Buller River

The Buller, Kawatiri in te reo Māori, leaves Lake Rotoiti at St Arnaud and runs 177 km to the sea at Westport. It is the only major river in New Zealand with no hydro lake, and a Water Conservation Order has kept it that way since 2001. This page covers the whole river: from the lake outlet past Kawatiri Junction, Gowanbridge and Murchison, through the Upper and Lower Buller gorges, to Westport. It is a wild brown trout river from end to end. The rules split it at Gowan Bridge: fly and spinner only from 1 October to 30 April above the bridge, and fly, spinner or bait all year below it. Below the Lyell confluence, in the Upper Buller Gorge, it passes into the West Coast Fish & Game region, which keeps it open all year.

The river changes character at the Gowan, which pours out of Lake Rotoroa and adds a big share of the flow. Above it, the Buller is fast and turbulent, with bush to the water's edge, slippery rock and little room for a back cast. Fish numbers are high there, and most run 0.9 to 1.4 kg (2 to 3 lb). Below the Gowan the valley opens out, State Highway 6 runs beside the river, and the wading is easier. You find fewer fish, but they average over 1.4 kg (3 lb). Fish a weighted Hare and Copper or Pheasant Tail through the runs, in sizes 10 to 14 in the fast upper water and 14 or smaller lower down. Big bushy dries work in the faster upper water, and an Adams or Greenwell's Glory works on the slower water lower down. Fish a small wet fly such as a March Brown at dusk. Spinners such as a Black Toby or a Mepps work the whole river, and bait is legal below Gowan Bridge.

Know what the mainstem is before you go. It is a big, pushy river, and some guides rate it below its clear tributaries, such as the Mangles, the Matakitaki, the Owen and the Maruia, for sight fishing. Its strengths are the number of fish and how easy it is to reach from the highway. Some of the bank is private land. Use the marked access points along SH6, and ask the landowner before you cross private land, especially between the Owen and the Mangles. Didymo is in parts of the Buller catchment, so check, clean and dry your gear before you move to another river.

Below the Maruia, the Buller runs through the Upper Buller Gorge to Inangahua Junction, then the Lower Buller Gorge and its wide, slow lower reaches to Westport. Fish & Game's guides say the lower reaches hold very big fish and good numbers of all sizes, but the water is deep and slow, so it is fished almost only from the bank and suits spinning more than the fly. Sea-run browns come into the river near Westport during the whitebait season in spring. Spin a bully or smelt imitation, a silver slice or a Toby, or fish a big streamer such as a Parson's Glory, Hope's Silvery, Dorothy or Grey Ghost, especially at night. The Longford gauge reads only the upper river. The lower gorges collect the Maruia, the Inangahua and many more tributaries, and the West Coast Regional Council's gauges at Woolfs and Te Kuha read them.