Reel Life April 2022

PAIN AT THE PUMP - FISH LOCAL

If you are anything like me, whenever you drive past a petrol station, your eyeballs will be bulging when you look at the fuel prices that seem to be increasing daily.

This means our fishing trips become a bit more expensive, particularly if we want to head to a favourite fishery that is far from our home.

Fortunately, in Southland, we have plenty of handy fishing spots close to main centres.

Don’t forget these local fisheries when planning where to go, and remember, in Southland, you don’t have to go far to find quality trout fishing.

We also suggest that you harvest some of the fish you catch.

If you have been reading the news recently, you will have seen a lot of talk about inflation and, in particular, rising food prices.

We have lots of delicious trout and perch swimming around in our rivers and lakes in Southland.

Most of our fisheries can sustain harvest, so next time you are out fishing, take a trout or two for dinner, make the most of this healthy food source and take some pressure off your food bill at the same time.

Above Right: Dinner sorted with a perch from the lower Oreti.

DRIFT DIVING RESULTS UPDATE

Southland Fish & Game staff drift diving on the Mataura River

Over the summer months, Southland Fish & Game staff have been undertaking drift dive surveys on our major rivers as part of our annual trout monitoring program.

Drift diving surveys involve drifting down specific river reaches and counting the trout we see.

We drift dive on the same reaches each year, which enables us to detect changes in the trout population size from year to year and population trends over time.

Click here to open a table that summarises the key drift dive results.

You will see that in most rivers, the trout populations are looking pretty good, which is great.

CAN DRIFT DIVING OBSERVATIONS HELP ANGLERS?

A Monowai River brown trout

The answer to this question is yes!

When F&G staff drift dive down a river, we get to see the areas where fish numbers are the highest; we get to see where the fish sit (and where they don’t) and what invertebrates are in the river.

This intel can help anglers know the best places to target and gives insight into what imitations to use.

Click here to check out our tips table, which summarises information on where we find the trout and interesting things we have noticed during our recent dives.

If you are keen to see what we see when drift diving, check out the video links below:

Upper Mataura River https://fb.watch/bDKBDN8nbL/

Upper Waiau River https://fb.watch/bDKDttKe0p/

Monowai River https://fb.watch/bEKXfqQkbk/

Tight lines!

Cohen Stewart, Southland Fish & Game Officer