DOC’s newsletter – Taupo Fishery Focus

Taupo Fishery Management Newsletter banner-closeup of brown trout

Taupō Fishery Focus.By trout anglers for trout anglers.Issue 41 – June 2025.

Excitement is mounting on the Central Plateau, with a new Taupō fishing season just around the corner. Good numbers of trout are already taking advantage of increased river flows to begin their winter migration, and early signs suggest we could have a good season ahead.

The new 2025/26 season kicks off on Tuesday 1 July, so anglers will need a new Taupō fishing licence.  As usual Season licences will go on sale a week before the season begins, allowing anglers to hit the ground running. Head over to our online fishing licence store and pick up your new 2025/26 Season licence from Tuesday 24 June. Shorter duration, week and day licences will become available once the new season gets underway. Taupō District online fishing licence store: www.doc.govt.nz/FishingLicence

The licence sales platform has been totally overhauled to offer anglers a more intuitive, stable and secure online experience. There are other benefits too that you can read about below. In a change from previous seasons, Taupō licences can now only be purchased from the online store. This means retail outlets and other licence agents will no longer sell licences.

This edition of Taupō Fishery Focus also includes data from the Waipa fish trap located on an important spawning tributary of the Tongariro River, and the first information from the Te Whaiau trap at Lake Otamangakau.We hope you have a great start to the new Taupō fishing season.Tight lines.
James Barnett
Editor

Photo comp winner hooks a season licence.

The overall winner of this year’s Taupō Fishing District photo competition is Tara Maniapoto, who submitted a delightful photograph of her daughter beside the Hinemaiaia River holding a fine rainbow ‘jack’ in full spawning regalia. Tara told us, that fishing on the local rivers is a huge passion of theirs and they love getting their girls out there to experience it as well. “You can’t really beat the incredible scenery, the sound of the river, the fresh air and of course the beautiful trout!”The photograph will appear on the printed season licence wallet cards for the upcoming 2025/26 fishing season and also illustrate the ‘Child Season’ licence in the online store. Six other winning photographs will also be used to illustrate a licence category within the online store.All winners will receive a Taupō Season fishing licence for the 2025/26 fishing season, which begins 1 July 2025. You can see all the winning photos on our Facebook page>
 
A new online licence store for a new season.Anglers will notice a few changes when buying a Taupō fishing licence for the 2025/26 season.The old licence platform was launched nearly a decade ago and served anglers well. When introduced it marked an important shift to online sales, allowing anglers greater freedom to buy fishing licences. Since then, technology has moved on and the aging system needed to be updated.

A new modern online licence sales platform has been developed, reflecting the increasing demand for online services. The new system extends the functionality of our online store, bringing additional benefits to anglers including an improved user interface and greater stability.At its core, the new online store will offer the opportunity to create a ‘user profile’ which will make managing fishing licences easy. This works well for people who want to keep track of multiple short-term fishing licences (week or 24-hour) or season licence holders who want an easy way to purchase each year. People who hunt and fish can also benefit, with a facility to manage their hunting permits and Taupō fishing licences from the single profile page.

For anglers who prefer a simpler approach, they can choose to buy their licence using a ‘guest’ function.Taupō fishing licences will now only be available through the online store, offering anglers 24-hours a day, 7 days a week convenience. As part of the changes the licence agent option has been discontinued. This means shops and other outlets will no longer be selling Taupō fishing licences.The cost of including agent functionality within the new system was prohibitively expensive. It would have doubled the cost of the project, which in turn would have placed significant cost pressure on our fishing licence fees, potentially leading to increased costs to anglers. We strive to make fishing in the Taupō District as affordable as possible, so we tightly manage operating costs, to keep licence fees low. We hope you enjoy using the new online store. For anglers that need additional help with the new system we have developed a simple ‘how to guide’.  
Waipa fish trap

Waipa fish trap reinstated and operational in May.The Waipa spawning trap was recommissioned for the 2025 Winter season on 5 May. The trap is located on the Waipa Stream, a tributary of the Tongariro River, and is an important spawning stream. Decades of consistent data collection allow fishery managers to identify trends over time. The first significant spawning runs usually are seen at the end of May and early June. Initial results for May showed a trickle of trout moving upstream into the headwaters with one or two fish recorded each day.

