North Canterbury Weekly Fishing Report April 7 2022

Unfortunately, as of this morning, the rain forecast for the high country hasn’t quite made enough of an impact to bring a new fresh down any of the main rivers, with only a slight increase in flow over the last 24 hours that in places is already dropping back off.

The rivers have remained quiet as of late, with very few reports coming through from the major salmon rivers.

The Rakaia has seemed to have done its dash, and while there’s been a few salmon caught in the Waimakariri, it has largely remained quiet. Hopefully, we will see more good-sized fish being caught over the month.

Earlier in the week, we had reports of some smaller salmon (<10lb) being seen and caught upstream on the Waimakariri, most likely waiting in pools for a new fresh before they continue making their way up. When the rivers are running low as they have been over the last few weeks, use the opportunity to scout out new areas of the river and get to pools that you may not usually be able to get to - you may just have some luck.

We’re still hearing of some great trout catches in the lakes and rivers in the high country.

Greg Hey from Ballingers Hunting & Fishing nabbed this excellent condition 7lb brown trout out of Lake Coleridge on the weekend.

This brown was cruising the lake shallows and nipped a well-placed humpy blowfly from the surface.

The trout definitely put up a fight, throwing his weight around and going on a few good runs. A good reminder you don’t always need a boat in Lake Coleridge!

Thanks to Greg for sending the photo in.

Want to share your catch? Email a photo and a few details of the catch to northcanterbury@fishandgame.org.nz, and we may just feature it in our fishing report! 

Some rivers are now closed

As of March 31, a few of our waterways closed for the season. These include the Rakaia River upstream of the Coleridge Tailrace confluence, the Coleridge Tailrace, Cass Hill Stream, Cora Lynn Stream, Hacketts Creek and Lake Stream. They will reopen on October 1, when the 22/23 season begins. 

The week ahead

The weather looks fine for Friday and through the weekend across the region, so an excellent opportunity to take a weekend trip somewhere in the region that’s usually out of reach for a day trip.

Unfortunately, in a slight repeat of this week, there’s rain forecasted for next Tuesday and Wednesday in the high country, before improving on Thursday.

Next week’s rain provides another chance for a fresh the following weekend, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed that this will bring some colour down the rivers and the fish up!

As always, see what the river flows are up to after next week’s forecasted rain on the Environment Canterbury website: https://www.ecan.govt.nz/data/riverflow/ 

In the high country, with the rain coming in mid-week, the weekend is the time to get up there for a fish.

You may see more mayflies emerging as the temperatures cool, so give your mayfly patterns a go.

Parachute Adams and similar variants are a staple for most anglers.

Try to match the size of the insects you see around you, as we all know some trout can be rather picky!

As we can see from Greg’s brown above, casting bigger dry fly patterns like blowflies also work well from lake edges for cruising trout.

Winter licences available

Winter licences are now valid and available for purchase. These discounted licences enable you to take advantage of our great winter fisheries for the remainder of the season (until September 30).

As mentioned previously, there are some great fish in Lake Coleridge and some of the other high country lakes.

Check your regulation guide to see which ones remain open over the Winter. 

Please note that you cannot receive a sea-run salmon endorsement on a Winter licence.

If you haven’t got your fishing licence yet and wish to get some sea-run salmon fishing in before the end of the sea-run season (April 30), you will need one of the full season licences.