Three big lakes the place to be for anglers welcoming new trout season

Geoff Thomas. Photo / Supplied

At 6am next Friday, a siren will mark the signal to start casting. Dozens of anglers lined up shoulder to shoulder along the banks of the Ohau Channel will send their lines out across the water, all hoping to be the first to hook a trout.

The channel, where it runs out of Lake Rotorua on the short journey to Lake Rotoiti, is the premier fly fishing spot in the district - probably in the whole country - for the first day of the new trout season which begins on October 1.

The anglers will catch fish. They will catch rainbow trout of 2kg, 3kg and 4kg and occasionally a brown trout of 5-6kg will be brought to the bank.

Other anglers will set out in runabouts on the three big lakes - Rotoiti, Okataina and Tarawera - eager to get their lures in the water at 6am.

For the fly fishers at the channel, a sinking line cast across the current with a short leader and a wet fly, which imitates the smelt that run through the channel in thick shoals, will be the combination of choice.

Dark-coloured flies will give way to silver, yellow and translucent colours as the sun rises.

On the lakes, harling with a sinking fly line and a smelt pattern or a red setter will be popular for the first few hours. Many anglers also slow troll with lines that sink only to 1-2m, but prefer a combination of lures on the end - perhaps a pink cobra with a smelt fly on a short dropper a couple of metres up the leader.

There are different ways to rig such combinations but a swivel is the easiest, with the dropper tied to one eye or even attached to a second swivel, which free-slides on the line.

The boats will follow the contour line where weed beds fall away to the depths, and if the wind chops the surface this method will continue to produce strikes throughout the day.

Otherwise, the surface lines will be replaced by lead-core trolling outfits with five or six colours put out, and a long trace. Again, the fly-lure combination can be used effectively on deep lines. The lures will vary from the cobra in different colours, Tasmanian devil or the old stand-by, the black toby.

Smart anglers will use a variation until they find one that works best. Other colours which work well in the cobra-devil range are green and yellow, and spotted gold.

Some anglers will try jigging, drifting outside the drop-off and dropping a trace with a lead sinker or jig on the end, and a couple of flies on droppers above it. But this method will become more effective as lake temperatures rise, peaking in December and January. As trout are not as concentrated in the water column in early October it will not be as effective.

One popular method is fishing with glo-bugs and the new Clark's glowies, which have appeared on the market, are outfishing the traditional patterns. The extra sparkle on these glo-bugs seems to attract fish better.

Fish and Game expects trout to be in prime condition next week as water temperatures have been 1C warmer than usual through the winter, which results in better growth.

Manager Rob Pitkethly said the bulk of the catch on the big lakes were 2-year-old fish averaging about 2.3kg.

"These are fish which were released last year in September as 18cm yearlings and are around 52cm one year later."

The liberation in to Lake Tarawera had been reduced this year from the 19,000 fingerlings normally released and 3000 went to Lake Rotoiti, which was the best-performing lake in terms of fish growth.

The trout are raised in the Ngontoaha hatchery and come from eggs taken from wild adult trout from Tarawera. The big fish are stripped of eggs and milt as they run through the fish trap on the Te Wairoa Stream in the winter. Wild fish still make up between 30 and 40 per cent of the population in Tarawera.

Anglers who hope to catch snapper have been frustrated by the windy weather over the past two weeks, and the equinox which fell on Thursday this week is the culprit.

But for those who can get out, the reports of snapper numbers building up north of Whangaparaoa Peninsula are encouraging, with pilchards, gannets and dolphins also in the area. Snapper up to 8kg have been taken and this fishing will only improve.

Stray-lining floating baits off Milford Reef has produced a few fish, and in Northland trolling a rapala off the breakers in Bream Bay will produce kingfish.

More fishing action can be found on the new internet television channel, FishnHunt.tv.