JeffinNZ
06-02-2015, 05:16 AM
If you are interested here are the details.
I went away for the three day weekend with our neighbours and some hangers on to the inland town Twizel. Twizel is the left over town from the Upper Waitaki (Why tack ee) hydro development of the 1970's where the natural lakes of the area, three in total, were dammed, raised and linked with a serious of canals feeding six hydro power stations. If you Google Twizel hydro you can find details but suffice to say, for the time it was a non trivial engineering feat especially since the planning goes back to the 1940s.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Fishing/IMG_0431_zpsd8fq7p18.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JeffinNZ/media/Fishing/IMG_0431_zpsd8fq7p18.jpg.html)
The authority that oversees the canals allows aquaculture and salmon farms operate in 4 different locations. Periodically there is an accidental release of farm salmon (the last was 10000) but I understand the farms are obliged to release fish for the benefit of the fishery also. The salmon make for easy fishing and great for new anglers and kids especially given the very easy access to the canals as a road runs down either side of all of them. The canals also host a wild population of rainbow and brown trout, both acclimatised by Fish and Game and these wild fish do VERY well and grow to extreme size due to 1) the very cold water, 2) the highly aerated water due to the hydro and 3) the plentiful supply of food from the fish farms. Both species are regularly caught exceeding 20lb and these fish tend to spend a great deal of time sitting under the salmon farms expending little energy and eating themselves stupid. In short, the 22lb brown I caught was a young fish whereas in the wild she might have been 15 years old or more and extremely rare.
We arrived on Saturday midday and fished the rest of the day, a few hours that night, all of Sunday and Monday morning. The weather was cold with a hard frost on Saturday morning on which the fog rolled in so we saw the sun in the early afternoon only. In the afternoons, once the sun was behind the mountains the temperature fell quickly so we were well clad in our woollies. The fishing was hard this trip and for reasons we are not sure of. There is a lot of pressure on the area right now so that won't help and most of the 'wild' salmon are going so all the attention is on the trout so I guess this doesn't help. The preferred technique for fishing the canals is drifting softbaits with enough jighead weight to allow the lure to hover just above the bottom of the canal. Nymphs of dark colours are working at the moment I am told also. We threw everything we had at the water and found it tough going. All the time we were fishing there were 20lb plus rainbows breaking the surface and jumping around fully clear of the water. Most impressive but frustrating. You have to see it to believe it.
Max scored a small salmon on the first day bait fishing, I lost a smallish rainbow on softbait and a couple of the boys got tiny fish. It wasn't until Monday just on day break I hooked up on Big Bertha. All the time we were fishing there were 20lb plus rainbows breaking the surface and jumping around fully clear of the water. Most impressive but frustrating. You have to see it to believe it.
The day before we were sunny ourselves on the banks of Ohau (Oh how) A when I saw a Rapala floating by. Quickly tangling it in my braid the jointed lure complete with a short length of snapped of line became mine. That's a $15-20 piece of kit someone upstream had lost to my advantage. Oh, well. I've lost a bit of gear in my time on the water too so finders, keepers.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Fishing/IMG_0436_zpsvbwvpn1r.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JeffinNZ/media/Fishing/IMG_0436_zpsvbwvpn1r.jpg.html)
It was this lure I elected to fish on Monday morning. The flow in the canals was very slow (not enough people turning on their heat pumps!) so the deep diving minnow was great. About daybreak I hooked up in fairly close but didn't consider the fish very large. At least not to begin with until she came into sight in the semi light conditions. At which time Ray with his trout net was stood down and Steve stepped up with my salmon net. I landed the brown on 8lb braid without any difficulty something I put down to the fish being big and lazy from being on salmon farm welfare. We must have made for interesting listening in the dead still conditions. Here is the result. The largest fish I have ever landed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Fishing/IMG_0432_zpshj8ucwlc.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JeffinNZ/media/Fishing/IMG_0432_zpshj8ucwlc.jpg.html)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Fishing/IMG_0435_zpsae1o4nck.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JeffinNZ/media/Fishing/IMG_0435_zpsae1o4nck.jpg.html)
When I cleaned her the trout had two large egg sacks and was carrying over a pound of roe. I have to find a recipe for this:
Here head was 1 1/2 pounds on its own:
This was my kitchen bench last evening. For reference, the tiles are 6 inches square:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Fishing/IMG_0438_zps9hd1sm4s.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JeffinNZ/media/Fishing/IMG_0438_zps9hd1sm4s.jpg.html)
This was dinner tonight. It was glorious and the best trout I have ever had.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Fishing/IMG_0441_zpsq0gm5id7.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JeffinNZ/media/Fishing/IMG_0441_zpsq0gm5id7.jpg.html)
So, it was a hard weekend but in the end my perseverance paid off. Next trip I will try some poppers on the surface as the rainbows were hitting something on the top of the water and it wasn't insects that we could see.
