Reel Life January 2023

The weather has finally started to play ball here in parts of the Eastern Region, and despite another batch of wet stuff after New Year, anglers have been able to get out and chase some trout.

The Gisborne and East Coast area sadly has been hammered with damaging floods, and it will take some time before the full effect on these trout fisheries can be assessed. Waikaremoana has received a lot of rain, and the lake is high but fishing well.

The Rotorua lakes were fishing well before Xmas as a thermocline developed about 18m. Fish were feeding well, with Tarawera showing the form of old. Well-conditioned fish in the 2kg – 2.5kg were common, and jigging and soft baiting or deep trolling were successful. Surface temps touched 21 degrees Celsius until rain after New Year cooled the lake's surface to 18 degrees. This enabled fish to actively smelt at the surface, and suddenly shallow fly and spin methods were working again.

The Rotorua stream mouths have been off to a slow start because of the cooler weather, but it won’t be long before they fire at full noise. A reasonable number of good rainbows and some excellent browns are being caught, but you can expect the catch rate to increase to their usually insane levels later in January and February.

Where have the cicada gone? Or at least, that’s what we were asking ourselves until mid-January when they began to sing for the first time this summer. Maybe a later season hatch of these bite-sized trout snacks will mean we are in for a bumper year?

Boat Fishing How-To

Our Boat Fishing How-to was successfully held at our headquarters at Ngongotaha and attended by over 100 keen anglers on January 7th. We covered some basic fish biology and lots of how-tos and tackle tips finishing with a filleting and smoking demo. Spot prizes awarded by Kilwell.

If you missed it, this publication covers most of the material covered: https://fishandgame.org.nz/dmsdocument/1588

New opening dates for lakes Rotoiti, Okataina and Tarawera

At a recent meeting of the Eastern Fish & Game Council, it was resolved to change the opening date of the trout fishing season for lakes Rotoiti, Okataina and Tarawera back to the original date of 1 October.

Back in 2020, the Council made a change to the regulations, moving the 2021 opening day from its traditional place in the calendar on the 1^{st of}October to the first Saturday in October.

Datawatch tagged Trout

Tagged trout can now be entered online. Entries go into the draw to win one of 20 free whole-season fishing licences: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QCH5ZR6

Eastern Region Fishing Diaries – All lakes and streams

Fill in your fishing diaries here to help us manage the Eastern Fish & Game region. Participants go in the draw to win a $100 voucher from Kilwell: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QRSD7D3

Tight Lines

Mark Sherburn, Eastern Fish & Game.