River Trout

New Zealand is full of rivers, streams and creeks that network between the lakes and the sea. The most common targeted sports fish in these locations are rainbow trout and brown trout because of there wide distribution and the various methods of catching them including bait, lures and fly fishing. When fishing in these areas you must first purchase a recreational fishing license from any information centres, sports and fishing stores.

We stopped at river just of the southerly borders of Lake TeAnu that looked promising for nearly untouched fishing with pristine conditions. I quickly grabbed my Okuma graphite travel spin rod, my Okuma Flame

F-30 and my Rapala lures when I set off for the river. As I approached the main river section I realised the water was too fast flowing and shallow to be inhabited by most trout so I walked upstream to a section where the river had made a long narrow island. I walked across a shallow section and over the narrow island to find a slower flowing stream section with a promising tree line on the side opposite to me. About ten metres upstream from me the river is narrow and shallow before going deeper and spreading out in the section in front of me, then ten metres downstream continuing to narrow and return to a shallow depth. About two thirds of the way cross was a little rock bar that was much higher then the rest of the water.

The 7cm Rapala Original Floating lure in brown trout colour.

The first lure I tied on to my line, using a lefty’s loop, was a 7cm Rapala Original Floating lure in the brown trout colour. I tested it in the water in front of me, before casting it out, and it beautifully displayed the classic Rapala “wounded minnow” swimming action. I cast the lure in all directions and tried a variety of different retrieves. The lure was swimming about half a metre to a metre under water and could not get deep enough in the water column. Just as I was about to change lures I saw a brown shadow suspended just off the bottom.

The 5cm Rapala Countdown sinking lure in perch colour

I decided to change to a 6cm Rapala Count Down sinking lure in the perch colour. This lure is a slow sinker so you let it sink down to the chosen depth before you start your retrieve. As I was letting the lure sink I found the flow of the river was carrying the lure downstream to fast, so I tried casting upstream und letting it sink down by the time I got to me. This made a big difference to the depth of the lure but it still did not get to the right depth where the trout was suspending off the bottom.

Take note of the large bib on this 6cm Rapala X-Rap Shad lure, as the larger the bib the deeper the lure.

It was now I had to play tough so I brought out my 6cm Rapala X-Rap suspending shad, with the larger bib, in the firetiger colour. By the time I switched my lures over the ‘brown shadow’ had disappeared and I could not see it any were. I started casting in all different spots and I decided to cast on the other side of the rock bar which was two thirds of the way across. Just as the lure was passing over the rock bar a nice sized fish hit the lure and started heading downstream using the flow to his advantage. I couldn’t afford to have him snag me off on the bottom or get lost in the strength of the stream. I pulled my rod up and out to my left to help get him out of the deeper water and to help land him on the stony shore. I led him into the shallows and picked him up being sure to support his belly. The fish was surprisingly round and heavy which led me to believe there is a good source of natural food in the river system. The fish was released after a few quick photos back into the blue clear water he came from.



Fish and lure, face to face, eye to eye and love at first bite.



This showed the importance of depth and how fish, when fussy or shut down, will only hit lures that get right in their face and in their section of the water column.

Me, the fish, my Okuma combo and my Rapala X-Rap