Thanks for reading.
I went away for the three day weekend with our neighbours and some hangers on to the inland town Twizel. Twizel is the left over town from the Upper Waitaki (Why tack ee) hydro development of the 1970's where the natural lakes of the area, three in total, were dammed, raised and linked with a serious of canals feeding six hydro power stations. If you Google Twizel hydro you can find details but suffice to say, for the time it was a non trivial engineering feat especially since the planning goes back to the 1940s.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Fishing/IMG_0431_zpsd8fq7p18.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JeffinNZ/media/Fishing/IMG_0431_zpsd8fq7p18.jpg.html)
The authority that oversees the canals allows aquaculture and salmon farms operate in 4 different locations. Periodically there is an accidental release of farm salmon (the last was 10000) but I understand the farms are obliged to release fish for the benefit of the fishery also. The salmon make for easy fishing and great for new anglers and kids especially given the very easy access to the canals as a road runs down either side of all of them. The canals also host a wild population of rainbow and brown trout, both acclimatised by Fish and Game and these wild fish do VERY well and grow to extreme size due to 1) the very cold water, 2) the highly aerated water due to the hydro and 3) the plentiful supply of food from the fish farms. Both species are regularly caught exceeding 20lb and these fish tend to spend a great deal of time sitting under the salmon farms expending little energy and eating themselves stupid. In short, the 22lb brown I caught was a young fish whereas in the wild she might have been 15 years old or more and extremely rare.
We arrived on Saturday midday and fished the rest of the day, a few hours that night, all of Sunday and Monday morning. The weather was cold with a hard frost on Saturday morning on which the fog rolled in so we saw the sun in the early afternoon only. In the afternoons, once the sun was behind the mountains the temperature fell quickly so we were well clad in our woollies. The fishing was hard this trip and for reasons we are not sure of. There is a lot of pressure on the area right now so that won't help and most of the 'wild' salmon are going so all the attention is on the trout so I guess this doesn't help. The preferred technique for fishing the canals is drifting softbaits with enough jighead weight to allow the lure to hover just above the bottom of the canal. Nymphs of dark colours are working at the moment I am told also. We threw everything we had at the water and found it tough going. All the time we were fishing there were 20lb plus rainbows breaking the surface and jumping around fully clear of the water. Most impressive but frustrating. You have to see it to believe it.
Max scored a small salmon on the first day bait fishing, I lost a smallish rainbow on softbait and a couple of the boys got tiny fish. It wasn't until Monday just on day break I hooked up on Big Bertha. All the time we were fishing there were 20lb plus rainbows breaking the surface and jumping around fully clear of the water. Most impressive but frustrating. You have to see it to believe it.
The day before we were sunny ourselves on the banks of Ohau (Oh how) A when I saw a Rapala floating by. Quickly tangling it in my braid the jointed lure complete with a short length of snapped of line became mine. That's a $15-20 piece of kit someone upstream had lost to my advantage. Oh, well. I've lost a bit of gear in my time on the water too so finders, keepers.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Fishing/IMG_0436_zpsvbwvpn1r.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JeffinNZ/media/Fishing/IMG_0436_zpsvbwvpn1r.jpg.html)
It was this lure I elected to fish on Monday morning. The flow in the canals was very slow (not enough people turning on their heat pumps!) so the deep diving minnow was great. About daybreak I hooked up in fairly close but didn't consider the fish very large. At least not to begin with until she came into sight in the semi light conditions. At which time Ray with his trout net was stood down and Steve stepped up with my salmon net. I landed the brown on 8lb braid without any difficulty something I put down to the fish being big and lazy from being on salmon farm welfare. We must have made for interesting listening in the dead still conditions. Here is the result. The largest fish I have ever landed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Fishing/IMG_0432_zpshj8ucwlc.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JeffinNZ/media/Fishing/IMG_0432_zpshj8ucwlc.jpg.html)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Fishing/IMG_0435_zpsae1o4nck.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JeffinNZ/media/Fishing/IMG_0435_zpsae1o4nck.jpg.html)
When I cleaned her the trout had two large egg sacks and was carrying over a pound of roe. I have to find a recipe for this:
Here head was 1 1/2 pounds on its own:
This was my kitchen bench last evening. For reference, the tiles are 6 inches square:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Fishing/IMG_0438_zps9hd1sm4s.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JeffinNZ/media/Fishing/IMG_0438_zps9hd1sm4s.jpg.html)
This was dinner tonight. It was glorious and the best trout I have ever had.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Fishing/IMG_0441_zpsq0gm5id7.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JeffinNZ/media/Fishing/IMG_0441_zpsq0gm5id7.jpg.html)
So, it was a hard weekend but in the end my perseverance paid off. Next trip I will try some poppers on the surface as the rainbows were hitting something on the top of the water and it wasn't insects that we could see.
Thanks for reading.