Big Browns Bode Well for Opening

Media release from Eastern Fish & Game

Big Browns Bode Well for Opening

Anglers could be in for a treat when some Rotorua trout streams open to fishing tomorrow (Thursday December 1st) – with reports of large brown trout on the move swimming upstream.

Fish & Game says it has captured large browns in greater numbers in its Ngongotaha Stream fish trap, than it’s seen for several years. And there are good numbers of brown trout in other streams.

Fisheries Officer Matt Osborne says in the past week alone, they’ve trapped an average of 21 browns a night in the trap, weighing on average, 3.4 kgs. “A couple were over six kilos, and these numbers are way ahead of recent years with the browns in particular looking absolutely magnificent.”

The brown trout are in such “marvellous nick” it suggests their winter food sources must have been pretty good, Matt says.

Rainbow trout have also begun moving up the streams as Lake Rotorua warms and many fish start to move into cooler water in the streams, or gather in the cold water plumes at the larger stream mouths.

Fish & Game Officers have been working hard improving tracks and access to Lake Rotorua’s upper streams – the Ngongotaha, Utuhina and Waiteti. The work has involved clearing debris like old logs and fallen trees to give anglers more water to fish, Matt says.

While many trout fisheries opened on October 1st, some spawning streams like these are kept closed until December so that wild stocks of trout can re-populate. The same closure is done for Lake Waikaremoana’s Mokau and Hopuruahine Streams.

Fish & Game is reminding anglers heading out fishing from tomorrow to remember the ‘clean, check, dry (CCD)’ message to – so that local waterways can be kept free of pest weeds, didymo and pest fish such as catfish or koi carp.
________________________________________

© Scoop Media