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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]
Angling
Angling.
Trout fishing is now one of the recognised pursuits of the leisured class who visit this colony every summer in search of recreation. The rivers and lakes of Otago and Southland have been stocked with brown trout, as well as the Loch Leven and Scottish burn trout, and all these have increased and multiplied exceedingly. The brown trout in particular in these waters reaches a size undreamed of in Europe. In Lake Wakatipu they have been netted up to twenty-eight pounds in weight; while ten pound and fifteen pound fish are not at all uncommon. The other Alpine lakes—Te Anau, Manapouri, Hayes, Diamond—are full of trout, but they have not yet been caught with rod and line.
The best rod streams are: The Waitati, near Dunedin (fly), Shag (fly and minnow), Waipahi (fly and minnow), Pomahaka (minnow), Waiwera (fly), Otameta (fly), Jacob's River, Waiau and Waitaki (minnow), Kakanui and Mararoa (fly and minnow). But fly fishing can be pursued with success in scores of smaller streams throughout the province. Of the sport to be had in these southern waters it is sufficient to quote the following records from the Waiau (minnow): In one day six fish weighing eighty-nine pounds, including one fish twenty-two pounds and a half: in two hours to one rod, eighty-six pounds of fish; in one week to three rods, 560 pounds of fish or an average of eighty pounds per day. These takes are perhaps exceptional, but they help to explain why votaries of the rod, the world over, are beginning to regard New Zealand as the anglers' chosen country; and nothing is so likely to attract tourists to this colony as the certainty that they can enjoy sport of this exceptional nature under pleasant conditions and with very little trouble or expense.