Good start to season
Rangers in the Central South Island region are reporting a good start to the fishing season as a swathe of new regulations come into force.
The new season began on Tuesday with lakes, streams and rivers re-opening after being closed over winter to allow trout to complete their breeding season undisturbed.
CSI Fish and Game ranger Hamish Stevens said there had been a good turnout at the Opihi River and Lake Opuha on the first day.
‘‘Most anglers got close to their bag limit by midday. There was quite a bit of snow on the mountains, and it was pretty cold out there, but otherwise it was all good. I’d say there would have been 40 or 50 anglers out there,’’ Stevens said.
He said there were a number of new regulations to this year’s fishing season.
They included a daily bag limit for salmon fishing of one fish, with the salmon season now running from December 1 to March 31.
The new rules were announced in June, as CSI Fish and Game looks to curb the decline of the salmon population which has been dwindling over the past 20 years.
There is also a ban on night fishing for salmon, while there were also restrictions on coarse fishing. This included a bag limit of one tench, with none under 450mm allowed to be caught, while perch fish needed to be at least 250mm long.
Stevens said that in Lake Middleton, all boat fishing was allowed as long as there was no motor operating.
‘‘All in all, there were plenty of fish in the Opihi and Lake Opuha for the first day of the season,’’ Stevens said.
‘‘People were well behaved too. There were only two or three who didn’t have their licence on them at the time, but they managed to present them the following day.’’