Queenstown NZ | Lake Wakatipu

[Dano]

Spent some time over in NZ for the skiing last week and whilst there decided to hit up a couple of hours out on the lake fishing

I was walking along the side of the lake and hapend to run into a local fisherman by the name of Stu Dever he runs a small charter boat year round and usually runs two short trips per day 10am -12 and 1pm - 2pm but you can book in full days if you can give a couple of days notice.

We headed out at 10am and started to troll some lures along a reef in about 300' of water Stu used the sounder to set 2 down riggers just above the reef, 2 lures staggered mid water and two on the surface

after about 25min of trolling he was starting to look a bit concerned nothing had touched them but as soon as we got out the flask and started pouring a cuppa one of the surface lures was smashed by a nice Rainbow trout!!!!

It was fantastic to reel him in as he jumped out of the water countless times truing to rid himself of the hook, stu was great help giving me pointers on how not to loose him and before long he was safely in the esky

we trolled this area for a little while longer but no more interest so we headed up another reach of the lake

We used basically the same technique again and managed to have a couple more hits but i missed getting them in

We finished off the day with my girlfriend pulling in a beautiful Brown Trout that hit the lure on the pack up to head back in

Upon out return the fish were cleaned for us and he even organised with my hotel to cook them up for our dinner and they were as good to eat as they were to catch

I would highly recomend anyone spending some time Queenstown to check him out as he was a great bloke and worked hard to make sure we went home with some fish and im sure if you went in the summer when the fish are much more active you would do alot better.

Mainly catch Salmon, Rainbow and Brown Trout apparently Brown are a little more scarce so we were kinda lucky

Hope you enjoy the pics

Dan

[silver_rex]

great work Dan!!! Beautiful place isnt it

Really need to get off my backside and head over again soon

[kiwifisho]

It would have to be one of my favorite places in the world, theres also some primo river fishing in that area as well

Nice pics man :ta:

Dean

[Dano]

i know the rivers are unreal!!! I could see big salmon cruising through the shallows!!!

Here are a couple of pics I took on the road out to Milford sound, this particular spot you can camp and fish right on the lake - definately on my list of things to do next time

The water was so clear I could see a few Trout sitting in the deeper water and there was one that came up in about 100mm of water i could have almost picked him up!!!

Also here is the contact details for the charter:

[wesfish]

that water looks impressive!!! great report mate!!!!!