Rotorua Trout Fishing

Rotorua Lakes District – a trout fisherman’s dream

Rotorua Lakes District has 15 fishable lakes packed with rainbow and brown trout. The lakes are all formed from the craters of extinct volcanoes. All Seasons Holiday Park is only 100 meters from Lake Rotorua making it an ideal accommodation option for fishermen and fishing groups who want to spend as much time fishing a possible. Once you have caught your trout we have a fish cleaning station and boat wash down facility situated at All Seasons Holiday Park.

Lake Rotorua is the largest lake in the district (and second largest by area in the Nth Island), but also one of the shallowest at only 25 meters at its deepest and 11m in average. There are a number of tributaries (streams) feeding into Lake Rotorua that provide excellent spawning conditions, making this a truly wild fishery. A large number of hatchery-reared trout are released into the lake each year, ensuring this lake has one of the highest catch rates of any in the district and therefore perfect for inexperienced anglers.

Lake Rotorua fishery provides anglers with excellent fishing throughout the year. While most fish caught trolling or harling (shallow water trolling) from boats, there is excellent shore-based fly fishing and spinning as well.

Tips

Environmental Bay of Plenty publish live data from its water monitoring buoy, which is a good tool for anglers wanting to know wind speed, direction and water temperature at various depths see: Click here to see Live Data

In summer try fishing at the in-flows which are colder than the lake. Being a relatively shallow lake, temperatures can rise up to 24 degrees Celsius in summer. Northern streams like the Hamurana and Awahou stream mouth (17km and 22km from All Seasons Holiday Park respectively), fly fish well during the heat of summer (usually best at night).

The Tassie ‘Brown Trout, purple and white colours, and moderate size smelt flies like the Parsons Glory and/or Grey Ghost.

Spring and autumn is suited to boating methods. Good size brown trout can be picked up in front of the airport (north of the Hannah’s Bay boat ramp 200m from All Seasons Holiday Park).

In winter the lake fishes especially well. Rainbow trout spawn around stream mouths.

Ohau Channel (10km from All Seasons Holiday Park) flows out from Lake Rotorua to Lake Rotoiti. It’s open to fly-fishing from October to the end of June. Best fishing is early and late in the season.

When at the local fishing stores ask for advice – they will be happy to give you more tips.

We recommend anglers be familiar with local regulations such as sizing, season dates, bag limits etc, which is available when you buy your trout licence.

Other Lakes nearby:

Lake Rotoiti (17km from All Seasons Holiday Park)

Lake Rotoiti is a deep lake formed from a volcanic cone like the majority of the districts lakes and provides excellent fishing to both the shoreline and the boat angler who wishes to target ‘trophy’ sized fish. As there are few numbers of spawning tributaries, most fish are hatchery-reared. However, due to the abundant food source in the lake, fish grow rapidly and can reach large sizes. It is third-largest lake in the Rotorua area.

Lake Tarawera (21km from All Seasons Holiday Park)

The lake is clear and very cold providing excellent trout habitat. As trout have an abundant food source within the lake they grow rapidly and reach some of the most impressive sizes of any trout in NZ. While most of the fishing on this lake is by boat, there are also some areas for the shore-based angler around the western bays where there is road access. Boats are often used by anglers to reach some of the remote and isolated bays where the fishing can be superb and undisturbed by other anglers. Favoured spots include Waitangi Bay, Te Wairoa stream mouth, Rangiuru Bay and the Landing.