Volitan

Good on you Albert. You’re killing it. I hope you realise how well you have done this. Getting across fishing in the South Island is difficult - big cold clear rivers and lakes with many kilometres between fish. Once you master it it can be productive but it can be hard to master. Ive met many people who have done specialised trout fishing trips to the South Island and caught nothing. I’ve had that happen to me too - one donut trip - and had one trip with 4 or 5 days of intensive fishing for just one mediocre trout. In my first post I said it’s often best to regard your first trip as just a recce (recognisance, ie just learning trip) but you have gone past that in one trip. I also note that you recognise how much greater achievement it is to do it all yourself rather then use a guide. I call it the ‘achievement dividend’ which to me is worth more then any number of fish. its hard to provide advice from this distance but I do want to say don’t put too much stock in the Tassie devils. Yes, they are producing, but trout get habituated quickly and their effectiveness could switch off at any moment so keep varying your tactics. Is that the Kawarau River you are fishing in? If so then bait is allowed including fish roe (check anything I say, it’s hard to be sure from this distance) - I reckon some natural roe drifting through that mob of fish would be lethal.

Thanks. I hadn’t seen your report. the jack is post-spawning. You might be lucky. If there are a lot of post-spawning fish they will be ravenous - trying to recover spawning related loss of condition.

Well done. Beautiful brownie jack. First of many I’m sure. are you going to the canals?

Fishing and posting in real time. Great stuff.

Thinking about it a bit more another thing I would try is a little celta in orange or orange-red. That lure would have several advantages 1. it’s orange, so the same colour as salmonid eggs, so invoke the reflex ‘smash the eggs’ response. 2. Celtas start their action the moment you start to retrieve them, unlike a lot of lures which need a metre or so of travel before they get their action right. This is important in smaller rivers as it allows bank to bank action. 3. they look like little buzzing insecty things. Spawning trout defend their egg laying environments from anything that might eat eggs. The fact that something can’t simultaneously be an insect and a fish egg is something a spawning trout doesn’t care about - they are not deep thinkers. I think most of my lure-caught trout have been on red celtas - although mainly because I prefer to fish small rivers and streams.

Does the situation otherwise match my description ? If not then I would be inclined to throw some fish egg imitations at them - being that this is spawning season and trout that aggregate like that are probably spawners. Because rivers generally don’t provide enough food to maintain large populations of trout, then aggregations of big fish are usually lake-resident fish on their spawning run up the nearby rivers. Trout generally don’t feed on their spawning run, but stress levels are high and they will snap at things out of reflex - especially little clusters of fish egg. It makes for frustrating, inconsistent fishing. if I were there I would use a fly rod, cast an egg fly upstream on a floating line and let it drift back through the group. Keep going gently so as not to alert the fish to your presence, and you might get a response. I don’t know what the spinning rod equivalent of that is these days - maybe an egg fly under a little float with a couple of pieces of split shot. Generally though, s9metimes we just have to accept that there is a lot of luck in fishing - and keeping on trying the same thing without result is generally not the best way to approach trout fishing.

Are your mates actually catching fish in that particular spot? what I’m thinking is that you’re in Queenstown I presume, and you’ve lucked upon a spot with a bunch of very confiding fish somewhere within the city limits or very close to it. There are lots of places in NZ like that - good spots for tourists to see trout but not to catch trout. The fish basically won’t touch anything. They have probably seen dozens of people try to catch them, so as soon as they see an interruption on the skyline they clamp their jaws shut and stay that way no matter what - it’s how they stay alive. overthinking how you are fishing the Tassie devil won’t change anything. my suggestion, give it a brief try very early or late in the evening to see if that changes anything. Or get out of town and find some wild fish. apologies if I’ve read the situation wrongly.

I always get a kick out of reading your Meadowbank reports. I lived at West Ryde for about 10 years and it never once occurred to me to go down the road and chuck a lure about. I would have been delighted to catch something so close to home - anything at all. I never saw anyone else fishing there either.

I haven’t fished it personally but if I was going there I would make sure I was equipped to competently do at least 2 methods and one would be ‘egg drifting’ . Being winter the trout are feeding less but being winter then spawning is occurring so there will be a lot of loose eggs drifting about, so typically a fish egg imitation will outfish anything else. At spawning time trout will smash eggs not so much for food but to deny competitors the chance to perpetuate their genes. Having fished big spawning rivers in NZ I reckon most of those big winter-time fish are caught on egg imitations, they are just so deadly. I also think many of the successful anglers may be a bit reluctant to reveal this fact. Also remember that rivers in NZ are usually much bigger and clearer then in Australia, so if the advice is to get down deep them make sure you are able to do so and still present your bait in a natural manner. Trout typically are wary and nothing puts them off faster then an object drifting unnaturally. Trial your rigs and practise your methods somewhere at home rather then trying to get it all working once you get there. The only other advice I can offer is that the biology of those trout is nothing like what we are familiar with around Sydney (or probably anywhere else in the world) - so be wary of trying to fit fishing for them into a familiar paradigm. You have to be a bit zen about it, got to free your mind from all previous assumptions.

