Reel Life December 2024 - Nelson Marlborough

Nelson/Marlborough
18/12/2024

Your Holiday Fishing!

It’s holiday time and that means it’s time to go fishing! Across the region, the fishing has been great with healthy trout numbers and some excellent specimens getting caught. We’ve had a packed season so far, we’ve been busy monitoring our fisheries, doing regular releases of fish and getting some successful fishing workshops underway with plenty more coming up in 2025. We hope you’ve got some well-earned time off over the holiday season and you can enjoy some time on the water. Read on to find out what’s in store!

Take a Mate (Free Day Licence) Promo

This summer, we are offering an exciting opportunity for those eager to try their hand at trout fishing. Through our ‘Take a Mate’ Promo, we have 50 day licences to give away. If you know someone who hasn’t fished for trout before, or has done in the past but hasn’t recently, now is your chance! Simply nominate a person you’d like to take fishing then reach out to the Richmond Fish & Game office via phone or email, or use the QR code below to sign up. And if your mate loves the experience and wants to continue fishing, we’ll discount the cost of a whole season licence by $25 (the price of a day licence).

Apply here

Fish Liberations

It’s business as usual on the liberations front, and staff have been busy releasing healthy rainbows into selected fisheries during the season.

Lake Argyle tag competition

A fan favourite, the Lake Argyle tag comp is coming up again, and we will be releasing 200 tagged trout into Lake Argyle just before Christmas. It’s simple to enter:

· Catch a tagged fish at Lake Argyle

· Let us know the number (email, phone, or Facebook messenger), preferably with a photo

· We’ll tell you if you’re a winner.

There are 20 great prizes up for grabs to those who catch the lucky fish, including 2 x $500 Henderson’s vouchers, rod/reel combo’s, soft bait packs and free licences.

Happy fishing!

The Lake Argyle tag comp will kick off just before Christmas.

‘Old Blue’ and other showstoppers

Adding even more excitement to the fishing scene, we will be releasing a bunch of double-digit rainbow trout, some weighing over 10 pounds! But the real showstopper this year is Old Blue, a rare iridescent pelagic-blue rainbow trout, weighing around 10 pounds. This stunning fish is one of the few of its kind in New Zealand and is sure to be a real trophy. If anyone catches this beauty, we would love you to take a quick pic (remember to keep them wet) and gently release – Old blue would make for an ideal trophy mount, you can get incredibly realistic fibreglass months done, which stand the test of time and mean fish like Old Blue live for another day.

Old Blue is a real showstopper and will be released into Lake Argyle (along with more trophy fish) before Christmas.

Branch/Leatham release completed

In November we completed our annual release of 600 fit 1.5kg rainbows into the Branch and Leatham rivers, as part of Manawa Energy’s hydro-operating consent. These releases are super popular with spin and fly anglers who want to taste backcountry angling with a high chance of success. Best served up with an overnighter in one of the huts, there is plenty of water to explore.

Important note, due to active logging in the Branch, access up the Branch Road is restricted and only available between Friday 3pm and midnight Sunday. The logging crews are shutting down over the Christmas break between 21 December and 5 January, so access is open during this time.

Thanks to Manawa Energy who make this possible, and the team at Helicopters Nelson who fly the fish to their new home.

600 1.5kg rainbow trout were released into the Branch and Leatham rivers.

Waimea Park

We’ve been releasing fish each month into Waimea Park, and a tanker load of fish will be released in time for the holidays. Once again a big thanks to Manawa Energy, Provincial Cold Stores Ltd, NZ King Salmon, and other sponsors.

Fishing Workshops a Success

We’ve had a busy season of fishing workshops which have been designed to upskill anglers. Our soft bait sessions delivered by soft bait guru, Josh Ponder, have been a runaway success with over 100 people attending the sessions at Lake Argyle and on the Wairau River. Recently, we held a Women on The Fly event at Saxton Field with Kylie Sargeant (casting instructor and Nelson Marlborough Fish & Game Councillor) and Tony Entwistle, highlighting a growing interest from females in fly fishing, which is fantastic to see.

Coming up in early 2025 are some soft bait clinics in Tasman and a Motueka River fly fishing workshop. Both events are aimed at completely new or curious anglers wanting to try trout fishing, or people in the intermediate category who want to advance their skills.

