Fish and Game honorary ranger Anthony Marino was patrolling Lake Hawea during Christmas and New Year, carrying out angler licence checks and surveys.
Otago Fish and Game rangers have reported a rise in the number of fishing licence compliance offences committed by anglers on Lakes Wakatipu, Wanaka and Hawea over the Christmas-New Year period, compared with at other times of the year.
Otago Fish and Game ranger Paul van Klink said 200 anglers
were spoken to on the water and 50 on shore. "About 18 offences were committed, which is actually quite high''.
He said over the course of the year the offence rate was usually below 5% of anglers encountered but during the Christmas-New Year holiday period it was up to 13%.
"Most of those committing fishing licence offences were New Zealanders, with a few non-residents angling without the right licence.''
He said "we had quite a few offences this summer of people fishing two rods which is classed as a minor offence but some of those had legitimate reasons''.
