Reel Life February 2023

Rivers are cleaning up fast, and there is plenty of fish out there

Our rivers have taken a hammering, but the bad weather came late enough in the year that most fish will survive and our rivers are clearing up fast.

By the time you read this most of our region’s high-elevation rivers, and spring creeks should be fishable.

There have been plenty of photos of good fish coming out of the Waikato streams post cyclone so don’t be scared off.

The Whakapapa and the upper Waihou had over five metres of visibility just two days after a solid rain, and most of our good trout streams are protected from storms by native forests.

As rivers come down from weeks of high water fish will be hungry and desperate to attack the first insect that passes by.

The continuous wet weather has also limited fishing pressure, and as a result, there are more fish than we have seen in a long time in our spring creeks.

The Blue Springs drift dive was conducted just before the storm, and staff recorded the second-highest count of large fish on our records going back to 1985.

There were literally hundreds of legal trout in the two km above Whites Road, with a couple of rainbows approaching the 2kg mark just above the parking lot.

With the cicadas going full swing this month is a great time to catch up on your fishing.

Above Right: An empty section of the upper Waihou River.

Arapuni comp is coming up, and we need your help

Fishing at Lake Arapuni has been great, and we would like to thank all the anglers that have been turning in tags.

Please remember we need the length and weight (from the nose to the fork in the tail) of tagged fish to compare the condition factor of sterile and normal trout that are currently in the lake.

This summer will mark the third year of the sterile trout in Lake Arapuni, and we hope to document some big fish during the end of summer.

Normally spawned hatchery fish fade away during their third season in the lake, but we hope that the sterile fish will live longer and grow larger.

The annual Lake Arapuni fishing competition is coming up on March 18 & 19^th at Bulmer’s Landing.

The annual competition is critical for collecting data on Waikato River trout, as well as one of the biggest and best-supported trout competitions in the region.

If you are interested in learning more about fishing for trout at Lake Arapuni or just up for a good weekend of camping at the lake, we highly recommend the competition.

Adam Daniel, Auckland Waikato Fish & Game.