Healthy flows please excited anglers

The new trout fishing season opens on Saturday and keen anglers are tackled up and full of expectation of bagging the big one.

Fish & Game Otago Operations Manager Ian Hadland says the opening day opportunities look great with near perfect conditions - clearing rivers and a good weather forecast for October 1, which helpfully falls on a Saturday.

Mr Hadland says last season was one to forget for many anglers who regularly faced dirty rivers and scruffy weather during the spring and summer but this year the conditions look significantly better.

“Rivers have dropped a bit this week and are clearing, which is great for spin and fly anglers, and just about all of Otago lakes are full to the brim. The long range forecast is for reasonably settled weather which means that the good fishing should extend well into the summer” Mr Hadland says. Otago Fish & Game sold over 10,000 whole season fishing licences last year and Mr Hadland says licence sales have been steady over the last month, especially sales through the website purchasing facility.

“It must be the simplicity or convenience of it. We thought internet sales might top out at 10% but last year it was 17% of all sales and still climbing.”

This year a number of regulations have changed as a result of a large review so it would be prudent for anglers to check their regulation guide booklet.

“We don’t expect anglers to know the entire regions regulations but they should have a quick check of the rules for the water they intend to fish before they head out to avoid any embarrassment.”