Wellington's Small Stream Fishing

New Zealand is famous worldwide for its Taupo and Rotorua trout fishery where rainbow trout average about 2 kilos and brown trout twice that weight but less often caught. The region is managed as a tourist fishery and is quite separate from the surrounding District Fisheries which have more liberal regulations and are predominately brown trout fisheries.

Many anglers resident in the capital city Wellington make the pilgrimage for the weekend to Turangi and Taupo to catch the big ones where now there is a daily bag limit of 3 trout (used to be 10). In between such visits some keen Wellington anglers (self included) explored the local small streams of the Wellington Peninsula that flow either into the harbour or Cook Strait. Having only a few kilometers of fishing water that you could jump over, these little streams sparsely offered brown trout averaging 10 to 12 inches, and a whopper would be 14 inches or 1 pound weight.

Upstream fishing a pheasant tail or similar nymph was standard practice so all the tricks devised by Skues were applicable amidst admirable steep mountain scenery. Greywacke shingle beds and rocky bars provide a series of pools and rapids so that if you spook the fish in one pool it is only a short walk to the next one. A favourite stream of mine was the South Karori where I caught my first trout on a home made nymph. At road's end it was a good hike of about 2 kms downstream to the point where you could "see the sea", then one turned back and fished upstream, often with a southerly gale to help casting. You needed only to lift the rod tip a tad for the wind to reposition the fly hopefully in the water again and not in a gorse bush. A good morning or evening fishing would be two trout of 10 to 12 inch size. Quite a challenge!

Other notable small streams in the region worth fishing are the Makara, Ohariu (back of the Country Club), Kaiwharawhara and Korokoro, the latter two flowing into the harbour. The Kaiwharawhara flows through the city in a deep bushy gorge between the suburbs of Ngaio and Wadestown. There is a walking track along most of its length and a footbridge to cross from one suburb to the other. I used to live in Wadestown and walked down there often. One evening I caught a 1 lb brownie near the bridge by fishing upstream with a small Red Setter lure. The local kids also have their ways of catching a trout. For interest you can pan for gold and get a few specks, some coated with mercury, as there were old gold workings upstream around the now Karori Reservoir, about 1880. So, don't neglect the interesting things that you can do at your door step. Tight lines! Cheers, Allano