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Reel Life Auckland/Waikato Jan 2012
Summer finally arrives
After a month of atrocious weather, summer is making a much desired appearance.
Fishing opportunities over the last month have been limited by a succession of floods in the Waikato hill country. Those rivers which have been fishable have seen large numbers of anglers, especially the South Waikato spring creeks, and the top end of the Whakapapa.
Rain has also caused havoc with our summer field work schedule as we need pristine conditions for drift diving. Hopefully conditions will improve so we can target the Whakapapa River over the next few weeks, a priority because the Genesis Energy consents to divert the headwaters come up for renewal in 2014.
It’s essential that we build up sufficient data to show that the present flow regime has resulted in a huge increase in the trout population, with an increase in angler numbers benefiting the local economy.
No doubt when the consents are reviewed there will be other parties seeking to have the water diverted back to the Waikato catchment – to a pre-1992 scenario when the Whakapapa was reduced to a small stream of little interest to anglers. So it’s crucial that Fish & Game presents a good case.
The consent review will also be an opportunity to advocate for any ‘fine-tuning’ of the current flow regime in both the upper Whanganui and Whakapapa Rivers, which could potentially benefit the trout fishery. I’m reasonably happy with the status-quo and not yet convinced that any change is required, but if you have any suggestions for potential improvements please tell me.
Stream surveys
Despite the weather we’ve managed to survey several streams for juvenile trout using an electric fishing machine. The Ngakoaohia Stream has been a concern for several years due to an apparent lack of rainbows, but we found good numbers of juvenile rainbows in similar densities as the Mangatutu and Kaniwhaniwha Streams. The Wairoa River near Auckland was also holding good numbers of juvenile rainbows and looking very fishable with the higher flows.
We’ve also been surveying some of the streams flowing from the Kaimai Ranges into the lower Waihou River where the regional council has been carrying our extensive channel works.
Generally these Kaimai streams hold huge numbers of juvenile trout, reflecting the large trout population of the lower Waihou. One clear trend is an increase in juvenile brown trout. They were once a rare catch and typically found only in the streams south of Matamata. Now they are far more abundant than their rainbows cousins, and presumably a similar change is occurring amongst the adult trout population in the lower Waihou and perhaps also the Ohinemuri River.
