Reel Life January 2025 - Eastern

Business as Usual – Well Almost. 

Fine settled weather, with the forecast of rain which mostly hasn’t eventuated, has been the order of the day since mid-December in the Rotorua area. Overnight temperatures have been unseasonably cold with brisk southerly winds keeping all but the occasion scorcher-day at bay.

This has resulted in some great fishing in locations where we perhaps wouldn’t expect at this time of year, and only moderate fishing in spots we’d normally expect to be going off!

The consistent performers are the deep Rotorua lakes, which continue to produce super quality fish in abundance. Rotoiti, Okataina and Tarawera are producing some of the best fish we have seen in many years and have us looking forward to the pre-spawn winter fishing later this year.

Another sold fish from Tarawera

Thermoclines on the lakes have been moving up and down as conditions change and currently sit between the 16m and 21m metre marks.

Jigging and softbaiting have been the most popular methods however good old-fashioned trolled lures have been successful at times when the trout have become picky. Feeding fish can be as high as 5m especially during the first hours of the day, and in the evenings, and in these cases 3-4 colours of lead line is ideal. Downrigging has the advantage of being quick to adjust to match the depth of feeding fish.

Softbaits swum about the thermocline are killers

Lake Rotorua’s summer stream mouth fishing has shown promise but hasn’t totally fired in the normal manner – largely due to the mild temperatures mentioned above. Expect fish numbers to increase around the stream mouths as we roll into February.

If you are new to fishing the Lake Rotorua stream mouths, the key is to find the cold water as this is the preferred habitat for trout. Several methods can be successful including spinning with small lures or softbaits or fly fishing with a floating line and smelt fly or small nymph.

Cicada action has been patchy throughout the Eastern Fish & Game region thus far this summer. Dry fly-dropper combinations have been fishing well and evening caddis and mayfly hatches have been abundant. Rivers are low and clear and fish spooky. Most catchments would benefit from a little rain.

Low clear conditions are a feature currently of many BOP streams

Boat Fishing How-To popular with anglers

In early January we ran our annual Boat Fishing How-To at our premises in Ngongotaha. The morning's demo/talk covered basic trout fishing how-to including some simple fish biology, methods including jigging, softbaiting and trolling, lots of tips and tricks and finished with a demonstration on how to de-bone trout and hot smoke them.  It was attended by about 90 participants.  

De-boning a trout before hot smoking it.  

Datawatch tagged Trout

Tagged trout can now be entered online. Entries go into the draw to win one of 10 free whole-season fishing licences: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QCH5ZR6

Eastern Region Fishing Diaries – All lakes and streams

Fill in your fishing diaries here to help us manage the Eastern Fish & Game region. Participants go in the draw to win a $100 voucher from Kilwell: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QRSD7D3