Reel Life March 2025 - Hawke's Bay

The incredible run of great weather has finally come to an end in Northern parts of the Bay, in Central Hawke’s Bay although they had some rain, it wasn’t enough to move river levels much; that said the central Hawke’s bay rivers all need a good fresh. 

The Mohaka, Ngaruroro, Tutaekuri and the smaller northern rivers were all up and quite coloured after Thursday’s rain, on a positive note, the fresh should help by clearing the weed and improving trout activity.  

The cooler temperatures drop the water temperature, and the cooler overcast conditions will keep the trout feeding actively longer through the day. 

The lower sections of the Tukituki have been challenging, with lots of weed, making all forms of trout fishing challenging, even fishing a dry fly, resulting in weed on the leader or fly that needed to be removed every second cast or so. The higher sections haven’t been so badly affected, with many some anglers having great fishing, with the size and number of fish being really impressive.  

The amount of rain seemed to vary considerably from one catchment to another, so some will have got a good clean out, whilst others have remained quite weedy making fishing frustrating at times; such conditions can 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 the best option in these conditions.      

For those rivers that did come up a reasonable amount, the extra water in these rivers and a bit of colour, will help the spinning or soft baiting and as they clear, all anglers should see improved fishing – even if it’s just due to less of the frustrating weed. 

Some terrestrials will still be being blown onto the water, from 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, so a nymph or smaller dry can often work well too.  

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 too slow.  

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.  

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 Hawke’s 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