South Canterbury Report

Graeme Marshall

April 30 brought the curtain down on a great season here in South Canterbury. Those waters that still had plenty of water fished well right to the end. We now have a complete closure on streams for the months of May and September. Anglers should check the regulations carefully for the winter fishing opportunities.

The Opihi catchment goes from strength to strength. Augmentation from the Opuha dam ensured sufficient flows in the Tengawai, Opuha and main-stem Opihi to maintain excellent fishing throughout. The early season fishing was simply outstanding at times with plenty of large, well-conditioned browns available, though when water levels exceeded 20 cumecs or so the main river could be quite difficult to negotiate. Crossings should not be taken lightly. The writer experienced an unscheduled dip and a short ride down the river by under-estimating the strength of the current one day quite late in the season.

Unfortunately, some of the other lowland streams did not hold up as well as the Opihi. It was sad to see the Orari dry for months at State Highway 1 and again much further upstream. The Ashburton, a once great salmon river, reached perilously low levels at times as did the Hinds, Pareora and Waihao, testament to the combination of a very dry late summer and excessive abstraction. It would be wonderful to see all these latter streams restored to their former glory.

Despite the curse of didymo the Waitaki still fished well for trout and the Rangitata produced some outstanding browns as water levels dropped and clarity improved.

Perhaps the most heartening news is that a reasonable run of salmon entered the Rangitata, Opihi and Waitaki. Whilst an estimated angler take of around 1000 fish from the Rangitata does not even come close to those heady days of the 1990’s (est. 4890 in the 96/97 season) it’s a huge improvement on the previous season. A reasonable run entered the Opihi, though nothing compared to the estimated 1600 in 04/05 and Waitaki anglers were frustrated by the substantial late run after the season finished at the end of March. This all augurs well for the future though, with the Rangitata likely to benefit from the McKinnons Creek hatchery, enhancement of spawning areas at Ealing Springs and completion of fish screens on the RDR. Most anglers have come to accept that the early closure will benefit the salmon fishery enormously.

In the meantime there is fishing to be had in the lakes, RDR and the hydro canals. If the previous season is any indication there should be plenty of fine sea-run browns available in the lower reaches by the time the winter season opens in June. Hot tip – the lower reaches of the Ashburton right down to the sea when there is a good flow.

Graeme Marshall is an independent fishing guide; his reports are not officially representative of Fish & Game NZ

Back to Reel Life May 2007