Two large weather events saw the lower Tongariro River swell to over 700 cubic meters per second. Unsurprisingly this encouraged trout to move, with trap numbers rising significantly. Both rainfall events caused the trap to flood, suggesting a percentage of migrating trout could have avoided capture. This means actual numbers could be higher than those recorded. This is where downstream monitoring comes in, helping to quantify the number of unclipped fish that avoided the trap.

May 2025 saw 94 trout processed through the trap compared to only 49 the previous May. Early run rainbows made up the bulk of the run with jacks in particular making up 50% of all fish measured. With the exception of brown hens, trout were slightly longer than last year. While longer, this year’s fish were marginally down on Condition Factor.

Waipa trap data for May 2025, compared with previous year.

Data for 2025 will be posted on our website soon. If you like to dig into the technical details visit our dedicated webpage: Waipa Stream fish trap reports>Taupo fishery sign

Digital and printed licences.

New technology should make our lives easier. That’s certainly the case when it comes to carrying a valid fishing licence when fishing in the Taupō District.Every angler who purchases a fishing licence online within the Taupō Fishing District will automatically receive an email receipt confirming the transaction and a pdf copy of their fishing licence. If they buy a Season licence, then a plastic wallet card will also be posted to them. The pdf copy of the licence can be carried by an angler as evidence of holding a legal Taupō fishing licence. The angler is still responsible for ensuring they are fishing legally. This includes purchasing the right type of licence (Resident, Non-resident), ensuring they are fishing within specified dates, and they are adhering to all the Taupō fishing regulations. As a tip, if relying on the pdf digital licence, it is a good idea to make sure the licence is downloaded to a phone. This ensures it can be accessed and presented to a Fishery Ranger irrespective of phone reception.In summary, anglers are responsible for carrying a valid Taupō fishing licence every time they go fishing. For many anglers, the plastic wallet card remains the preferred choice, but ultimately the choice is down to the individual – digital or printed. They both work well.
Lake Otamangakau trout can reach impressive proportions.

Lake Otamangakau, Te Whaiau trap operational.

As part of the regulation changes introduced in 2022 Taupō Fishery Managers committed to a programme of ongoing monitoring. This included reinstating a trapping programme on the Te Whaiau Stream – the most important spawning tributary for trout in Lake Otamangakau.This year trapping got underway in May. Brown trout turned up in good numbers and unsurprisingly for Lake Otamangakau, there were some impressive specimens amongst them. Rangers processed 115 browns (69 hens and 46 jacks) with the heaviest being a 4.32 kg (9.5lbs) hen that measured 700mm. She had spawned previously but there were no fin clips evident, so it was her first time through the trap. Another 4.2kg (9.2lbs) hen had a scar on one fin showing she was a repeat spawner and had been through the trap before in 2023. The longest brown was a jack measuring 725mm and weighing 3.64 kgs.Rainbows were not as numerous with 49 fish processed for the month of May (17 hens and 32 jacks), but their size was outstanding, including the biggest fish recorded for the month – a rainbow jack that pulled the scales down to 4.92kgs (nearly 11lbs) and measured 730mm long. The data for June has yet to be collated but some fine fish have been weighed and measured, confirming the status of Lake Otamangakau. Once the trapping season is complete, technical staff will review all the data and compare the information with previous years. They will also reference creel and satisfaction surveys, as well as information about angling pressure, to determine how the fishery is tracking. This in turn will provide an evidence-based platform for future fishery management decisions, including any potential regulation changes. 

Angler code of conduct.In winter popular pools on rivers like the Tongariro River can sometimes get crowded, which occasionally creates tension between anglers.Most problems can be avoided by following a simple code of conduct, often referred to as fishing etiquette.While not part of the Taupō fishery regulations, these common-sense guidelines will allow everyone to enjoy their time fishing on the rivers of the Central Plateau – Fishing Etiquette video clip> Get the most up-to-date information directly from the Taupō Fishery Facebook page.FacebookEarlier editions of Taupō Fishery Focus can be accessed online.