Rangitata River

The Rangitata is a snow-fed river that rises in the Southern Alps and runs about 120 km southeast to the sea between Ashburton and Timaru. It offers some of the best salmon fishing in New Zealand, and a Water Conservation Order has protected it since 2006. It also holds good stocks of brown and rainbow trout, which anglers seldom target. The river is unstable, braided and often silt-laden, and it floods and freshes from heavy rain and snowmelt, especially when the nor'wester blows during the November to March salmon season. Take care crossing braids, and watch for waves washing up the beach at the mouth.

The salmon, quinnat as New Zealand calls chinook, start running in mid November. Until mid February the best water is below the State Highway 1 bridge, and from February to April above it. Fish & Game's guide gives the river's best numbers at the Klondyke gauge, at the gorge: heavy rain between November and early January turns it dirty for a few days when the flow passes about 125 m³/s, and the best salmon fishing is when it is slightly coloured at about 80 to 110 m³/s. Spin with a silver, white or yellow Zed spinner of 14 to 28 g on 7 to 9 kg line, or fish a feathered lure with added weight on 9 to 11 kg line. Sea-run browns are in the estuary from October to December. Fish & Game says its monitoring shows the Rangitata and Waitaki salmon runs are now critically low, which is why the North Canterbury and Central South Island regions brought in a season bag of one sea-run salmon in 2021-22.

For trout, the best place is above the Rangitata Gorge, from opening day on 1 October until the spawning salmon arrive in mid February. Both brown and rainbow trout are there in good numbers, with more in the hard-to-reach side creeks such as Deep Stream and Deep Creek. Fish a smelt lure such as a Grey Ghost, Parson's Glory or Mrs Simpson, a Yellow Dorothy, or spin a Tasmanian Devil or a silver Toby on light line. Environment Canterbury runs the Klondyke gauge, and it sends readings only up to the previous midnight, so the newest value on this page can be up to a day old.