and got 14 to the boat.
Best was this 5lb rainbow:


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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote advtracing Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Feb 2020 at 5:41pm
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here's a sample vid of the trip 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote Kiwifisher1 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Feb 2020 at 1:04pm
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Got down the lake yesterday to a beautiful glassy morning and the trout rising a plenty.
Certainly the worst weed I've seen for years, but the more weed, the more fish, so I love it nice and weedy, tho I can see that's why  they need to drain it.
Had a great day and as always, lost more than I boated and the biggest one busted me off as they usually do after a few jumps.
The lake was also quite dirty/milky so viz was terrible, probably from someone extracting shingle upstream as they sometimes do. So fish were only (biting) in the few clear pockets I could find. Had it all been clear it would have been an amazing day for sure.
Will try and get an exact date for draining so I can hit it before they do.

Here's a link to a video of the day I had...

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote advtracing Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Mar 2020 at 5:26pm
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not long left 

Pioneer Energy Ltd, on behalf of Southern Generation Limited Partnership, would like to advise that the water level of Lake Aniwhenua will be lowered by up to two metres below its normal minimum operating level for a period of up to 9 days commencing during the early morning of Thursday 26th March 2020.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote The Tamure Kid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Mar 2020 at 7:46pm
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Cool video. What type of lures do you use to spin with on the lake?

Back in the net weed days I used to fly fish from the shore (walking around from the main carpark area), nymph and indicator. Got some monster rainbows, like most people, and it was a fun place to fish.

Also memorably got a lovely brown up the top end, hiding behind a flax bush and dangling a tiny waterboatman fly off the rod tip as it cruised the shallows. It went ballistic.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote advtracing Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Mar 2020 at 4:35pm
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i find old school works best on this lake , so 99% of the time i use pat swift's tokaroa chickens.
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