Central South Island Reel Life October 2019

  • Central South Island
  • 21/10/2019

Central South Island Reel Life October 2019

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Outlook for November

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

There has been some rain and high flows but that exactly what we want this time of year, its spring after all.

Right: The Opihi river has provided great fishing this October-credit R Adams.

‘High country’ waters open on the traditional date of the first Saturday of November.

A mild winter has set us up for a great opening – so long as the old nor’wester plays ball.

The Central South Island Region is by far the most popular region to fish in NZ sograb your licenceand join the fun.

RL OCT CSI 4 Another victim of the Hex wobbler Lake Tekapo October 2019 credit R Adams

Another victim of the Hex wobbler, Lake Tekapo October 2019– credit R Adams

Three quick fishing ideas for November

  1. November is a great month for targeting sea-run brown trout at river mouths and lagoons – use life like‘smelt’ soft baits.
  2. Lake Tekapo is low and that gives great shoreline access for spin fishing – use a14g hex wobbler.
  3. Trolling in shallow water 100 metres off the shoreline at Lake Benmore is super productive in November – usetassie devil lures.

Waitaki Access Online

A brand new Waitaki River access pamphlet is available online to view and download.

Click hereto find it on our website.

RL OCT CSI 2 Waitaki farmer Geoff Taylor generously provides access to anglers across his private land

Waitaki farmer Geoff Taylor generously provides access to angler across his private land

The pamphlet lists 35 access points including a few new ones, and details tips to make sure you pick the right flows to fish the river.

Many of the access points are fully public but others require access across working farms.

Some are on completely private land so we encourage you to respect all signage and requests of the landowners to maintain this privilege of access.

Kids Salmon Fishing Day

Thanks to Mt Cook Alpine Salmon and High Country Salmon our Kids Salmon Fishing Day will once again be held at Loch Cameron near Twizel.

RL OCT CSI 3 Max Taylor and his salmon from the 2018 Kids Salmon Fishing Day

Max Taylor and his salmon from the 2018 Kids Salmon Fishing Day

Anglers aged 3-11 will have the opportunity to fish for salmon.

The event will be held on Saturday November 3, 2019.

Registration is on the day from 8:30am - fishing starts at 9:00am.

Click hereto visit our website and find all the details.

Canal litter pick-up

Saturday November 9

Meet at Jakes Hardware in Twizel town centre at 8:30am for briefing and spot prize registration.

Free BBQ lunch and spot prizes galore at 12:30pm thanks to all the sponsors.

A great community event run by the Halswell Mens Shed, please get involved and do a little more than your bit to clean-up the canals.

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 a season bag limit will be utilised.

New 2019-2020 sea-run salmon regulations 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 theregulations, please contact our office and ask for clarification from one of our Fish & Game Officers: 03 6158400 or emailcsi@fishanadgame.org.nz

Waitaki River tagged trout

Please report any capture of tagged trout in the Waitaki River this season, and the Hakataramea and Maerewhenua rivers once they open on the first Saturday in November.

Here is a YouTube videowe made last year to show you the tagging project.

Information to report:

Tag number, catch date and location, kept or released.

Please report to:

Central South Island Fish & Game. Phone: 03 615 8400, Email:csi@fishandgame.org.nz

Good luck for November!

Rhys Adams, Central South Island Fish & Game Officer

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