|
Auckland / Waikato News Index> April 2007
April News
Lake Pupuke
Trout Unlimited will again be running their popular fishing competition in Lake Pupuke on Sunday 6th May. The competition runs from 6a.m to 3.30p.m, with weigh-in at the Sylvan Park Reserve. There is no entry fee but lots of prizes! Fish and Game will be releasing 500, 2-year-old rainbow trout into Pupuke in the week prior to the competition, and the Ngongotaha hatchery has promised that the fish will be a lot bigger this year, at least 0.6kg. In addition, there should still be plenty of trout from the last two years of releases.
Whanganui/Whakapapa
Flows have been high in both rivers over the summer as Genesis Energy has not been diverting to Lake Taupo due to construction work on the Wairehu Canal. Consequently we have seen natural flows in the river which has been good news for trout but the high flows have made fishing in the upper reaches difficult. Below the Whakapapa intake, flows briefly came down to 3 cumecs in early April but then quickly rose to 6 cumecs which is still a bit marginal for fishing. Further downstream at Owhango and Kakahi, the extra water has made crossings a bit more difficult but overall the fishing has been excellent.
Tag returns
Thanks to all those anglers who reported tagged fish over the last month there have been some fascinating returns. Councillor John Atkinson caught a 59cm rainbow in the Waione Stream that was tagged by Paul Fuller in October 2002. When Paul tagged this fish it was already 50cm, and thus this fish was at least 7.5 years when recaptured by John. The tagging team has been very active in the Waipa River over the summer tagging well over a hundred fish. Some of the returns are indicating growth rates of 1.0cm a week for juvenile fish! For example, a 26cm rainbow caught in mid-February was 33.5cm when recaptured 7 weeks later in early April. So the overall trend is rapid growth over the summer months for juvenile fish (ie fish that have not spawned) but very slow growth for older fish, with a maximum age for rainbows of at least 8 years.
Rivers low
At the time of writing (mid-April) all the region’s rivers are running clear. The west coast rivers (Awakino, Mangaotaki, Marokopa, and Mangaohae) are still fishing well and are probably the pick of the bunch.
Remember to check the flows before you go at either the Environment Waikato site www.ew.govt.nz/enviroinfo/riverlevelsandrainfall/index.htm
or at Genesis Energy www.hydro.genesisenergy.co.nz/AllFlow.asp
As noted in the previous newsletter, we are going to require some assistance planting flaxes and shrubs along the Mangatutu Stream. The time has now been confirmed as 10 a.m., Sunday, 27th May. We’ll provide a barbecue afterwards and we will also have a brief talk from F&G and Environment Waikato staff on the whole Waipa/Mangatutu management project. So this is a good opportunity to hear what is going on and have some input, as well as assisting the local landowners in the management of the river.
If you can attend please contact Ben Wilson at bwilson@internet.co.nz | 
