KEY POINTS:
A prominent Turangi fishing guide, John Baker, is seeking support to have the daily bag limit reduced from three fish to one on the famous trophy-trout lake, Otamangakau, south of Taupo.
If he can gain enough support, he will try to get a petition under way to change the regulations.
He is also urging anglers who release trout back into the lake to use the correct techniques, as he believes many fish are being lost through careless handling.
"Lake Otamangakau is one of the best trophy fisheries in the world, but I feel too many fish are being taken," Baker says. "I want to see the eight to 10-pounders protected so they are given a chance to grow."
During the most recent flush of good fishing, he estimated up to 150 trout were taken in one day.
Nobody keeps fish under 2.2kg (5lb), so that's at least 330kg taken that day.
At this time of year Otamangakau trout are either late pre-spawners in superb condition or recovering spawners rebuilding condition.
Unfortunately many of those being kept are the recovering fish. They are indeed big, but they are slabs, not trophies, and they are no good to eat.
So why keep them? If a man must use a dead fish to puff out his chest in front of his mates, then at least it should be a genuine trophy and not a skinny swimming backbone with jaws. An out-of condition fish of 4.5kg would reach 6kg or more if allowed to live and breed.
Baker says some of the fish being released are not being handled correctly. They should be released in the water with wet hands. Dry hands remove patches of protective slime from the fish's skin, allowing bacteria to enter and kill it. And a fish should not be removed from the water for photographs before release because the stress can kill it.
I saw a visiting English angler land a fine 4.2kg brown at Otamangakau which he decided to release. But he dropped the struggling fish six times on the ground while trying to hold it in his arms for his wife to photograph. It was more dead than alive when he managed to get it back in the water.
Lake Otamangakau has its share of cowboys who flout the rules when the season opens, just as Lake Rotoiti has its winter boaties who head out with heavy seafishing tackle, or people who go after trophies with surfcasters and heavy sinkers around Ruato Bay.
Otamangakau's cowboys have been seen over the years illegally continuing to fish when they already have a bag of three, then discarding one in the bushes after catching a better one. Over-the-limit catches are hidden when the rangers are about.
At this time of year, Lake Otamangakau trout are feeding furiously after spawning, and some of the hits are so fast that they'll break a 5kg trace on the strike. They are also very shy, and anglers need to fish quietly and tread softly.
The most popular fish-catcher is the nymph of the green damselfly, which hatches profusely around the lake and which accounted for the biggest fish caught there, a maiden rainbow hen of 8kg, in the mid-80s.
As the weather warms the damselfly population will explode and the terrestrials will be out, particularly cicadas, and then the fishing can be very exciting.
Anglers need all their wits sharp as enormous trout slash across the surface to take the imitations and then run the line down into the backing.
This is a magnificent fishery. Let's keep it that way. Anglers can express their support to John Baker at the Raised Hackle tackle shop, 123 Taupahi Rd, Turangi, or email theraisedhackle@xtra.co.nz
