Nelson May 15 newsletter

Cover Photo: The winner from the April Photo Competition \"No place I'drather be\", by Bruce McLean; below: Late Season Trophy Jack.

Club ContactsExecutive:President: Tony Entwistle 5444565 [email protected] President: Ray Day 5441245 [email protected]: Bruce McLean 5480066 [email protected]: Ray Day 5441245 [email protected] Editor and Webmaster: Graham Carter 07 8551833 [email protected] 021 02600437Committee Scott Ingram 5441605 [email protected] Peter Lawler 5489753 [email protected] Maree Peter 522 4166 [email protected] Mathew Williams 5445996 [email protected] James Jemson 7443123 [email protected] and Greet New Members Ray Day and Pete LawlerFishing trips James Macdonald [email protected] 03 5403520Fly Tying Convenor Tony EntwistleClub Librarian Lois Rutherfurd 022 6010642Trophy Master Lois Rutherfurd [email protected] Sponsorship & Newsletter Advertising Ray DayClub Speakers: Tony EntwistleClub Night Tea/Coffee: Maree PeterNewsletter Distribution: Brian Richards [email protected] 0274349165Life Members: 2007 John Willis 2012 Graham CarterPast Presidents: 06-08 Lester Higgins 08-09 Ross Walker04-06 Richard Boyden 11-13 Ray Day 13- Tony Entwistle09-11 Dennis Ealam THE NELSON TROUT FISHING CLUBMeets once a month at: Fish and Game Offices, 66 Champion Road, Richmond. Normally the 3rd Wednesday of the month 7.00pm. Please phone 5440066 if unsure. Any views or opinions expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of the committee, club or editor. www.thenelsontroutfishingclub.com 3

President’s FlylineWell, the 2014-15 season is over … fading out with a bit if a whimper really. I certainlywon’t remember this as a great season, but as with any fishing adventure it had itsmoments and I was lucky enough to see some really beautiful trout caught.The big trout and the strong salmon run in the Wairau and some of its tributaries wereclearly the highlight. Probably the greatest disappointment was to see how far theMotueka and Wangapeka rivers have regressed in trout numbers following the damagingflood of April last year, a salutary lesson of the threat poor forestry practices pose to ourvaluable fisheries. However, even though the main season has finished there is still plentyto look forward to for keen anglers. There is normally some decent fishing in early May inthe open areas on both the Motueka and Pelorus Rivers, which is worth checking out on anice day … and there is no need to get out of bed early either!The Wairau River remains fishable right up to the Wash Bridge which is a substantiallength of water, and there is still likely to be some trophy fish about as they headupstream on their spawning run.For those anglers keen to go further afield, why not head south and try out the winterfishing on the canals in the Mackenzie country. As members Peter Williams and AlanBallard showed us last winter, there are some monsters just waiting for the right lure! Nodoubt some members will also make a pilgrimage to the North Island to fish for winter runrainbows in the Tongariro River and other Taupo tributaries. Rainbow runs there havebeen arriving later in recent years, but the word is that fish size has increaseddramatically this year and maybe there will be a return to some earlier runs of bigger fish.For any club members new to the Tongariro experience but who would like tocontemplate a trip north at some stage over the winter, let me know and if there isenough interest maybe we can have a casting session or two locally, to practice using thebigger #8 rods and heavy flies normally used up there.I know other members have other trips planned to exotic destinations like Aitutaki in theCook Islands and possibly even further afield … there is always some fishing to be done.Sadly Martin Simpson who was to be our guest speaker in March couldn’t make it becauseof personal health issues and we wish Martin all the best. However at the last moment,member Dr John Hayes stepped into the breach and gave us an excellent talk on his latestresearch findings with regards flow requirements for trout. Encouragingly from the pointof view of anglers, his research now quite emphatically proves that ‘the more flow thebetter’.With ever increasing demands for water abstraction for irrigation, John’s findings couldwell help tip the balance back towards more sensible water management. We had a greatturnout for our April BBQ in Isel Park, held in conjunction with the annual club castingcompetitions which had been delayed from the normal Christmas BBQ slot at Rabbit Islandbecause of the bad weather. Isel Park proved to be a wonderful venue. Special thanks toour unofficial ‘club photographer’ Gebhard Krewitt for suggesting the venue … a stroke ofgenius. Thank you too to all the helpers … Ray Day and Bruce McLean on the BBQ, JamesJemson for organizing the food and drink, Lois Rutherford and others for their help insetting out the casting course and overseeing our efforts. The casting was ‘varied’ thefood excellent and a fun time was had by all. 4

