Beautiful weather greeted the thousand-odd anglers who
celebrated the Canterbury High Country fishery opening at
the weekend.
The calm conditions that greeted anglers
enjoying the high country’s stunning scenery also enabled
easy fish spotting.
On Saturday afternoon, around 300
anglers attended the annual North Canterbury Fish & Game
Lake Coleridge Fishing Competition prizegiving.
North
Canterbury Fish & Game Officer Emily Craig said, “it was
great to see so many families out fishing together for the
day. There was plenty of excitement when the junior anglers
brought their fish in for weighing.”
“Just over a
third of fish entered were caught by junior anglers. One
junior angler had the biggest salmon caught on the day, and
other junior anglers gave the adults a run for their money,
catching some reasonable fish as well.”
With over
$7500 in prizes, some anglers were out fishing at midnight
to ensure they had the best chance of catching a fish in the
competition.
However, there was also a spot prize
draw, which meant anglers only had to present their fishing
licence to go into the draw generously sponsored by the
three Canterbury Hunting and Fishing stores-Christchurch,
North Canterbury and Ashburton.
Ninety fish were
weighed in, and the heaviest fish was a brown trout from
Lake Selfe weighing 3.41 kgs.
The heaviest 25 fish
were either brown or rainbow trout, and exactly half of the
fish weighed in were salmon, followed by 24 rainbows and
then 21 browns.
Kaiapoi angler Adrian Staal was up
before dawn to be one of the first anglers casting out onto
Lake Georgina as the sun rose over the
mountains.
Lincoln angler Glenn Pratley caught a
beautifully coloured brown trout from Lake Georgina on the
fly rod.
With there being lots of fish activity on the
water, Glenn changed from a dry fly to a streamer, and two
casts later, caught the second heaviest fish of the day,
weighing in at 2.73 kg.
The three Lloyd sisters,
Hannah (left), Charlotte (middle) and Lucy (right) from
Rangiora, each caught a fish whilst out trolling on Lake
Coleridge and came to weigh them in, all dressed in matching
T-shirts.
Many more anglers were out enjoying the
opening of the fishery, with plenty of fish around to tempt
anglers.
Craig Says, “With the long weekend coming,
it’s a great time for a high-country fishing trip, with the
bonus that the conditions for sea-run salmon are coming
right for the weekend as
well.”
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