Reel Life September 2026 - Southland

Early Season Prospects

There’s something special about the opening weeks of the trout season. After months of waiting, the rods come out and the rivers are back on the agenda.

Spend the weeks leading up to the opening of your favourite haunts by checking your tackle and equipment to make sure it’s in top condition and won’t let you down when it counts.

Early season can offer some of the best opportunities of the year. Having had a break from anglers, the trout are less educated. Post spawning fish are also feeding heavily to build energy and are looking for an easy meal. Higher spring flows and discoloured water can also encourage fish to feed more confidently and require a less forgiving presentation.

In the lower reaches the seasonal baitfish runs can create exciting fishing activity. These can be targeted with lures or flies or smelt baits. Ask your whitebaiter friend to keep any smelt bycatch to use as bait throughout the season.

Image above: A quality trout from the tidal stretch of the Oreti River, near the Waikiwi River mouth.

Conditions can change quickly, so check the water, and choose a river that’s suitable.

A Different Kind of El Niño Summer

There’s plenty of talk about the “Super El Niño” developing this year, but what does it mean for Southland anglers?

Environment Southland’s current local outlook points towards colder, windier and wetter conditions, with generally less settled periods.

For trout anglers, that could mean plenty of movement in our rivers. Higher and fluctuating flows could keep water temperatures down and create regular freshes. Anglers will need to monitor conditions and may need to move further up a catchment, or to a smaller tributary, to get suitable river levels.

Anglers should be prepared to capitalise on the settled and lower-flow periods between weather systems. A summer of regular - but hopefully, short-lived - freshes could provide interesting fishing opportunities and avoid the extreme low and warm temperatures that occur during other summers.

Waituna Lagoon is Open to the Sea

Early this month, the lagoon was opened to the sea. Importantly for anglers, this mobilises fish and food sources causing the breakout to become a magnet for anglers. Many older anglers are known to target this area during in-season openings. The opening is approximately 1km from the eastern end of the lagoon, due south of Little Waituna (which is visible in the centre-rear of the image below).

The opening 7 September 2026

It is not possible to mechanically close the lagoon, only the right combination of wind and tide reworking the gravel beach can do that, and only time will tell when it happens. 

If that isn’t motivation enough, check out this 750mm jack that we intercepted during our spawning surveys in late June. He’ll be somewhere in the lagoon!

A genuine, wild trophy fish from the Waituna in 2026.

Your Southland Fishing Toolkit

We have put a lot of time into our new Access Maps over winter, and they’re now a very handy one-stop-shop for planning your fishing trip.

The map brings together

• Access points. Each access point has it’s own bespoke description and can link to GoogleMaps for fast directions and travel times.
• The map makes our regulations easier to visualise as they are attached to each water body. This means new anglers, and those unfamiliar with our waterways, don’t have to flick between our Anglers’ Notice in one hand, and a map in the other.
• Environment Southland’s live river monitoring information and webcams. Anglers can now see the live river flows and water temperatures within our map when they are planning a trip. Again, this means you will not have to consult multiple sources again.

If you use these maps regularly, create a shortcut on your phone for quick access.

Clockwise from left; Currently open waterways are shown in blue, while currently closed are shown in red; Live river flow data displayed within the map, eg. at Piano Flat; How the regulations are displayed for each waterway.

Please do check them out. 

We’re pleased with the result and confident the maps will be a valuable resource.

https://www.fishandgameaccessmap.org/

The Fishing Knowledge Hub

Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your skills, the Fish & Game Knowledge Hub is a great source of practical fishing information.

There’s plenty on the fundamentals, along with tips and techniques for improving your fishing.

Much of the content includes local input from Southland Fish & Game staff, with many videos filmed on Southland’s own rivers and lakes.

Picking up one new idea might just make a big difference on your next trip.

https://www.fishandgame.org.nz/freshwater-fishing-in-new-zealand/fishing-knowledge-hub/

The Labour Weekend Fishing Competitions

The Stabicraft Te Anau Manapouri Fishing Classic is underway again, with another highly spec’d Stabi 1850 Supercab spot prize on offer to one lucky angler.

Similarly, the Cruise Milford Take A Kid Fishing is back on at McGregor Pond for the youngsters.

Southland Fish and Game staff have several hundred salmon ready to release into the pond prior to the event. These juvenile salmon should be relatively easy to catch and will put a smile on any kids dial.

For entries, and more information, on both of these iconic events, see https://www.teanauevents.co.nz/our-events/

 

If you have any photos or fishy stories that you think other anglers might like to see or read about in next month’s Reel Life, then email them to [email protected]

 

All the best,

From the team at Southland Fish and Game