TE on Motueka River by Gebhard KrewittOur guest speaker for May will be local Fish and Game Councillor Tom Kroos. Tom runs anenvironmental consultancy business in Richmond, Fish and Wildlife Services Ltd, providingwildlife and freshwater fisheries reports, evidence and rehabilitation and mitigation planswith respect to Resource Consent applications. He will be talking to us about some of hiswork and experiences. For the moment we are going to wind up the club fly tying eveningson the first Tuesday of each month, due to a waning of interest.This is sad but we’ll look at resurrecting these evenings in the future should moremembers show interest in learning how to tie their own flies or wish to expand theirexisting fly tying skills.Tightlines, Tony Entwistle, President

Fishing the Ohau Canalsby your humble correspondent, Fred FrahmSunday, 5 April: set clocks back 1 hour.Pam and I were out the drive at 7:15 - a first for us who always say we’ll be onthe road at 8:00 and are lucky to be away between 10 and 1-ish. Our first stopwas Video Easy to return the movies due the day before, then Murchison at 9:00for breakfast, followed by Springs Junction for fuel and a Memphis Meltdown.The next stop was 18km on the up-hill side of the Lewis Pass where the caravansnapped an axel and left us scrapping along the pavement for 50 metres, ormore. Shite, whatamIgonnadonow

Put a bit more grunt into it, FredThat was the bad news. The good news was that there was a soft, clear spot rightwhere our momentum ran out and the only place where we could have pulled offthe road, and out of the traffic lane. Lester found a soft rock to sit on. Can you find Lester?

Jeez, would ya look at the size of them !!!(Lester in the lower right corner fishing on the rocks.) In addition, the very nextcar behind us stopped and took Pam back to Springs Junction where the petrolstation doubles as an AA agency, complete with a Mr. Fixit, plus a retrieval andrepair facility. Phew, what luck!Now, this wasn’t just an ordinary Sunday, it was Easter Sunday, and there justhappened to be four guys at the garage transforming something into a dragster.With their help Mr Fixit pulled out all the stops and made us road worthy by 6:30.But by then it was too late to continue onward, and the motel/café across thehighway got two unexpected overnighters. However, way before the sun roseMonday morning we were cresting the Lewis and on the downhill slide towardTwizel, lured by grand thoughts of pulling some monstrous fish from the Ohaucanals.We arrived at the Ruataniwha Holiday Park, situated on the shore of LakeRuataniwha, just 2 km south of Twizel, where our country’s Rowing Teamspractice for their competitions.By the time I’d positioned, then re-positioned the caravan a dozen times and gotplugged into the facilities, the sun had set and the moon was shining brightly.On our way out to dinner we passed Lester and Diana Higgins just arriving fromtheir all day, marathon drive from Brightwater.The English translation of ‘Ruataniwha’ is ‘two beings’. Rua means 2, andtaniwha (as we all know) means monster.

