Fishing Reports index>June 2007

Wanaka Fishing Report

From Richard Grimmett

The winter is now with us and the last few days have seen good frosts with beautiful but cool days. At this time fishing is limited to the Lakes and Hawea and Clutha Rivers. The most popular locations are mouths of the rivers flowing into the lakes. Fishing these with a streamer is proving productive. Spin fishing and boat trolling these areas is also very popular. Evening fishing the Clutha River is also good value for the hardy fisherman.

With little fishing just now it is time to reflect on the past season.

October saw some good fishing in both Lakes Wanaka and Hawea . For the fly fisherman streamers and nymphs were productive. Spin fishing was also very good on these waters.

At river mouths and small areas on rivers flowing into the lakes there were good quantities of rainbows.

For the beginning of the season in November the conditions were excellent and some excellent catches were had in the rivers. The lakes were low and fishing well for both fly and spin fishermen. The weather later in the month and early December was at times wet and windy making fishing difficult. Rivers were at times discolored but when suitable fished very well. Fish were taking dry flies on the lake edges and a sheltered bay can always be found. This proved to be an excellent alternative and very productive.

Later in December saw some unseasonable snow on the mountains and this raised the rivers and made fly fishing difficult. Those anglers who were prepared to be adaptable still achieved a great deal of success.

January was a mixture of good and bad weather with plenty of wind but fishing was very good with dry flies, humpy patterns being the most successful, and on bad days streamers and nymphs also getting good results.

Much of February was unkind to the fly fisherman with wind cloud cover and some rain.

Fishermen that were prepared to be adaptable were able to experience good fly fishing on Lake edges with humpy patterns again and cicadas.

March was excellent for dry fly fishing with rivers and streams mostly in good fishing condition. Lake Wanaka and Hawea were also great with this method.

Streamers were also a good option in the rivers and lakes.

In April as is usual white bait and streamer patterns were very productive at the river mouths. Dry fly fishing was still going well on the lakes.

Once again there are large numbers of browns up the rivers spawning and again this looks good for the future.

Apart from some difficult conditions I found it a very successful season.

Tight Lines

Richard

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

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