Rotorua trout fishing season starts strong, Lake Tarawera produces largest trout in more than 20 years

Boats set out on Lake Tarawera early on October 1 for the start of trout fishing season.

Rotorua’s trout fishing season has started strong, with Lake Tarawera producing its largest 2-year-old trout in more than two decades.

October 1 marked the start of the 2024-25 trout fishing season, with predictions of the season offering the best trout fishing in “many years” after high lake levels offered fish a nutrient buffet and ripe conditions for growth.

An Eastern Fish and Game statement on October 4 said rangers had been out talking to hundreds of anglers from around the country who descended upon the district to celebrate the start of the season and catch a trout.

Rangers were stationed at boat ramps and out on the lakes in boats.

Boat ramp surveys allowed rangers to weigh and measure catches, talk with anglers about their day and check everyone had a fishing licence and was fishing to the rules, Fish and Game’s Matt Osborne said.

Fish and Game reported the 2-year-old trout from Lake Tarawera was “absolutely remarkable”, with hatchery fish released during autumn 2023 coming in at 583mm and 2.45kg.

“This is a whopping 600g per fish heavier than last opening,” the statement said.

Lake Rotoiti and Lake Okataina also had bigger fish than the last two years, it said.

Successful anglers at a weighing station on the opening day of trout season.

“Two very wet seasons which weren’t pleasant for us land dwellers have really pumped good forest catchment nutrients into the lakes and boosted the food chain,” Osborne said.

“Anglers were very happy to be out on the region’s lakes, and the weather really turned it on. I think lots of fishers were stoked to be out there fishing with friends and families, relieving stress and being able to catch great fish was the cherry on top.”

The day’s biggest recorded fish was a brown trout weighing 10 pounds caught in the Ohau Channel by Rotorua local angler Cary Coker.

Lake Rotoiti produced a rainbow tipping the scales at 4kg and Lake Tarawera a rainbow of 3.4kg.

“With the real boom time in the food chain coming following smelt spawning, this season has the potential to produce some truly magnificent trout as we head through the season toward the autumn and early winter,” Osborne said.

The boat fishing season on Lakes Rotoiti, Tarawera and Okataina extends until the end of June 2025.

Rotorua has 13 trout fishing lakes, many of which are open all year.