Above: Come on, bite, darn it; below: Borrr-ing... I shoulda brought a book

Now, I was quite sure there must be a Maori legend relating to how the lake gotits name, and that it must have originated long before trout and salmon (twomonsters lurking in the canals) ever came into the area.But since I couldn’t find anyone around to enlighten me, I googled it, and this iswhat Wikipedia had to say: “It is named after Ruataniwha Station, a large sheepstation in the area, part of which was purchased by the NZ ElectricityDepartment as the site for the township of Twizel. Ruataniwha was a Maori chiefwho was drowned when the canoe Arai-te-uru sank near Moeraki in the 12thcentury.”The fishing was slow, and the time seemed to pass even slower. It is now Fridayas I write this account, and except for the people with whom we’ve chattedalong the way, and the incredible scenery (which reminds me of ‘the desertroad’ without volcanoes) the trip thus far has been a disappointment.A few baby trout have been caught, and even fewer slightly bigger ones, but nomonsters, and NO salmon, either.It wasn’t even a case of “you shoulda been here last week”. It’s just been a verydisappointing fishing season for the south island – including Lake Mapourika justover the ‘hills’ west of here where Dennis Ealam and I had planned to make ourannual pilgrimage again this year.So… With no hope the fishing conditions would soon improve, and the long-termweather forecast predicting daily doses of strong winds and cold, wet stuff(meaning snow), Lester and Diana headed home on Saturday, and Pam and I wereon the road at 11-ish the following day.But, with hope in our hearts, we look forward to having better luck fishing thecanals next year. Small, but it'll do for the pan

CLUB BBQ AND CASTING COMPETITION PHOTOSMore photos from the Casting competitions and BBQ, top left: At fullextension; top right: BBQ time; mid left: Hook a pretty face; mid right:Getting it out there; bottom left: Final say; bottom right: On the target.See story on pages 17 - 23. 11

BRAG PAGESTop left: A stunning day at Brunner by Bruce McLean; top right: At the end ofthe rainbow by Pete Lawler; mid left: Brown Trout hooked on a WoolleyBugger by Gebhard Krewitt; mid right: Is my tippet strong enough by PeteLawler; bottom left: Lake Poaka perhaps by Pete Lawler; bottom right: On theMot, by Richard Breakspear; 12

BRAG PAGESTop left: Paradise by Pete Lawler; top right: Ray's mummified Trout by RayDay; mid left: Ray's worst conditioned trout by Ray Day; mid right: StruckGold by Pete Lawler; bottom left: Twelve pounder by Tony Entwistle; bottomright: Willow grub feeder by Pete Lawler 13

Salmon Fishing in the Wairau River by Graeme Ferrier History Of Wild Salmon in NZ and the Wairau. Vaughan Lynn from Fish and Game recently gave a presentation to the club on our Marlborough salmon fishing opportunities. Chinook Salmon, also known as Quinnat or King Salmon, were successfully introduced to the South Island in 1901,although attempts had been made from as early as 1875 in Hawkes Bay. Apartfrom Acclimatization Societies, private individuals also released salmon smelt inthe hope of establishing commercial stocks but without much success. They arethe largest freshwater sports fish available to New Zealand anglers, confinedlargely to the larger South Island rivers, but the size of the salmon runs doesseem to be increasing in many rivers.By 1922 salmon were being found in the Wairau. This season the Wairau seems tobe having a record run. Whether this is from more successful natural spawning orfrom other sources is unknown. (Between 1995 and 2010, a salmon farmerreleased up to 30,000 salmon smelt a year into the Wairau, and a pen of salmonlost from a Salmon farm may also have added to the wild stock)Salmon Life-cycleChinook salmon in New Zealand have a life cycle that is typical of salmon in theNorth Pacific. The adults grow to maturity in the sea and migrate upstream tospawn, usually when they are around three years old (but can be 2-5years old).The fish are usually found 5-30kms off-shore during this period.Autumn (Jan–Mar) is the main spawning run with the larger jacks arriving firstfollowed later by the hens. After spawning, all of the adults die. There can alsobe a spring spawning run of generally smaller fish. Salmon try to return to their‘birth’ river to spawn, but 2-3% can stray to neighbouring rivers and expand therange.Juveniles hatch in spring, and typically spend 3 months in fresh water beforemigrating downstream to enter the ocean in summer. In some populations, asecond downstream migration, consisting of individuals that have spent a year infresh water, occurs the following spring.Salmon lose condition as they migrate upstream and thus the most prized fish arethose caught soon after arrival in fresh water. The fish are entering the river to

