Harvey Clark: Trout heaven in line for reel rush

Tomorrow one of New Zealand's famed trout fishing locations, the Ohau Channel flowing from Lake Rotorua to Lake Rotoiti, opens for the new season. It is one of the area's biggest social occasions of the year.

At midnight tonight the first angling parties will claim their favourite spots five hours before opening time. There will be food, warm clothes, hot drinks and convivial hip flasks.

By 4am most if not all of the accessible spots will be taken. At 5am a siren will sound to mark the official opening. Before it fades the first flies will hit the water and within seconds the first fish will be hooked.

At least 50 anglers will be there at 5am. They will cast between 50 and 150 flies, depending on whether they use one, two or three-fly rigs. Fish and Game records show they will catch half a fish an hour, or four fish for each person, at an average weight of 3kg a fish. In an eight-hour day that's 200 fish weighing 600kg.

Many of these fishers will be out-of-towners casting with the best tackle that money can buy: high-performance graphite rods that leave the wallet $1500 leaner, modern-technology reels that cost up to $500 and do everything for you except pick your nose, super-smooth distance-casting lines that can cost up to $150.

Longtime local anglers such as Johnny Hoani, who have the Ohau Channel in their blood, will have a bit of a chuckle to themselves about all that expense. Last season Hoani, using an old fibreglass rod and a beaten-up reel with a piece of Biro pen shoved in to replace the broken handle, landed an 8.6kg (18lb) monster that made the usual trophy fish look like minnows.

As far as I can ascertain, Hoani's catch was the biggest trout officially recorded caught in New Zealand in three years, excluding the 30lb-plus freaks (13.6kg) caught in the Tekapo canal, where they grow huge from eating salmon pellets and faeces from a nearby salmon farm. The last big one from the channel was a 9kg brown landed in 2003. Who knows, maybe the 10kg (22.4lb) mark will be cracked.

Trout flock to the Ohau Channel because that's where the food is. They pig out on migrating adult smelt in October and November, and they grow big and strong. Trophy trout of 4.5kg (10lb) are caught every year, usually browns, which are getting bigger every season and are boosting the reputation of Rotorua/Rotoiti as a superb trophy fishery.

Anglers use smelt flies, which work well in the channel day and night, on fast-sinking lines cast on heavy rods (at least No.8). It is essential that the tackle is heavy enough for the line to reach the bottom as soon as possible after it hits the water. O'Keefe's tackle shop in Rotorua recommend the Airflo DI7 high-density line which sinks at almost 18cm a second. It is a full-length flyline rather than a shooting head on braided backing, and costs $100.

Opening day will also bring hundreds of boat anglers out for the new season on Lakes Rotoiti and Tarawera - at least 500 boats are expected on Tarawera alone - and on the trophy Lake Otamangakau south of Turangi. Predictions for all three are excellent.

Steve Smith, of Rotorua Fish and Game, says the biggest growth in trout size in his region has been noted at Rotoiti and Tarawera, where the two-year-old fish have been bigger than in the past.

"Predictions couldn't be better," he says.

Anglers should not forget that daylight saving starts tomorrow, or bedlam will reign at the boat-ramps. The clocks go forward an hour at midnight tonight.

Here's an easy way to remember: spring forward, fall (autumn) back.