Reel Life April 2025 - Hawke's bay

The incredible run of dry weather finally come to an end on some rivers that rise in the west, when they got a brief but heavy dump of rain on Friday 4 April which lifted the levels of the Mohaka and Ngaruroro just in time for the weekend. The Mohaka which was the venue for the Sport Flyfish NZ river nationals over the weekend of 5/6 April came up and was really discoloured making fishing really challenging on the Saturday but dropped and cleared quickly and the fishing improved on the Sunday. On a positive note, the fresh did clear some of the weed and the increased flow and lower the water temperatures improved the fishing. 

All our other Hawkes Bay rivers stayed very low, clear and in most cases very weedy, they all need a good amount of rain now for the health of the river, there is a reasonable amount of rain forecast from the 16 April so by the time you read this hopefully we will have had some decent rain. Whilst it is a little frustrating waiting for rivers to clear it is vitally important that the depleted levels are topped up for the health of the rivers; too many of our central Hawkes Bay rivers loose too much of their water and run dry over summer. 

The increased river levels will help our spawning trout travel up into the river headwaters and tributaries where they can spawn and continue to replenish our rivers and streams. As we all know many of our Hawkes Bay rivers; particularly the smaller northern rivers were very badly affected by Cyclone Gabrielle, so it is vital that we protect the spawning trout and their redds to maximise our chances of good natural recruitment.  

The open season for trout fishing comes to an end on 30 June; this is later than it was historically where it ended on the 30 April, this change was made to maximise opportunity for anglers, but it is timely to remind anglers that there some risks with this later closing. The first is that the duck hunting season starts on 3 May, so anglers ( and hunters) need to be aware of and show consideration to other users on the river, most lowland rivers will have lots of gamebird hunters, hunting ducks and pheasant on the 3rd and 4th of May, so expect to hear a few gunshots! It may be a good weekend to try somewhere else, and if you are fishing in the early morning or evening in May or June, I would avoid fishing in front of an occupied maimai, because you won’t be popular frightening their ducks away. The other consideration is that by the end of June some trout; particularly Browns maybe starting to spawn – so if you see a pair of fish together and particularly if they are by an area in the stream bed that has been recently disturbed, please avoid them and avoid walking over the redds; the freshly disturbed areas of gravel. 

The Tukituki, Tutaekuri and the smaller northern rivers have all been very low and weedy making fishing challenging – at such times successful anglers will often find the trout holding in faster broken water that is more oxygenated the slower in pools. The biggest challenge has been avoiding the weed, so a dry fly or lightly weighted nymph has been working well. When its low and clear, fishing early in the day will normally be more successful because as the day warms fish activity slows down, gas bubbles in the weed tend to make it break away and drift more. The other really important consideration is if you choose to release your fish their recovery will be much quicker early in the day when the water temperatures are cooler. 

Sport Flyfish NZ Mohaka River Competition. 

As we said earlier the Mohaka came up Friday night from headwaters rain and was quite full and dirty Saturday morning, so the competition start was deferred until later on Saturday, with 2 shortened sessions fished on the Saturday and 2 normal sessions fished on the Sunday. After a slow start some of the competitors really “got amongst it” with some surprisingly high numbers of fish caught, the majority were rainbows, but 41 Brown trout were recorded the best 60cm long with quite a few very close behind.  What was also great to see was the high number juvenile trout recorded in the 20-30 cm range which augers very well for the future of the catchment. 

Drift Dives 

Every year the staff with some help from colleagues from other regions aim to complete drift dives in the headwaters of the Mohaka and Ngaruroro rivers, the rivers were low and clear and it was great to see good trout numbers and some impressive fish in both rivers as well as some fine big eels. These drift dives give us the opportunity to assess river health and the number and size distribution of both rainbow and brown trout in these important high-country rivers. It was a surprise to see quite a bit of weed growth even in the upper Ngaruroro, showing just how hot and dry it had been and how few high flow events we had over the last 6 months.  

The key to successful drift diving is having clear water, we also tried to drift dive the Tukituki which was successful above highway 50 but once we got down to the Tukipo confluence and below, the clarity wasn’t quite good enough for accurate counts, on a positive note we did see very good numbers of trout; many of good size and condition. 

The fishing in the bay has continued to be good in many rivers with some big well-conditioned trout being caught, with all the weed along the edges on the likes of the Tukituki it can be challenging getting your fish to the edge at times though. With lots of weed in the rivers a dry fly, dry with small nymph dropper or a single lightly weighted fly seems to have been working well by keeping the fly out of the weed on the bottom and minimising the lost time having to clean the weed off your fly. Neil, one of our valued  regular volunteers at the game farm sent us in some photos of some great fish he had caught recently all on single small lightly weighted pheasant tail variants. 

Selective Harvest and Releasing Fish 

Most anglers like to take the occasional trout home for dinner, ideally it’s a nice fat maiden fish and killed within the daily bag limit regulations for that river, which means with such selective harvesting, many anglers are letting other trout go -  the juveniles, the fish that haven’t fully recovered post spawning and the big mature spawners that we want to go on to spawn and possibly be caught by another angler. To be selective with our harvesting, it is vitally important for our fisheries and social license that the fish we don’t choose to harvest, do survive; unfortunately, we have had reports of the occasional large healthy-looking fish, lying dead in the bottom of a pool in high country rivers lately. If the fish is hooked in the gills and likely to die, please harvest it and take it home, remembering that when you have killed your limit, you must cease fishing.  

As the rivers drop and warm up, the chance of released fish dying increases, getting the fish to the edge, unhooked and back in the river, facing into gentle current as soon as possible will maximise the chances of survival. Gently support the fish until it regains its strength and wants to swim away; whatever you do don’t drag it out of the water onto the hot stones or handle it with dry hands!  

If you feel you must take a photo of that extra big fish, ideally do it with the fish in the water or if you must lift it out of the water, remember it should be out of the water for a maximum of 5 seconds – that’s 1 quick photo and let it go.  

Illegal Fishing

If you see evidence of illegal fishing, please contact the Fish and Game team as soon as possible, if you can safely take photos and record vehicle registration numbers that will be greatly appreciated – but only if it is safe.  

Illegal overfishing will quickly destroy a fishery, so we all need to work together to protect our fragile fisheries; this is more important now than ever before, after the damage Cyclone Gabrielle did to some of our rivers.  

Flyfishing Courses 

Here at Hawkes Bay Fish and Game we have been running introductions to flyfishing courses, we recently hosting three separate courses specifically for women, men and students. These courses are 6 sessions long, progressing from setting up a flyrod, tying leaders, fly casting and reading the water. We hope to run additional courses soon so keep an eye on our Facebook page to see what’s coming up. https://www.facebook.com/HBFishandGame/ 

Know before you go     

Winter Licence 

If you are thinking of going fishing or better still taking someone new fishing, now is great time to be buying license as you can buy a winter season licence valid from 1 April to 30 September for a lot less than a full year license. 

There is still heaps of fishing opportunity on our larger rivers -  Remember many smaller rivers and the tributaries and headwaters of larger rivers will close for trout fishing from 1 July through to 30 September, so read the regulations and remember to carry your licence with you, because this season there is a better chance than ever, that you will get to meet the ranging team out on the river. 

Please check a map carefully, so you are sure where you are before you start fishing, because many of the smaller rivers such as the Tukipo and Manganuku that flow into the Tukituki and Waipawa respectively, close on the 30 June whilst the main river stays open below SH50. 

Click here to get your licence now! https://fishandgame.eslltd.co.nz/shop