DOC Taupo Fishing Reports and News

23 May 2011

After a summer of tough fishing which caused some serious concern amongst anglers as to the long term health of the Taupo Fishery, it has rebounded significantly in recent months. At the time anglers were concerned that the trout may have starved to death on the back of an apparent lack of their main food source smelt. However the other possibility identified was that the smelt and trout had spent the summer in the middle of the lake out of reach of anglers, and this indeed is what seems to have happened says Glenn Maclean.

In recent weeks lake anglers are reporting good catches of well conditioned trout, often full of smelt when they are landed. This is consistent with a recent acoustic survey we undertook of the lake which showed large schools of smelt out in the open waters. Feeding like this trout will grow rapidly and indeed amongst the catch more and more larger trout are showing up, much more the sort of fish we associate with the Taupo Fishery said Glenn.

One possible spinoff from the low catches over summer is that the overall lake harvest will be smaller than usual. Therefore we expect more trout to survive to maturity and so run the rivers to spawn, a plus for anglers targeting these fish on the Taupo rivers this winter. As usual in recent years the runs are likely to occur later in winter and spring for the most part says Glenn. However if the fish continue growing as they are at the moment then there will be some very good trout amongst them.

Ngaire Dalton with a trout typical of recent fish from Lake Taupo (photographer: Bryan Dalton)

26 May 2009

Anglers are reminded that the trout fishing season for lakes Otamangakau and Te Whaiau, as well as the upper sections of most popular rivers flowing into Lake Taupo closes at on the 31st of May. “It has been an excellent season on these waters. Good numbers of fish in top condition, especially large browns, were taken large terrestrial dry flies and natural nymphs” says DOC Taupo Fishery Programme Manager, Community Relations John Webb.

The lower reaches of these Taupo rivers remain open to fishing for the full 12 month season and there is still a lot of water available to anglers. The upper sections are closed to protect the trout while they are spawning and will open once again on the 1st of December this year.

The good summer season indicates good prospects for the winter. Small runs of fresh fish have been entering the rivers already. Some of these early fish have been excellent quality, but not overly large. Trout numbers are expected to be good this winter but it is likely that the main runs will not occur for several months yet.

Anglers should refer to the map on the back of their fishing licence, or contact the DOC Taupo Fishery office in Turangi if they are unsure about which waters are closing. [See also Taupo regulations by water]

An early season brown trout

Courtesy of Sporting Life,Taupo

24 December 2008

The quality of fish being caught in Lake Taupo has improved markedly after a couple of seasons dominated by small, often poorly conditioned trout say Department of Conservation. The fishery went through a well documented low point as a consequence of the lake not fully mixing over winter 2005. This resulted in a lack of nutrients in the surface waters and ultimately severely impacted on the smelt population, the predominant food of Taupo trout said Programme Manager Glenn Maclean.

However this check in the productivity of the lake has now worked through and the smelt population is rebounding. It has been noticeable this spring that there are many more smelt around the lake edge, particularly in the Western Bays, and that these smelt are of quite large size.

In turn the condition of the young trout living in the lake is much more as we would expect, many of the maiden (unspawned) fish fat and with the bright orange/ red colour typical of a Taupo trout said Glenn. “The trout tend to be smaller than a decade ago because they are younger as a consequence of the much later spawning, but being in good condition they are growing rapidly. This summer the size limit has also been reduced to 40cm and anglers are finding this is making a big difference to the numbers of trout they can keep”.

Glenn comments that on Lake Otamangakau catch rates are likely to be high over the next few months reflecting the record spawning run last winter. Trout in this lake feed almost totally on aquatic insects and the fishing improves over summer as the warm waters stimulate the insect life.

“All in all it is shaping up to be a much better summer’s fishing on Lake Taupo than over the last couple of years. Now we just need the weather to play the game” says Glenn