This is the crunch!

During the last few seasons, when dead trout were sighted floating in the lake, the inlet canal was not flowing. This caused the excessive water temperatures.

Without the flow of cooler snow-melt from the Whakapapa River, the shallow lake heated up much more than the usual February temperatures. All Lake O anglers understand that whenever the lake heated up during previous seasons the resident trout moved up the inlet canal to refresh and re-oxygenate from the cooler frothy invigorating waterfall flowing into the Te Whaiau canal and through the tiny Lake Te Whaiau.

The uncontrolled upper Wanganui River alone – which joins the inlet canal and is used for the fish trap data – has insufficient volume to maintain the lake water temperature at a cooler survivable level. For a view of the fish trap operation on the Wanganui River, have a squiz at the brief educational video below produced by TRM a few years ago – starring Didymo Dave no less!

Lake O fish Trap.

The photos illustrate the physical nature of the canal geography better than I can describe it.

But as the closure of the inlet canal and lack of any flow was not referred to in DOC’s analysis of the reasons that forced them to close Lake O in February, it must have been just a coincidence…

The Lake O faithful have been very patient but now they are getting serious… Watch this space.

What can anglers do about it? This is your best chance. Reply to this survey!

If you believe that Lake Otamangakau should be reopened in February please confirm by pressing the simple emoji for “Thumbs up”.

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