Central South Island Reel Life November 2019

Outlook for December

The fishing has been excellent this November with some great catches being reported.

The high-country has been battered by the nor-wester at regular intervals and alpine rivers like the Rangitata and Ahuriri have offered only glimpses of opportunity while the lakes and small streams have offered some great windows of opportunity.

Right:William Humm with a nice rainbow from Opening Day at Lake Heron.

Further east the fishing has been consistent and regular but small rainfalls have kept river flows topped up to maintain great spring sight-fishing conditions.

December is shaping up to be a great month of fishing but remember to keep an eye on the weather forecasts and the ECan river flows website and don’t leave things to chance - know before you go.

Season opening dates

Sea-run salmon season, Sunday December 1.

Upper Ahuriri River and its tarns and lagoons above Longslip Creek tributary, Saturday December 7 (first Saturday in December).

Three quick fishing ideas for December

1. December is a great month for targeting sea-run brown trout at river mouths and lagoons – use life-like ‘smelt’ soft baits.
2. Target perch at Lake Hood using small bright lures.
3. Fish the night-time caddis rise on the Waitaki River near Kurow.

Time to reduce harvest

New sea-run salmon fishing regulations were introduced for the 2019-2020 season to reduce the harvest of sea-run salmon.

The last two season have seen salmon runs at very low levels and we must reduce our harvest of salmon to allow enough salmon to successfully complete their spawning run.

Additional to the new restrictions that are summarised below, we are asking anglers to voluntarily limit their total season catch to four salmon.

Work is underway to introduce a new salmon harvest management system in future seasons where we are actively seeking approval to introduce a season bag limit.

New 2019-2020 sea-run salmon regulations are summarised (CSI REGION)

1. All sea-run salmon fisheries

• Daily bag limit 1 salmon.
• Season 1 December to 31 March.
• Night fishing for salmon prohibited.
• Winter season closed for salmon fishing.

Make sure you check out all the regulations and their new layout.

If you are in any doubt over the regulations, please contact our office and ask for clarification from one of our Fish & Game Officers: 03 6158400 or email csi@fishandgame.org.nz

Kids Salmon Fishing Day a success

The Fish & Game Kids Salmon Day was held on November 3 at Loch Cameron, Twizel.

70 kids attended, and they managed to land around 35 salmon.

A huge THANK YOU goes out Mt Cook Alpine Salmon and High Country Salmon who donated the salmon for the event. Their generosity made the event possible!

We also had support from the kind folks from: Jakes Hardware, Southern Alps Outdoors, Meridian Energy and Will Spry.

All licenced anglers can now fish at Loch Cameron and have a chance at catching one of these prime salmon.

Please read the sports fishing regulation guide before fishing at Loch Cameron.

Annual Public Meeting

Anglers and hunters are welcome to attend the Annual Public Meeting (APM) of the Central South Island Fish and Game Council in December.

For meeting details please link to the meeting advertisement here.

Release with care

Whether your fish is too small, too big, too ugly or too beautiful at some stage and for some reason you will catch and release your fish.

Careful catch and release is a skill you must learn to ensure your fish doesn’t come to any harm.

Go check out this helpful video and this informative webpage put together by Fish & Game to guide you to release with care.

Tight lines!

Rhys Adams, Central South Island Fish & Game Officer