breed not feed, so shrimp-like lures seem to be more successful. Chinook are thelargest Salmonidae in New Zealand, commonly reaching 10–15 kg in weight.Chinook salmon occur mainly on the east coast of the South Island from theWairau River in the north to the Clutha River in the south- this seems to covertheir preferred water temperature/breeding range.Technique:Many trout are beingcaught in the Wairaudiversion and Wairaubar using basicallykahawai lures fishingin the ‘Gut’ or in thesurf. The generalapproach has been tobottom fish.Vaughan’s experienceis that this isn’t anabsolute rule!Lures: Rapala:Rainbow troutpatterns CD-7, Z-spinners - Vaughanadds a split-ring between the lure and hook as well as line & lure.Fly : Use a shooting-head to get the fly/nymph close to the bottom. (US Trick:put lead on separate & lighter line than the lure to allow for snags!!)Season: Time: Mid-Jan to end of March. Late Afternoon to evening seems best.Bag Limit: 2 Salmon OR trout /dayAccess: (Refer F&G Wairau Access Map) NOTE: NO salmon fishing above WashRiver Bridge. Didymo is present in the Wairau—usual precautions to be taken.Wairau Bar: Number 1 on the map. Good fishing in the surf and river mouthWairau Diversion: Takes about 25% of the water to the sea. Again excellentfishing can be found in the surf and ‘river’ mouth, often with kahawai lures.Wairau River: Salmon found in the deep holes between SH 1 & SH 6 bridges (~15km) Worth Trying: Craven’s Road (10); Selmes Road (12); Argyll Pond (40)Northbank Road up river from SH 6 and Onamaluta Road. (F&G Access 500mfurther)Generally a 4WD vehicle is required for ‘safe’ access across the shingle or WALK!Clarence River: North side access is best approx. 600m north of bridge betweenOlive Grove & Macrocarpa hedge. Go under rail bridge to the end of the track(4WD). Most salmon caught in the surf or river mouth. Use whitebait-type lures.Also has excellent kahawai.Kaikoura: Aug/Sep is best at the mouth of the Lyell Creek and north along thebeach. Also worth a try, south of the town between Kaikoura and Coucher River 15





PITTING SKILLSBy Bruce McLeanWhat better thing could we do, when not actually fishing, but to hang out andenjoy the company of like minded people.Traditionally each year the Club's Annual Christmas Party included the fun andgame of members testing their skills with serious competition in the artfulpursuits of fly and spin casting. “Hanging out at Isel Park”Unfortunately the third Wednesday of December 2014, designated as party timewas somewhat spoilt with weather more suitable to duck shooting than fun in thesun. “Roll up Roll Up Get your chocolate fish here!!!” 18

The casting competition was postponed to a later date but the BBQ went aheadanyway with plenty of time to socialize without the competitive hang-ups ofpitting oneself against the foe. Tradition was broken with the committee backing their collective wisdom and setting the 19th April 2015 as the designated day for the all important Casting Competitions. It was also agreed that we should heed the suggestion from Gebhard that the picnic area in Isel Park would be a great venue and made the change from Rabbit Island. You would almost suspect Gebhard to be of Scottish origins, Isel Park is right next door to where he and Natasha live. (Save petrol we can walk!!!!!) The previous weekend had members of the committee really studying the weather forecasts into the following week. No wonder, winter was upon the South Island with snow down to low levels in many places and the local mountains looking like Mr Whippy's Vanilla Cream Freezes!!! Adjudicators at workPam and I were heading for Christchurch and it was heavy sleet showers throughfrom Kawatiri to Murchison. Not promising, one week out from the planned Casting Competition and BBQ with this early wintery blast being forecast to cover the country. Christchurch was cold with snow low on the foothills out to the west and to the east the Porthills also covered. Here goes

