New Zealand South Island Lure Selections

[burbler]

Gday all,

I am off to Southland New Zealand next weekend for 8 days of trout fishing. Below is the selection of lures/spinners/plastics that I plan to take along, we will be fishing the area around Gore, including the Mataura, Waikaia, Mararoa and Oreti rivers. I went the same time last year and had huge success on the deep super vibrax lures and didnt really try much else.

My question is, if you were headed over there, what additional lures/plastics would you take?

Ps. I will post up some pics on my return...

[Ca11um]

add some 2' powerbaits and flick them at the small feader creeks that run into the lakes.
lightly weight them and your good to go!
i dropped to good fish at lake wakatipu on tassie devils.

cheers, BTF

[forsterfisho]

Is there any issues with bringing lures in and out of NZ due to the rock snott (didymo?) issue at large?

[burbler]

Originally Posted by forsterfisho

Is there any issues with bringing lures in and out of NZ due to the rock snott (didymo?) issue at large?

Previous times we have been over in NZ, we washed all our gear (lures included) a couple of times in soapy water, then declared to customs that we had been fishing in Didymo infected waters... Customs inspected gear and ensured it was dry before giving us the ok!...

Crikey I hope that snot doesnt reach our shores!

[forsterfisho]

Originally Posted by burbler

Previous times we have been over in NZ, we washed all our gear (lures included) a couple of times in soapy water, then declared to customs that we had been fishing in Didymo infected waters... Customs inspected gear and ensured it was dry before giving us the ok!...

Crikey I hope that snot doesnt reach our shores!

apparently theres some risk/has happened in Tasmania, I remember watching a doco or reading a scientific paper from the tas DPI about it...

[brad mcdonald]

reckon this guy could give a few pointers ..... and you thought that phot had not impact on me mr morris .... i cried at first but then i was ok.

[Mark M]

Originally Posted by brad mcdonald

.... i cried at first but then i was ok.

Burb, drive down to Athol & talk to Stu if you get the chance, he does flies & jigs for spinfishers too!

You can get a liquid treatment at the tackle stores, for your gear and tackle called "snot-off" to mix with water and soak. Its important to treat your gear while in NZ if you are moving between systems as well.

ps. Brown trout don't jump

[burbler]

Cheers for that Mark...

Last year we dropped in and saw Stu (great little shop) and one of my mates picked up a heap of flies... I will be getting some of that "snot off" solution. Last time over in NZ we had a plastic trough in the back of the car with detergent and water and cleaned all our gear before moving locations (and at night back at the motel). This was the recomendation from the locals...

I was recently informed that scented baits are not allowed in NZ so unfortunatley I will not be taking the plastics as shown, however I just placed an order from MYLURESHOP.COM.AU for some of the unscented "old stock' M & Wow grubs, never tried them before but they look ok and I will be giving them a shot...

[The Growse]

The first time I went to NZ for a trip it was throwing lures, basiclly anything that suspends or sinks worked far better, that said, the Xrap6 from Rapala in Brown trout, Rainbow and Muddler done well!
By far the best lure I had was a Duel VX50 in silver.....
The Mataura is an awesome system, but don't forget the Oretti or the Waiau river.
Stu is a great guy and helped myself and a few mates out when we went their this January because of the sh!t weather we had.
There are a few rivers over there that don't allow lure or spin fishing though so do your homework!
Cheers.

[Mark M]

Originally Posted by burbler

.....I was recently informed that scented baits are not allowed in NZ ......

They are allowed in bait fishing systems Burb, just not in lure &/or fly only systems..

[Piscateur]

Looks like you've got it all covered. Havent lure fished NZ but I think most Trout fry representations should work.
Have a great trip & look forward to your report.

[burbler]

Couple of the better pics to give you an idea of the trip... ill post a report and more pics when/if I return home...

[__MATT__]

such awesome shots.

[burbler]

Firstly I would like to pass my condolences on to those that have lost freinds or family in the devastating earthquake that hit Christchurch while we were in New Zealand. My heart goes out to those poor people in the area who dont know whether to stay, leave, rebuild, sellup or simply just walk away as there are many people that we spoke to on our return journey who are in this unfortunate predicament.

Without dwelling on the above, below are a few photo's from our recent trip.

For this trip we based ourselves in the small Southland town of Lumsden and fished the following rivers based on the prevailing weather and river clarity.

Mataura, Oreti, Waikaia, Apirama, Maroroa and a few smaller tributuries.

Both of us used Loomis Escape Travel Series Rods, me with a Luvias DA Custom and my mate with a Steez 2508. Mainly we both used 10LB Castaway braid with 6Lb Sunline siglon leader. I tried Sunline Supersniper in 6LB straight through on the first session but felt that the cast distance was not great enough to avoid spooking the fish. I tried the majority of lures and plastics that I took over at some stage or another but found that the fast flowing rivers and rapis were more suited to spinning type lures like Veltics, Mepps & Vibrax's and these are what we caught most of the fish with. On average I would estimate we both caught 8-10 fish each per day with alot in the 1/2-LB mark.

My mate is a bit shy so I have blanked out his face...

If anyone is heading over and wants more details of actual locations, PM me and I will send you a few more specifics.

For those that are after car hire in NZ, I could not recomend the following rental company more highly- http://www.overland.co.nz/home.html . Tony the owner is a fellow fisherman and knows what you need, with Didymo kits, maps and heaps of helpfull advice provided. The car we had was a Rav4 with brand new decent off road tyres. He meets you at the airport and picks the car up from wherever you are departing from.

Anyway I will let the pics do the talkin as I have crapped on too much already-

This brown went 4 1/2 LB's on the Waikaia River-
1.jpg

This brown went 5 1/2 LB's on the Waikaia River-
2.jpg

Did'nt weigh this little rainbow but was caught at the lower Mavora Lake and was the most awsome of colours-
3.jpg

This brown went 2 1/4 L/Bs and was taken on the Mataura towards Athol-
4.jpg

This rainbow went 5 LB's and was taken on Maroroa below the Mavora lakes, bout a 15 minute fight-
5.jpg

Got a few more to post...

[burbler]

This brown went 2 1/2 LB's and was caught on the Waikaia-
6.jpg

The mighty Oreti river, saw a fish that was well over 8 LB just here, had a snap at my lure but no cigar!
7.jpg

The Mataura, this spot took a good 3hrs to hike into. When the foot prints on the banks got less and less the fishing got better and better and was well worth the walk-
8.jpg

The upper Waikaia, just up above this spot the river is a grade 5 kyaking beast-
9.jpg

Upper Waikaia-
10.jpg