Hawke's Bay Reel Life December 2018

Rivers have more water!

In the last Reel Life article we prayed for rain to top up our region’s rivers…. we certainly got what we asked for!

Right: bladed spinners are popular with many spin fishers.

With two periods of decent rain, Hawke’s Bay rivers have had a good flush out and rivers are flowing at healthy levels.

It has meant there have been periods when the rivers have been unfishable, but we don’t think many anglers mind, when the end result is a cleaner river with more water!

Let’s just now hope for a period of settled weather as we go into the Christmas and New Year holiday period so anglers can spend plenty of their holiday time out on the rivers.

Show off our region - take out a newbie

Hawke’s Bay is a region that tends to grow over the Christmas period as family members come back from the cities to their roots in the region.

As local anglers, we probably all know someone who’s coming into the region for the holidays who will enjoy a chance to get out of the hustle and bustle and out on the rivers for a fish.

We encourage you to take these people out and show of our region’s great angling resources. You never know, it could spark a new Christmas tradition!

The holidays are a great time to take a newbie out for a fish. For the learner, Hawke's Bay has great rivers to learn on.

They provide open river beds and plenty of access points, safe wadeable rivers during summer flows and all very suitable for spin fishing.

Go for a spin!

Anyone can spin fish...

Spinning is a great way to get newbies into fishing, it’s a lot easier to master and for a complete learner it will likely provide the best opportunities for catching a trout.

Taking a novice out is all about ensuring they have a good time and giving them the best possible chance of catching a fish.

For many, fly fishing can result in more time undoing knots, snagging trees and getting poor drifts that won’t catch fish, which can easily put a beginner off.

Spinning can help provide that best first experience of trout fishing. As an angler grows into the sport, then fly fishing can be introduced if they want to try another technique.

Some adults and even kids want to get into fly fishing straight away and that’s great, but for those who are unsure, we recommend starting them off with a spinning rod.

The staff at Hawke's Bay Fish & Game Office wish all anglers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

We hope you all have a safe and enjoyable holiday period and we hope Santa brings you that new fishing gear you asked him for!

Staff will hit the New Year running with many projects on the go, so we’ll keep you posted on these in future Reel Life articles.

Until then, Tight Lines and Merry Christmas!

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