These events have been made possible by a legendary angling couple, Jim and Fleur Ring, who made a generous donation to Fish & Game to help grow anglers in this region and encourage the use of angling diaries.

If you haven’t already registered your interest in these events, you can do so here.

A successful Women on the Fly event was held in Nelson, delivered by Kylie Sargeant (pictured) and Tony Entwistle. Photo credit: Gebhard Krewitt.

Soft Baiting Tips

Soft baiting for trout is a growing form of fishing, and when done well, is a deadly way to catch fish. Here are seven top tips from soft bait aficionado, Josh Ponder:

Ditch the swivel, they kill the soft bait action as well as look unnatural.
Use light gear, look for rods in the 7-9ft range, with a fast action and a cast weight of around 2-15g and reels from 1000-3000.
Use a good braid 6-10lb to maximize sensitivity and casting distance and a 6-10lb fluorocarbon leader a rod length long.
Minimize braid tangles by always winding the braid under tension. When the wind catches your braid while casting, lower your braid to the water and wind in the slack under tension.
Use the right jig head weight for the conditions. Go as light as you can in any given situation. A 1/8th is a good place to start.
Make sure the soft bait is rigged correctly, sitting as straight as possible on the jig head, with the hookup and no kinks or twists in the soft bait.
Let your soft bait SINK and SLOW down the retrieve. Make sure to throw in plenty of small twitches and pauses to add life to the soft bait.

Josh Ponder recently delivered four excellent soft bait clinics at Lake Argyle and the Wairau River.

Fish & Game Magazine

Each year Fish & Game produces a top magazine to keep you informed, you can read the magazine online here.

Summer Temps - When the Going Gets Hot

Tony Entwistle is a man who has spent more time in the water than out of it, so when it comes to his take on how water temperature affects trout feeding behaviour (also meaning the optimal temperature range to catch fish), then listen up – take a read of his excellent piece he wrote last year ‘When the Going gets Hot’.

Do the best for our fish

After a prolonged hot period, many of our rivers are heating up from the middle of the day onwards. Catch and release anglers are advised to think about fishing the early part of the day then either calling it off at around midday, or go and fish waterways with cooler temperatures.

Once the water temperature goes beyond 20 degrees, we advise you to stop fishing: any fish caught have an unrealistic chance of survival if released. If you’re taking a fish or two home for tea, then this is less of an issue.

Having a water thermometer is a valuable asset: they’re cheap to buy and you can learn a lot about how trout respond to water temperature – and also when to stop fishing on those hot summer days.

This stunning mid-summer brown caught by Weesang Paaka resulted from having to move to Plan B, and some cooler rivers.

Win a Thermometer

Jim and Fleur Ring (and plenty of other gurus too) were big fans of keeping fishing diaries. They are great to record observations, catch rates between years, and optimal temperatures for feeding trout. One useful addition to your vest (and a key thing to note in your diary) is a thermometer to measure water temperature so you can learn the best times to fish.

Win one of 10 thermometers by adding your details here!

You will be put in the draw, and we will get these out to winning applicants in the new year.

Only holders of a current resident whole season licence may apply (Family, Whole Season adult/junior; Local Area, Loyal Senior)

Read our Annual Fisheries Report

If you want the good oil on which trout fisheries were firing last season, as well as a heap of other info about what your local Fish & Game team get up to, take a read of our Annual Fisheries Report here.

Don't Forget Your Manners

River etiquette is an important part of being an angler, and poor form on the streamside can leave a bad stain on the day for both parties. Here’s the rub, if you bump into another angler at your chosen spot, the best thing to do is chat to the other group and come up with a plan where both teams get a fair crack.

On wilderness ‘backcountry’ waters where you have likely driven or walked a fair way to get there, you need to give each other plenty of space. The main rule is that whoever gets there first has the right to that beat, although a compromise will often be needed to give everyone a fair day’s fishing.

For lowland rivers where there are more trout and more anglers, the beats are shorter. If someone is fishing a run or pool, don’t jump in the water ahead of them unless you’ve had the OK from them, head to the next Fish & Game access point and start fishing there.

Grab a Dash Card

Dashboard cards are a great way to inform others where you’re fishing. We’re giving these out free of charge, simply pop into the office or get in touch and we’ll post a couple out.