Fishing News index > February 2007

Rats to the mouse plague

As has invariably been the case in recent seasons, summer weather and low river flows arrived just as the salmon season began to get underway. A minor rain event in the first week of February induced a small run of fish into South Westland rivers and mid-month these fish are still being caught up-stream. However it may take a proper fresh to really get things cracking near the rivermouths, and to stock up the lakes.
The recent Lake Mapourika salmon fishing competition attracted a record angler turnout but only sixteen lucky anglers were successful. A decent number of trout and the usual high standard of the social arrangements made the weekend memorable for others, but the real deal is yet to come both at Mapourika and Paringa. Judging from the long-range forecast it may be March before salmon can be expected en-masse.

Natural mortality is a big factor in the size of the annual salmon run and when sea conditions are unfavourable, the arrival of smaller or obviously poor conditioned fish usually points to a smaller than average spawning run.
This year the salmon are in excellent condition, with some of the early fish in the 20lb category, so the signs are good.
In light of the evidence that angling pressure does not unduly influence the size of the Westland salmon fishery, this season the limit bag has been increased to two per day. The season extends to 31 March in the lakes and 30th April in all other waters.

Meanwhile trout anglers are reporting good times from the larger rivers but spring creeks and lowland rain-fed rivers have been tough going. It’s not that the fish are not there, just that feeding time is pretty much confined to early morning and late evening. Hot days produce good cicada hatches and when these tasty morsels are on the water trout tend to ignore the usual rules around cautious behaviour. On this note, judging from reports at least, it seems that fish in the upper Grey and Inangahua catchments have been especially reckless lately.

The predicted mouse year has also come about – at least in northern waters – and an observation during a recent drift dive survey tends to support the fact that trout have an eye out for rodents at the moment. While we commonly count hundreds of trout in the course of a day’s diving it’s not often you see a large trout tucked away in a backwater attempting to digest a fully grown rat!
Now here’s a double challenge for the home fly tier, first try and tie a rat imitation and then let’s see you cast it!

Chris Tonkin