Trout season in New Zealand

ojr

We have a lower river opening on the First day of October down here in the South, the high Country opens a month or two later, depending on how high.
I live 20 Minutes from this place.

I usually check the track out a week or so before but this year have been too busy so...  getting this far in  the dark was a mission and the ute is looking decidedly second hand now, however, c'est la vie, it's 2 yrs old now and this is  what its for.
 Got this far but  the rest was  impassable due to the river cutting in  so turned it around and faced home for a get away later and shanks ponied it from here.

Shortly after 

Nice wee fat Rainbow, she went back as soon as the photo was taken as did the others. I do catch and release. Unless the hook is swallowed or the fish is otherwise no good then it's either culled or the smoker.
Trout season opening is just as exciting for me as the Duck season.
  

orchidman

Wow. If I lived that close to a trout river I would definitely take up trout fishing. I am envious.

NN

I'd go for 

Trout Amandine

Six-Gun

That’s some great looking water.  Can you fish for trout year-round as a catch and release species, or cN you not even wet a line during the off-season?

ojr

Yep, It's addictive alright Alex.

ojr

Hey Six-gun
There is no requirement for release, it is just that when  man has had the privilege of this for 40 plus years and also has the sea on his doorstep and his family isn't relying on the take,then the release  as unharmed as possible of a well conditioned hen such as that is a no brainer.

Jayhawker

Nice! We are at the peak of the salmon run up here....

JerryBobCo

That is way cool, OJR.  The thing I miss most about living in Colorado is the fishing.  Ask Luis and Mike, but I used to live within 45 minutes of some gold medal trout water, aka the upper Arkansas River.  It didn't hold the biggest fish, and there were plenty of days I went out with high hopes only to not catch a thing.  But, I never went fishing and wished I was doing something else.

Like you, I liked to play with my food.  I rarely kept anything I caught.  The season was year round, although the winter months and spring runoff were to be avoided.

Six-Gun

ojr said:

Hey Six-gun
There is no requirement for release, it is just that when  man has had the privilege of this for 40 plus years and also has the sea on his doorstep and his family isn't relying on the take,then the release  as unharmed as possible of a well conditioned hen such as that is a no brainer.

I operate the same way.  The trout are almost exclusively released, the rare exception being a mountain fishing trip where fish are required to sustain ourselves throughout the trip.

NN

to clean up unneeded draft

ojr

Thanks for that NN, I should  one day  be able to return the sentiment.

tennmike

Beautiful river and a beautiful 'bow, too. That road looks like the ones I use to get close to the rivers and streams here, and then walk the rest of the way in. Most of the rainbow and brown trout where I live are fish released by the TWRA in the rivers and streams. You have to do some walking to get to the 'good stuff' and most folk won't do that. I've fished all day in some of those places and never seen another person.

ojr

Yes, it is wonderful being out and often being the only one for miles, life is good on days like that.