Fishing News index > May 2008

TARANAKI REGION TROUT FISHING – MAY 2008

Taranaki Ringplain

The last day of the fishing season was not a good one in Taranaki, with an intense rainfall event in the early hours of 30th April causing considerable damage to a number of ringplain waterways.  The Stony River at Okato received a record flow of 530 cumecs (Figure 1), which re-started erosion in its Pyramid Stream headwater tributary and filled the river channel with a massive bedload of sand, aggregate and a sludge of grey un-weathered volcanic ash.  This will have once again wiped out the trout fishery, which was recovering nicely from a similar event in June 2006.

Several other streams on the western flank of Mt. Taranaki were also hit hard, with the Waiaua, Okahu and Mangahume all running grey from the erosion of historical ash deposits.  Farmers bordering the Okahu found a number of large brown trout stranded in paddocks and several farm bridges all but disappeared downstream.  On the eastern side of the mountain, the headwaters of the Manganui River and Maketawa Stream didn’t escape unscathed and Blue duck will find lean pickings for a few months until there is some recovery in riverbed invertebrate populations.

Thankfully, flows in northern and southern ringplain streams were much more benign, with rivers like the Waiwhakaiho and Waingongoro (Figure 2) barely reaching their average annual flood levels.  Surveys have confirmed there was little damage to trout spawning gravels and in some cases the flood had a beneficial effect by breaking through the cobbled layer armouring the riverbed and exposing good quantities of gravel for spawning.  The removal of accumulated sediment and algal mats and the redistribution of mayfly and stonefly larvae to downstream reaches where water temperatures have fallen to favourable levels are other benefits.  So while some streams took a hammering, others are now in good condition heading into winter.

For those wanting to fish locally in June, Lake Ratapiko will be worth a visit, as will the lower reaches of the Waingongoro and Kaupokonui (both below SH45) and the Waiwhakaiho River down from the end of the gravel track at the right-hand end of Rimu Street.

Allen Stancliff
Fish and Game Officer

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