Fishing in the big rivers and lakes of the South Island is difficult in ways you don’t expect. I’ve done 6 or so freshwater fly fishing trips to NZ in past years but only a couple to the South Island. Latest one about 5 years ago. I found local knowledge essential and without that it can be very confusing - the fish are there but it’s hard to know where, the rivers are empty of people and you rarely run into another angler so it’s hard to reality check your methods. I was fishing solo and felt like I was bumbling around in the dark. I underestimated the size and power of the rivers and my weighted flies were not heavy enough to get down to where the fish were so i spent the whole time fishing too shallow but not really understanding this till the end. It took about 4 days to work out how to fish the place and by that time I had to go home. If I went back to the same rivers with what I learnt about them I think I would be very successful but it takes time to acquire that knowledge on your own. I know you are not fly fishing and that may make it a bit easier but my point is either: - regard your first trip as just a recce to learn the spots and the methods. - or better still, hire a guide or hook up with someone local who knows what they are doing. Nonetheless, Google Ohau Canal or Tekapo Canals or Hydro canals. These are the man made canals that link the hydro power facilities. There are salmon and trout farms in the canals and there are lots of huge wild fish (trout and salmon) that live in the canals feasting on the excess food from the farms - the stuff that just drifts out of the wire cages. These fish grow huge - great fat lazy things that don’t have much natural wariness and have never had to work hard for food. 20lb trout not uncommon. A lot of people look down on this type of fishing because they’re not natural fish and they require no great skill, but they are a great novelty and as a holiday thing why not? have a look here https://fishingmag.co.nz/south-island/central-south-island-fish-and-game-region/twizel-canals-fishing-tips-ohau-pukaki-tekapo?amp . Please understand that this is an abnormal situation and trout like this are rarely encountered in the natural lakes and rivers in NZ or anywhere else in the world - despite the tendency of some local guides and operators to lure in foreign clients by letting them believe fish like that can be found anywhere in NZ. In the Hydro canals, unlike what I said at the start, which applies to the natural rivers and lakes, I don’t think there would be need for local knowledge or specialised skills. Some places you can even use bait. Check for closed seasons.

In terms of general tips, consider this. The water around the wharves near me is usually a bit dirty but sometimes it clears up to the extent that I can clearly watch the blackfish and how they interact with my rig. I use this time to experiment, and the thing I have found most influential is whether or not the fish can see a hook glinting in the weed. This makes sense, blackfish feed by picking weed off structure which they do tentatively and have the time to closely examine the weed before eating it, so they can reject anything that isn’t quite right. This is in contrast to, say, a pelagic which basically feeds in a high speed snatch and grab raid. im not sure this would apply elsewhere, my area is heavily fished so the fish are very wary.

Question 1: A dedicated blackfish reel is nice, but if money is tight consider buying a secondhand general purpose centerpin steelite or Alvey on EBay. I use an old steelite that I found in the garage when we bought a house, plus I have bought a couple on EBay for when we have visitors who want to try fishing - I think they were about $15 each. But most people around here seem to use spinning reels now and they do fine. Question 2: a long rod is nice for the coverage it gives. I fish mainly off wharves and the good thing is it allows me to lever the fish away from the wharf. Again, not essential. Question 3: I mostly fish off the local wharves which are fairly small structures, and the fish congregate around them at low tide so they are going to be under the wharf anyway, but berleying gets them on the bite and helps them to ignore the disturbance I am making. Catch rates are several times better with berley. if you are worried about over exploiting resources, then travel to somewhere weed is abundant, get a lot, and then grow it at home. I use large plastic containers, put them in the sun, fill them up with weed and saltwater, and change the saltwater occasionally. They should last 6 months. Question 4: this varies with locality. In our area (shallow estuary) it’s one hour before to 1 hour after dead low. This is because the fish spread out and explore new areas when the the tide is high but congregate under the wharves and around other structure when the tide is low. They wait, milling about, under the wharves until there feeding areas are available again. So the answer depends on your locality and the strategies fish must adopt to exploit it. Question 5: use bait elastic to keep your weed on the hook. Get the very fine, almost invisible version. On numerous occasions I have caught 3 or 4 blackfish on the same piece of weed. The weed tends to get mangled into a hard lump after a couple of fish - sometimes this matters and sometimes it doesn’t.

Hi. Anyone know how the fads are fishing this season. I get the impression that this is a very poor season for mahi offshore - is that true ? cheers

About the lure blanks on EBay. Thanks. I did not know that. the popper blanks look useful. cheers

Use the sinking stuff. That’s if it’s still available. Usually fluoro yellow or pink pellets - or the paste. re private property - if uncertain just go to the nearest farmhouse and ask. Most farmers love a chat and will tell you who owns what. In the dozens of times I have asked for permission to fish here or in NZ I can only remember being refused twice (once was lambing, once was in a drought and didn’t want my car on his land for fire reasons).

