I took the photo below about a week ago of a fish I had just landed on the Tauranga-Taupo River which flows into Lake Taupo in the central North Island of New Zealand.
Now leaving aside the fact that the fish moved just as I was taking the shot, hence the blurred image, and I was out of battery power, the fish is pretty typical of what is in the rivers flowing into Lake Taupo. It was around 48cm long (19 inches) and weighed around 2.5 to 3 pound.
What is noteworthy about the fish is that it is, by Taupo spawning run fish, well on the thin side. This time of the year we expect to see fish of this length with around another pound of condition. The slide in fish weight averages has been seen over the last couple of years – but is it time to panic?
Of course the doom and gloom merchants have been out in droves, heralding the end of the fishery. In talking to fishers who have known the rivers and Lake for many years, all over twenty years, I think the D&G’ers have got it wrong.
Firstly, those of us who have known the lake for over 20 years and more, know that these things go in cycles. Sometimes the smelt mass in the Lake on which Taupo trout depend is lower than usual because of a number of conditions, sometimes the lake is full of smelt and we get bigger trout averages.
There is a belief, backed by the Dept of Conservation who administer the Taupo conservancy, that there are too many trout in the Lake and this is depleting the feed, hence the lowering of average size. So from October 1st new regulations dropping the minimum size for taking fish from 45cm (18inches) to 40cm (16inches) came into force. This drop is seen as being a short tactic only.
There is also encouragement for anglers to ease back on catch and release in the short term at least, till fish stocks are lower.
Me, I am quite happy to catch fish like that pictured above, one of eight fish much like that, that session. Sometimes we forget how lucky we are here in Godzone.
Update 2010-9-10:
The fish that have been coming into the various rivers that flow into Lake Taupo tjis Winter (May – Sep) have included a much greater number of fish over 5lbs, and many much larger. Based on a sample of one, me, over the last 2 months 80% of the fresh run fish I have caught have been in great condition, and averaged around the 4lb mark.

Related posts:
Comments on this entry are closed.