Winter hunting and fishing season nears

LANDED: Wairarapa fishermen will be looking forward to landing good sized trout this winter.PHOTO/FILE

Wairarapa hunters and freshwater fishermen are being presented with ample opportunity to pursue their sports this year as duck shooting season looms and winter fishing licences come on stream.

As from April 1, winter fishing licences will go on sale for $73 and $15 for juniors giving anglers plenty of opportunity to chase trout in the six months ending September 30 for just over $1 a day.

Wellington Fish and Game manager Phil Teal, whose jurisdiction includes Wairarapa, said fish stocks in the district's major waterway, the Ruamahanga River, have held up well with "recruitment" of fish stocks coming in from the tributaries such as Mangaterere Stream. "There has been no large floods to wash out small juveniles and there is a good mix of brown and rainbow trout," he said.

Fish and Game look upon the cost of winter licences as being a "modest investment" for those who fish often and a real chance to put "some nice trout on the table."

The winter licence can be used throughout the country except Taupo which has a separate licence administered by the Department of Conservation.

On the duck shooting front the season kicks off on May 3 and prior to that Fish and Game will be carrying out a comprehensive monitoring programme to assess duck numbers at Lake Wairarapa.

Mr Teal said with the dry weather of late mallards have been grouping around the lake edge ferreting out food sources but until the monitoring is done no really accurate assessment of numbers will be known.

Junior and novice hunters will have greater opportunities to shoot, under supervision, with work being done on Yules Lagoon. Overgrown vegetation has been taken away from drains and watercourses to let more water flow into the lagoon so the area will remain wetter for longer periods than has been the case, and positions for the younger shooters established.

Other sites around Lake Wairarapa are to be developed over time for both novice and more experienced hunters.

This season the daily limit bag for mallards will be six birds but the swan limit has been raised from one bird to two apart from Queen's Birthday weekend when the daily swan limit will be three birds.

The paradise duck season has also been extended by two weeks on last season. It will now run for 10 weeks from opening day. Pheasants can be shot through until August 31.