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27th January 2012 Fishing report , Central South Island Region.
Graeme Hughes
Returning from a months leave in North America and still wading through 242 Emails and a kilo of “snail mail” I have been shackled to the office desk and unable to see much of the great outdoors.
Having read Hamish’s fishing reports, thanks for attending to these in my absence Hamish, I gather there is not a lot happening in the salmon rivers however the trout fishing has been good.
I was surprised to see the smaller rivers still in good condition which is not always the case at the time of the year.
By all accounts the weather has been warm and sunny which should have produced some good hatches of insects, important to the trout as well as the angler.
Salmon fishing in the Rangitata is on hold until the next fresh, low and clear at 60 cumecs anglers await a norwest rain in the back country.
A salmon has mysteriously appeared in my freezer and I have a fair idea who caught it and therefore assume it was caught “close to home”. This is good because I have returned with some essential gear and I’m prepared for Waitaki salmon.
Like a child in a lolly shop, with eyes wide open and clutching my new travellers credit card topped up with American dollars, I wandered through a maze of hunting and fishing gear in one of America’s well known sporting outlets. On entering the “shop”, about the size of a New Zealand shopping mall, I just knew I would not have enough time (or enough money) to satisfy my needs. After a brief panic attack I organised myself to systematically cover every row of every section of every department contained within. After 60 minutes, my allotted time, I had only managed to fill two bags much to the disbelief of my waiting bride. We recently disagreed with the scales used by the airline company, and now we had very little leeway on luggage weight, having already had to open our suitcases and amongst many amused fellow travellers remove items of clothing and footwear to be transferred to our carry on luggage.
The airport authorities supply a huge plastic bag for this purpose and to further the embarrassment the bag they supply is a clear, see- through one. This allows passengers and bystanders to inspect at leisure what you have packed for your holiday wardrobe. I tend to think that your suit case is quite private and to be carrying your personal gear and your bride’s “frillies” for all the world to see doesn’t seem quite right.
I digress; amongst treasures purchased I had a spool of state of the art line, specifically for salmon fishing. Neither braid nor monofilament this ultra fine thread is going to catch me more salmon because the label says it will. Called “Nanofil” it is described as “a gel-spun polyethylene uni-filament, consisting of hundreds of Dyneema nanofibers, molecularly linked into a unified line”. The description says it all and I’m keen to give it a try on a big fish.
I successfully used the same line on smaller fish in Florida’s amazing Indian River. A huge inland salt water “river”, we explored shallow water areas around islands looking for Red fish, also known as Red drum, a strong , hard pulling bottom feeder, and excellent table fish. Fortuitously we idled into an area which held large numbers of trout. Not trout that you and I would recognise but sea trout and not the sea trout we know either. Florida’s Spotted sea trout Cynoscion nebulosus is not a trout but its colour and markings are certainly trout like. Voracious feeders they take live baits, spoons, soft artificials and although we didn’t try them I guess a feathered lure would also provoke a response.
Spotted sea trout suffered from commercial netting and populations were in rapid decline, so much so that in 1995 most nets were banned from Florida’s coastal waters. There is now a season, and in the area we fished, a bag of 4 per person. There is a “slot size limit” of not less than 15 inches and not more than 20 inches, one trout per person may exceed the maximum size limit. As is often the case, because the season was closed the trout were hitting our lures with gay abandon and we estimate our 3 rods caught over 100 trout which were immediately released. You wouldn’t play silly games over there, the law enforcement guys carry guns!
Two days later, New Years Day and opening day of the trout season, with my $47.00 fishing licence safely in my pocket, (I was required to purchase a non resident saltwater fishing licence) we were on spot “X”, unfortunately the fish weren’t. We persevered and eventually found their new feeding grounds. When you locate a feeding school, sea trout provide great entertainment, they fight much like a kahawai with a lot of half leaps and head shaking. As a bonus a red fish took a soft bait twitched across the sea grass and was successfully netted. Unfortunately my red fish, hooked but never seen, after a few minutes of dragging our boat around, well had we not been anchored I’m sure it would have, threw the hook as all the big ones tend to do.
Back to some “real trout” fishing, heavy rain last night, (Thursday) followed by snow to low levels has almost all our rivers rising, however due to the short duration of the rain event I’m guessing this rise will not be too dramatic.
The Waitaki has been a little higher than we’re used to due to low levels in Lake Manapouri and the need for extra generation from the Waitaki Valley stations, however for the weekend it should be in the 300 to 400 cumec range. The weather is predicted to be good for the weekend.
A Spotted sea trout (with a firm grip on a jig head soft bait) has a brown trout look about it. G.Hughes
My first Floridian Spotted sea trout, with the expansive Indian River in the background. J. Doerr
Tight Lines
Graeme Hughes.
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