Many of the scenic West Coast lakes are great locations to encounter and catch large numbers of trout. On good days it is possible to land more than 20 decent trout, most often in the 2.5 to 6lb size range. At different times of the year fish move in and out of different depths or locations around lakes to best take advantage of food (fish/invertebrates) and to prepare or recover from spawning. Usually during the warmer months when there are good numbers feeding in the shallows, we tend to make the most of opportunities to head over the main divide to the Westland to target them. Fishing these lakes often adds to the variety of sight fishing opportunities available and is a nice change from fishing rivers and streams. In my opinion nothing really quite compares to the scenery that you encounter when fishing on the West Coast. It’s a magic place which keeps me coming back time after time.
A scan of the internet to check river flows and weather indicated that the west coast would provide the nicest weather and clean fishable water, so an earlyish start saw us on the road and at the lake by 8:40am. An inspection of the water showed some dark tannin staining due to all the recent rain, but it was still possible to spot cruising fish. After a brief motor to our chosen fishing location and we began scanning the cleaner shallow lake edges for cruising fish. It wasn’t long before we encountered a fish feeding in 20-30cm deep water. Even more exciting was the fact that every so often he was feeding off the surface. Recently shed chironomid shucks littering the waters surface and the odd visible emergent adult suggested that he was most probably feeding on emerging midges. My friend was first to have a go and a good cast followed by a brief strip of the fly, had the trout bolting over to intercept the offering, engulfing it without delay. A brief pause and a solid strike resulted in a good hookup. The fight was only a few minutes long but a reasonable conditioned brown of just over 3lbs ended up in the net. A few quick photo’s and a quick release followed. Signs for the day looked good with the first fish landed so quickly. As the day continued signs of a high number of trout diminished as we were spotting a lot less fish than we would normally expect to see while fishing this location. We were catching fish but were having to work quite hard to locate them in the coloured water. The odd blind cast into a likely location resulted in the odd fish but we were still encountering the occasional spotted cruising fish who was happy to take our nymph and dry fly offerings. We lost the odd fish to mistimed strikes but resulted in catching the least number of fish at this location with only 6 or 7 eventually landed for the day. A disappointing trip in terms of numbers but we still has a fun day out with some friends surrounded by spectacular west coast scenery on a beautiful sunny day.
Over the years I have become a big fan of exploring the various very scenic West Coast and Canterbury High Country lakes with my stand-up inflatable dinghy. The boat often allows easier access to more remote and less fished sections of lakes where foot access may be difficult or impossible. An inflatable is quiet (very little sound/vibration transmits from the hull into the water when moving or if knocked by something in the boat), and allows access into water only mere centimetres in depth without stirring up the bottom silt/mud. Being able to stand-up in a boat also allows the spotting of cruising fish from much further away. There are many benefits to owning an inflatable boat so if you are considering purchasing a boat I would really recommend considering choosing an inflatable.