Weekly Fishing Report North Canterbury 04 March 2021

For the last week, river conditions have been favourable for anglers, however heavy rain in the alps yesterday discoloured the main rivers and with heavy rain forecast on Friday and Saturday in the headwaters.

The main rivers are unlikely to be fishable for some time, with another rainfall event in the headwaters expected in the middle of next week. 

There have been reports of a few salmon about the lower reaches of the main rivers, including the Waimakariri and Kaiapoi rivers, but nothing exceptional.

Above: Gumboots were necessary at McKintosh's this week with a full moon and high tide.

Fishing in both the Rakaia and Waimakariri Gorges has also been yielding the odd salmon for keen anglers over the last few weeks, although these two gorges are really only accessible by jet boat.

We are right at the peak of salmon migration now and expect to see them throughout all the rivers over the next few weeks before the season ends at the end of this month.

The Rakaia salmon fishing competition was held last weekend with 14 salmon landed.

One angler caught a salmon early on Friday and as he did not want to stop fishing for salmon at that point, released the salmon so he could continue fishing, a very worthy effort!

The weather does not look good for fishing in the high country this weekend, with strong winds and rain.

Please check your regulations booklet before heading inland when conditions allow, as some of the streams closed at the end of February, with others at the end of March and April. 

Being relatively handy to Christchurch at around an hours’ drive west, Lake Lyndon is getting plenty of angler attention and good numbers of rainbow trout are still being caught.

Lake Coleridge should also still be producing land-locked salmon for trolling anglers, especially early morning along the margins. 

Good luck if you are heading out over the last weekend of the season.