Weekly Fishing Report — Central South Island — 03/02/2022

Check the weather forecast and river flows websites to find your window of opportunity to fish this coming Waitangi Weekend.

When it’s not raining too hard, the flood-free canals of the Mackenzie Basin might be a great option.

There are some frighteningly large fish in the canals, as Tania Boocock found out.

Feature Image 'Tania Boocock caught this big canal brown on a bladed spinner at the canals recently'

Neal Boocock recently got in touch to share our feature photo of this report and provided the following tale of Tania’s catch.

“Attached are some photos of a brownie that the wife caught recently when passing the canals. She shat herself when she saw the size of it after landing him and dropped her rod and scrambled up the bank. It went 19lb, and she wasn't keen on holding it, hence my ugly mug shot with her beside me”.

“the lure was a bladed spinner on a 6lb line & a standard soft baiting/spinning rod.”

The main divide is forecast to receive a frightening amount of rain this week and any waters draining the main divide will flood to some degree.

On Thursday morning, the Rangitata River was heading up towards 500 cumecs and the Ahuriri was 87 cumecs and rising.

Keep a close eye on the ECan flow website and rainfall website and be sure not to get caught-out by the rising waters.

Flows will be high in the Tekapo River from natural inflows and ramped-up spill flows generated by Genesis.   

Lake Tekapo is at maximum height and Genesis are actively managing Lake Tekapo level by Spilling to the Tekapo River.

Our low country waters are set to receive a notable amount of rain and may rise in flow which will be of benefit for ecological reasons and may improve the fishing.

Weather-wise, Monday looks very nice and will be the pick of the fishing days nicely timed with the Waitangi Day public holiday. 

If the rivers are up a bit high on Monday there are plenty of lakes to fish around the Region.

The Ashburton Lakes have a few roadside, 4x4 and hike-in access options – check out the access guide here.   

Be sure to check out the regulation guide before fishing there as the permitted methods vary between waterways, including some fly fishing only waters.

If you are new to the canals then you should check out our canals guide here.

A quick reminder that the bag limit for the canals and Lake Ruataniwha was changed for the current season starting 1 October 2021.

The daily bag limit for the canals and Lake Ruataniwha is 2 sports fish total.

That means once you have kept two fish, you must cease fishing for that day.

Notice Board

Tekapo River spill flow advisory

Genesis Energy are currently spilling water to the Tekapo River via the Lake George Scott Weir.

Tekapo River flows may rise rapidly during spilling and all river users are urged to take extreme caution to avoid rising river flows.   

Spill flows can be viewed at the Genesis website here.

Tekapo River flows in the lower river, downstream of the Mary Burn confluence, can be view on the ECan website here.” 

Want to catch a sea run salmon?

New regulations and requirements apply for sea run salmon in the CSI and North Canterbury Regions.

Click here for all the information you need.

Hunting Stand Ballots open

We are accepting applications to enter the ballot to hunt stands on wetlands we administer for opening weekend of the 2022 game bird season.

For more information click here.

Tight Lines,

Rhys Adams

Central South Island Fish & Game Officer