Southland Summer Surfcasting Season Summary

People often regard Southland as a trout fishing region, with only the best fishing taking the form of fly-fishing for monster brown trout in the Matuara riv­er. For years, I believed that the cold, windy and treacherous Fo­veaux Strait and areas around it, provided poor land based sea fishing opportunities. How wrong I was. During the months from November through to Feb­ruary, you would find me con­stantly plunged in waist deep cold southern waters, surfcast­ing off a stunning Southland beach.

My passion for surfcasting in Southland waters was formed after a trip to Bluff Wharf where I redis­covered the passion a younger version of me once had, and I fell in love with fishing again. I was hooked! After a few years of wharf fishing, I began to wonder about what other possible land based saltwater fishing options there are around Southland that are both ac­cessible and enjoyable to fish at.

It was after a proper surfcasting trip with my mate late October, that my passion for surfcasting really became formed. Fully emerging yourself into nature, battling the true form of the sea and taking on the elements. While on edge that your rod is going to get torn out of your rod holder and absolutely start peel­ing line, is a rush.

When surfcasting I make sure to enjoy the scenery of the place I’m fishing, along with making the most of the conditions, whether that is the golden light of the sun reflect­ing off the shingle beach to create an imagery of warmth and beauty. Dull grey sand and thrashing waves failing to block out the howling , snarling wind coming from Foveaux Strait.

I did have quite a few highlights and favourite spots for my South­land summer surfcasting season, where I fished in lots of stunning locations and caught even more stunning fish.

Tiwai

On the opposite side of the Bluff Harbour I spent so much time fish­ing, the beautiful shingle beaches of Tiwai produced not just majestic views but majestic fishing. Lots of gurnard were landed, with frequent catches of kahawai, school shark and dogfish showcasing only some of what the rich waters of the South have to offer. The best highlight of my summer was when I pulled up to the beach and was greeted by hundreds of birds working up right on the beach. I sprinted 500 metres down the beach towards the massive workup with my surfcaster, stopping to throw all the stranded bait fish on the beach back in the water, These bait fish were stranded due to getting launched onto the beach by the mass of birds and ac­robatic kahawai. My silver spinner was launched into the middle of the swarm of birds swooping into the frenzy of silver baitfish, and it didn’t take me long before I hooked up. I ended up landing back to back 70cm kahawai on my first 2 casts, and another big one on my 4th cast. The fishing was unreal! I then de­cided to challenge myself by using my very light trout line and a softbait to try to catch a monster kahawai from the beach. On my 4th cast and only getting my line 5 metres off the beach, I hooked into a monster kahawai and found myself in a gru­eling 20-minute fight waist deep in the cold southern waters. I had to let the waves roll over me due to being completely outgunned by this fish and having no spare line left on my spool to play it out. By the time I had landed this fish, the workup had completely vanished, the birds chas­ing the bait fish into the dark blue waters of the horizon and the kaha­wai following suit. The 40 minutes of uncharacteristic and hectic fish ac­tivity I had just experienced left me with lots of amazing memories, and a big kahawai for the smoker!

Riverton

Located west of Invercargill, River­ton is a well known surfing destina­tion due to the mix of both calm and rough conditions. The fishing I expe­rienced around Riverton was pretty solid, and my mate Cam and I land­ed a lot of different species, includ­ing: rig, kahawai, school shark, dog­fish, stingray, and even a seven-gill­er! We fished a few different beach­es and found that surfing beaches with larger waves held decent sized fish, along with paper flat beaches being abundant with smaller fish species such as dogfish. The calm waters of Riverton were an ideal spot for my first southern surfcasting session, which captured the beauty of the south and is the spot, overrun with dogfish, that originally hooked me into surfcasting. The highlight of this spot was a trip where we caught a few big kahawai, a 50 kg stingray, and a 1.7 m seven-gill shark! I had always wanted to catch such a beast, and the realisation that it happened only built to my obsession of surfcasting even more.

New River Estuary

The majestic beauty of the New River Estu­ary made this spot one of the most aesthetic spots I’ve ever fished in. The paper flat wa­ters stretched on for kilometres from the start of the Oreti River all the way down to Oreti Beach. This spot was my most fished spot throughout the summer, due to the stunning scenery and the layers of vegetation providing a shelter from the elements. I fished this spot with a few mates and through trial and error we uncovered the peak fishing tide along with the right spots to fish in. Due to the estuary being extremely tidal, it is important to find out the right tides to fish in and how far down the estuary to fish. The first time we fished there, we didn’t fish down enough, and we ended up fishing in the river and not the estuary. After doing research and figuring out the tides along with the right spot to fish at, we started catching fish! The main fish we caught were small rig, and we caught many of them due to rig being Estuary dwellers.

The fishing in the Estuary may not have been as productive as other spots, but the calmness and natural beauty and serenity of this spot is what made it enjoyable to fish.

Bluff

Along with the additions of surf­casting off beaches, I still found myself tracing my steps back to the place where my love for fish­ing was forged, Bluff Wharf. I loved the peace and serenity of certain beaches, however the by-catch of weed was a pain, and I found myself running back in hopes of some ac­tion at the busy Bluff port. We mainly targeted blue cod with appearances from rig, dogfish, skate, and another decent seven-giller! After a 20-min­ute fight, the 1.6 m seven-giller was landed and was a great surprise to get off the wharf. Overall, the fishing in Bluff throughout the summer was pretty solid.

In summary, surfcasting in South­land during the summer was pretty epic, with lots of species being caught. The most common fish we caught were rig, catching them quite frequently at different spots. There were frequent catches of kahawai and gurnard caught at specific spots, and the odd catch of school shark, dogfish, stingray and even seven-gillers!

Overall, I found that surfcasting was a great way to spend the summer, with many majestic spots being found, lots of fish being caught, and even more memories being made!