Reel Life December 2023

Above: Anglers line the shore on Lake Taylor.

Merry Fishmas to all our North Canterbury anglers!

The North Canterbury region has a diverse range of fishing options for the upcoming holiday season from venturing deep into the backcountry stalking trout, to trolling some of our high-country lakes on your boat or kayak.

You can also target our sea-run salmon fishery if you aren’t venturing far from home,  where you can pop down to the river for either a morning or evening fish.

If you want more information about how our region has been fishing over the past few weeks, then you can either sign up to our weekly fishing report which we send out every Thursday.

Or call into your local tackle shop and talk to the staff as they will give you the low down on what has been happening.

Compliance activities in the region

This season we have been out and about in force checking quite a wide area of the region so far.

We are aiming to cover as much of the region as we can with a combination of staff and our honorary rangers.

Our honorary rangers put in a huge effort for us doing licence checks in their own time and are the unsung heroes of the angling world.

We use a variety of methods from boating our lakes and rivers to hiking up some of our back country rivers.

Here is a list of all the rivers and lakes we have visited and checked anglers in the table below since opening day on October 1^st.

Lakes	Rivers
Coleridge	Waimakariri
Selfe	Rakaia
Georgina	Glenariffe
Lyndon	Selwyn
Pearson	L2
Forsyth	Halswell
Sumner	Boyle
Loch Katrine	Lewis
Taylor	Ashley
Roto Kohatu

Salmon fishing over the holidays sounds like you?

If you are in the North Canterbury region over the Christmas holidays and you want to try out some sea-run salmon fishing, then you have come to the right region!

We have four major rivers in which salmon run up from the ocean up into the headwaters for spawning, these rivers are the Rakaia, Waimakariri, Hurunui and Waiau rivers.

While salmon aren’t the easiest fish to catch there is a huge satisfaction feeling once you’ve landed one of these trophies.

If you plan to head out to one of these rivers, I’d suggest checking the river flows as there is no point trying to target salmon when the rivers are flowing high and dirty.

To check the river flows simply go on the Environment Canterbury website and you will find a variety of rivers and their flow data.

You can also check out the likes of Outdoor Access website for a live video feed of the river conditions around Canterbury.

Another good idea is to call into a local tackle shop and get advice from the staff as they will be able to provide you with the lowdown on what is happening out on the rivers.

We have also made a series of “How To” videos for sea run salmon fishing which are also very helpful for those anglers that aren’t that familiar with these braided rivers.

Tight Lines

The Team at North Canterbury Fish & Game