So what.......the committee's optimism held firm and the planning went on, Tonyand Lois sorting the equipment needed for the Casting Competition.James the chief organizer of food and liquid refreshments planning his needs likea well trained military quartermaster. Lies, lies and more lies Ray who had promised to bring his BBQ along gave it a once over. You never know lurking in those trees at Isel Park could be the dreaded Health Inspector ready to pounce on the cooking facilities and close the operation down!! Sunday arrived and a no better autumn day could have been asked for, not acloud in the sky and only the whispers of a breeze, hopefully we'll get a goodturnout to make the competition worthwhile and the BBQ enjoyable.Arriving early Tony was there with some of the equipment needed for thecasting, base lines, base mats, pegs, hoops/targets rods & reels and notforgetting the all important tape measure for the distance casting competition.Lois arrived with her equipment of more hoops and cones. Once these were allset out the competition field looked ready for the national champs. Study in motion The lunch was planned for noon so Ray fired up the BBQ about 11:20 with James opening up what looked like a ton of food. Tasty meat patties; bacon; hash browns; meat skewers; onions and fish bites from Sealords, food to please a king, maybe not butcertainly a fisherman. Must remember for next time the frozen onions takeforever to cook releasing lots of juice spilling over to douse the flames.All the while, members, their partners and families started to arrive, way beyondour expectation, in fact the final count had over forty attending.

That was great but you should have seen the food they were laying on the table,nibbles; salads; desserts; cake and all sorts of wonderful things, now we couldfeed a king.While waiting for the chefs Tony like a real showman got the novelty castingunderway, “Roll up roll up. Everybody wins. Line up, get your chocolate fishhere.” The queue grow longer, the fun was on, flies and lures in all directions.The skill levels where away up there. Were the novelty challenges hard enough?True to his word every winner received from the showman their chocolate fish,they were going fast!!!! The food kept coming The food was ready and what a feast, I started to wonder what with all this food to be eaten how would anyone cope with the serious challenge of competitive casting on such full tummies. Anyway by the remarks from everyone the BBQ part of the day was well enjoyed and very muchappreciated.The BBQ over, it was on with the competitions, helpers requested by Tonyreadily stepped forward and it was good to see a number of our newer memberswilling to get in there and help.Tony and Lois had the course in four sections; fly casting distance; fly castingaccuracy; spin casting accuracy; and on the far side of the field for safety sakethey had set up the spin casting distance course. It was needed with some castsway off course, even out of boundsEach course had it's own adjudicator deciding distance or accuracy, there was anofficial recorder of the results from the adjudicator and of coarse the allimportant starter. The competitions started and it was here for the observer tostudy the techniques of the various competitors. There was the over handmethod; the side cast method; the straight vertical method. Or did I hearrumours to the effect that some competitors, trying to get an advantage evenuse the under handed method!!!!!Bribery, corruption, intimidation and general abuse the rumours suggested werebeing offered by some competitors to our adjudicators, gentle nice people whoout of goodness had volunteered to help out today. Not to be taken as a softtouch. SHAME!!!Just to show the fortitude of our solid citizens, they stayed out on those coursesuntil every member who wished to compete had done so, hats off to them all,and thanks. 21

The competing went on into the afternoon matching skill against skill, foe againstfoe. What a great day, the competition was good. Those members who wantedto, had the opportunity to watch and learn. For some of us lesser mortals theexperienced anglers in the club were only too willing to give tips, suggestadvice and even demonstrate how we could better cast a line.As the competition drew to a close members thinking they could have donebetter went back to the courses to give it another go.... the pressure was nowoff, the advice they had been given, hopefully their results were muchbetter!!!!!! Competition organizers Really it was time to go home but the lure of winning a chocolate fish was strong and it was back to the novelty casting competitions. The queues again grew but this time it was different. Everybody was watching, a GALLERY. Generally lots of shouting, jeering, clapping but one bunch of ladies seated on the bench have been chosen to represent the City of Nelson at the next Sevens Tournament in Wellington. A great day and thanks to you all for your contribution to the best Casting Competition ever. Oh yeah the results after adjudication by the committee finding the rumours of under hand play had no substance and failed to be proven, announced that, “the personal results recorded at the time of competing will remain asofficial.”Fly Casting Distance Don Clementson 25.9mFly Casting Distance Ladies Maree Peter 17.8mFly Casting Accuracy Ray DaySpin Casting Distance Lester Higgins 37.1mSpin Casting Distance Ladies Lois Rutherfurd 30mSpin Casting Accuracy Caitlin ReidThanks to Gebhard Krewitt for the photos 22



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