A few years back I did a number of trips in a row to Lake Oberon. It was just bait fishing from the bank. I just drove to a public access spot and walked a kilometre or so around the foreshore from there. Early morn8ng or late evening preferred, but not essential. My rig was: spinning rod 6lb line size 6 hook worms and Berkeley Powerbait for bait. sugar cubes for sinkers The deal behind the sugar cubes is that you drill holes in them, thread 3 or so on your line, and cast out. The sugar promptly dissolves in the water giving you a completely weightless line - advantageous because the trout were wary and would typically drop the line as soon as they felt resistance. You still need some weight to cast, however, depending on lake level and where the fish were lying it could be quite a long cast. So I would just cast out, put the rod down with the bail open, and get ready to respond when I see the line being stripped from the reel. It was successful but not exactly exciting fishing. A friend used to do very well at Oberon by lure fishing off the bank. He used to go to a deeper spot on private property, and cast Tassie Devils. He would cast out, then count down as the lure sinks, then wind in. He would hit a different depth by counting a second or two longer each time until he had success, then he would stay fishing at that depth. Don’t be put off by private property - I’ve found that if you find the owner’s house and approach respectfully you rarely get denied permission to fish.

Good trip. We’re you fishing landbased at the breakwall, or in a boat.

Well done. What size were the Mac tuna? There have been some big ones around this year.

Plus some small white baitfish flies, for when they are feeding selectively on very small bait.

Unintentional.

Agree they are underrated. They seem to be out of fashion now - a shop doesn’t even stock them anymore. I have never had any success using the popper on its own. It seems they need a baited hook or a source of real bait somewhere nearby to get the fish over the hump.

Firstly, my apologies if this is commonplace or has been seen here before. Anyway, this is my new favourite surf fishing rig. A berley cage and two surf poppers. I put 2 or 3 pilchards in the berley cage, close it up with a couple of cable ties, and throw it out as is. Then I spike the rod and leave it. Does it work? Yes indeed. Not as well as baited hooks or soft plastics of course, but it’s set and forget so its valuable in other ways. You can use this in bait picker territory without needing to continually rebait- in fact you don’t need to rebait or wind it in till you catch something or its time to go home. You won’t be catching undersize fish either, which is good for the fish stocks. If you like to use two rods, you can set this one up and focus on keeping the other rod in your hand. Anyone whose seen my videos will have noticed that fish aren’t always very accurate at identifying the bait. When there is scent in the water they rush in pecking at everything - swivels, bait floats, bare hooks, sinkers even. Unsurprisingly the eyecatching motion of the surf popper often makes it a stronger initial target then a baited hook. You may also have noticed how vigorously the water flows back and forth even in low surf conditions giving the popper a ceaseless darting motion. The berley bag is made from mice and snake wire - available in the garden section at Bunnings. It’s 6mm mesh means even leatherjackets cant get the berley out. And I’ve tied this with 80lb braid to make it visible in the photo. Normally I’d use mono and make better choices of swivels etc. Wire trace to the berley cage stops sharks and rays pinching the whole thing. cheers

I live beside Brisbane Water and feel reasonably qualified to answer. I think the fishing on the southern end of the Central Coast is the poorest in NSW. The only tips I can offer are: 1. Fish at night. Late at night. 2. If you want takeable fish in quantity, go for blackfish. They are always abundant. 3. Have low expectations. One or two legal-sized fish is a good result. Occasionally I have had very good catches, but you have to understand they are the exception and rarely repeatable. BW functions as a nursery so the overwhelming majority of fish are undersize. In fact there are so many undersize fish it makes fishing difficult.

In previous summers bream has been the dominant fish I see landed. Also lots of flathead. In high summer salmon are around but usually in small numbers. not sure about fish numbers overall. I think every season is different due to winds and currents and temperatures - but it just seems to be at an extreme this year. There is a lot of baitfish in close at the moment., which may explain the salmon.

I mostly fish off the beaches on the Central Coast and have been noticing that this year it’s a very different mix of fish out there. The usual suspects bream, flathead and whiting are almost completely absent from catches - in fact I’ve only caught one flathead off the beach all summer and none of the other two. This season it’s dart, salmon and shovel nose rays making up the majority. Last two trips I caught shovelnoses and nothing else. I even tried fishing with a berley cage clipped to the line and it came back in all squashed and with the fish sucked out. I think a shovelnose grabbed it and just munched on it without swimming off or me even realising - so we can add that to their list of annoying traits. Have other people been noticing this ? Anyway, for the last couple of trips I’ve attached a camera to the line at the end of the session and cast it out - which I often do to see what is around. I put some clips together in the video below. FYI: the second to last fish is a numb ray and the last one is a rat king. How often is it that when things are quiet you ask yourself ‘are there even any fish out there?’. The answer is the bait rarely sits for long without something paying attention, even if it doesn’t result in bites - and the variety is a constant surprise. Sorry the video is so chaotic. Casting out a camera in surf like we’ve had for the last couple of weeks is like chucking a camera into a washing machine. Never will be any different. cheers