DOC considers cutting size of Taupo trout

Good news for anglers - bad news for trout at Lake Taupo.

The Conservation Department is considering reducing the legal size for catching trout by three centimetres amid concerns that drier winters are contributing to smaller fish in the lake.

Taupo fishery manager Glenn MacLean said research had shown the peak spawning period was now occurring later in the year, in October and November.

Unusually dry and unsettled winter weather in the past five to six years had caused lower river levels, delaying the spawning runs into the lake till later in the year.

As a result, anglers were catching younger and smaller trout, which were under the 45cm legal size, in the peak summer holiday season.

Mr MacLean said the catch rate during the summer was still high, but many of the fish were several months younger, and 5-6cm smaller, than previously at the same time of the year. As a result, anglers were forced to release much of their catch.

"Instead of being legal size during the summer, a large proportion of the catch is undersized at that time of year."

MV Waimarie fishing charter skipper Grant Lister said the data confirmed his own observations. "There's certainly a lot of smaller fish around."

Mr MacLean said minimum length regulations were designed for anglers to catch legally sized trout during the peak summer period but this was not happening.

There were now proposals to reduce the minimum length from 45cm to 42cm.

The legal length was increased in 1997 from 35cm to 45cm when Mt Ruapehu eruptions and spring floods affected the trout populations and numbers needed to be conserved.

The measurement point also changed - from the nose to the fork of the tail, instead of the tail tip.

A public discussion on whether to change the minimum legal length would be held at the Tongariro National Trout Centre on August 11.

- © Fairfax NZ News