Reel Life February 2025 - Hawke's Bay

The incredible run of great river fishing weather has continued!  

We got a bit of rain around the start of February, most rivers came up and ended up reasonably coloured, some showed minimal discolouration and were still fishable and were clean within a day or two and pretty much every HB river was clean by the following weekend.  

 The cooler temperatures dropped the water temperature, and the cooler overcast conditions seemed to keep the trout feeding actively longer through the day.  

The amount of rain seemed to vary considerably from one catchment to another, so some got a good clean out, whilst others have remained quite weedy making fishing frustrating at times. For the spin or lure fishers, it seems like every cast you are having to clean the weed off your hook; such conditions can also make nymph fishing challenging, but keeping the drifts short, and avoiding swinging the fly at the end of the drift will help, fishing a dry fly or a dry with a nymph as a dropper is often a good option in these conditions.      

The extra water in some rivers and a bit of colour, helped the spinning or soft baiting and the windy conditions have been blowing all sorts of terrestrials onto the water, from green beetles to big grasshoppers, artificials imitating these, coupled with a variety of nymphs and normal waterborne dry flies have been working well. 

It is very exciting watching a big rainbow absolutely smash a big terrestrial this time of the year, but it is easy to get tunnel vision and forget that many of these fish; particularly the mature ones will be wise to big grasshoppers or cicadas that have “bitten them back” previously. On a recent trip I found a nice brownie in a run and tried two different big dry flies over it - first cast, both times he came up, had a look and refused it, subsequent casts he didn’t even move; changing to a small nymph resulted in a solid hookup and a beautifully coloured average condition brown jack caught and released. 

While we are talking big terrestrial dry flies its timely to remind ourselves that many fish will try to swallow them very quickly, resulting in throat or gill hooked fish that are unlikely to survive, resulting in a fish should be harvested, if the limit allows. My advice, use barbless hooks and strike as quick as you can, the textbook recommendation of counting to three for a dry fly take might be ok for small dries, but with large terrestrials it is way to slow.  

The Tukituki, Waipawa and their tributaries

The Tukituki, Waipawa and their tributaries continue to fish very well, with high numbers of fish seen in some stretches. With the rivers now low and clear, it’s a great time to spot and fish to a particular fish rather than fishing a stretch “blind”, such fishing is really satisfying , stalking and watching the trout take your fly is a real highlight, but  challenging with the clear water, meaning a stealthy approach with fine leaders and size 14 flies or smaller, is often needed for success. 

Ned Beard with another great HB Brown Trout.

As we reported in our January Reel Life, some rivers have been affected by the toxic algae - Microcoleus; a website check confirmed these warnings are still in place for the Tukituki River at SH2, but OK at Walker road, and Black Bridge. Microcoleus is of particular concern to dogs, because matts of algae can break away from the river bottom and be washed up along the river margins, as it dries it gives off a musty, enticing smell to dogs, poisoned them, when they have eaten it. There is also a separate swimming warning in place for the Esk River. 

Here are the links to check water quality: https://www.lawa.org.nz/explore-data/swimming 

The Tutaekuri

It’s been great to hear further reports of anglers seeing a few fish in there lately, we have seen a mix of juveniles, maiden fish and recovering spawners so things are looking a little more positive for this catchment. Whilst the numbers haven’t been high, we are hopeful that given the chance to spawn, these fish will continue to repopulate this popular close to town river. 

The Ngaruroro and Mohaka

We have had some good reports from the Mohaka and its tributaries. The great thing with the Mohaka system is there are more brown trout than most other HB river systems, adding variety to an angling day out.  

Anglers are reminded that the Hawkes Bay Fish and Game team have cleared the track, that drops off the road between the Fish and Game Hut and Jock Sutton Road to the river, at Glenfalls, which will be helpful if the river is a bit full to cross or you need an alternative access point. 

These big powerful rivers can provide some good fishing, but caution is needed with strong currents, deep crossings and big boulders. In these rivers where there is a higher chance of slipping over, waders aren’t recommended from a safety point of view, ideally pick a warm sunny day and wet wade, ideally with good trustworthy wading boots.   

The mid sections of the Ngaruroro have been fishing well, with some great fishing to be had to trout holding on the drop offs into the pools, whilst the scenery isn’t quite as stunning as the headwaters, the more shingly riverbed makes for easier and safer fishing. 

These rivers that rise in the western ranges have had some several spikes in flow recently due to heavy showers in the high- country - they tend to rise and fall quite quickly under such conditions.  

Before heading out, remember to check the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council website for up-to-date flow levels in all Hawkes Bay Rivers.  

A nicely patterned Mohaka Brown. Photo John Lumsden

The Kuripapango lakes

Sport Flyfish NZ ran a catch and release competition on the larger of the lakes on Saturday 8 February, the weather was great and there was space for non-competing anglers to fish, at the southern end of the lake, where a non - competing angler managed to catch several fish. The competition anglers had a relatively slow start but picked up a few more fish later in the day, with a total of 15 recorded; James Fuller placed first, with Hugo Pearce second and Nick Lyon  third. In the ladies’ section Rachel McNae was first, Heather Carrington second and Sarah Delaney third. 

Anglers Compete in HB Kuripapango lakes Sport flyfish NZ Competition. Photo John Lumsden

Paula Burton with a Twin lakes brown. Photo Glenn Morgan

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 bank, 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.  

A Great conditioned young HB rainbow. Photo Glenn Morgan

Illegal Fishing

We had a report recently, of illegal bait fishing in the Waipunga catchment below the falls, near the Napier/ Taupo Road.  

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 such 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 two student flyfishing courses and a women’s flyfishing course. 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 through the summer and autumn so keep an eye on our Facebook page to see what’s coming up. https://www.facebook.com/HBFishandGame/ 

Know before you go

The favourable weather looks set to continue for our region for a while, 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. Click here to get your licence now! https://fishandgame.eslltd.co.nz/shop