Karamea River Trout Fishing
A beautiful river containing a very healthy brown trout population with lots of trout in the 4-6 pound range. The Karamea River flows through the Kahurangi National Park into the sea at Karamea on the South Islands west coast. This river can be accessed by tramping using the Leslie-Karamea or Wangapeka Tracks . The other popular option is to fly in by helicopter to one of the huts. Recently I tramped in from Cobb Damn down the Leslie River to its junction with the Karamea at Karamea Bend. Although I had a little bit of rain the day before I got to the river the flows were quite low and the river very clear with just a slight green tinge.
The Leslie River Downstream From Karamea Bend
I didn't fish the Karamea down stream from the Leslie Confluence as I was pushed for time and prefer smaller water. The river really does get quite big down there.
Karamea Bend - Crow Hut
Upstream from Karamea bend there is a lot of slow flowing water, I saw trout here but as usual in slow flowing water they were very hard to catch. About half and hours walk from the hut there is a fast flowing bouldery section that goes through a wide gorge, it looked like ideal nymphing water. This section was much more productive, I had a great time catching many small trout and a couple of nice 2 pounders from pockets in between boulders. Continuing further towards the crow hut there is a great set of pool and rapids. Every single pool seemed to hold at least a couple of brown trout in the 4-6lb. Unfortunately I couldn't get any of them to take my fly ... very frustrating. After arriving at the crow hut I decided to go for a couple of hours in the Crow River, a medium sized tributary of the Karamea. Here I had a similar experience to the main river, finding many trout lying in the tail of the pools but not managing to hook any. One trout of about six pounds was interested enough to follow my fly downstream several times, but despite trying several different flies I still couldn't get it to take. There were a lot of foot prints around so it seemed that there had been a lot of pressure on the river, always a good excuse for poor results.
Crow Hut - Thor Hut
The next day I fished here and there between the Crow hut up to Thor hut going past the Venus hut along the way. Lot's of beautiful big pools through here but unfortunately once again I couldn't catch any. Fortunately I tried again in the evening and just on dark I found several trout rising in a shallow run just downstream from the hut. I tried several different dry flies but failed to interest them, tried a few nymphs as well but it wasn't until I put on a size 18 hare and copper that I finally met with success. I caught a trout of about 1 pound quickly followed by a nice 2 pounder. Then I hooked a larger one but it tangled the line around a boulder and got off.
Thor Hut - Trevor Carter Hut
After leaving Thor hut the next morning I walked upstream about 20min to a point not far from where appollo creek flows into the Karamea. There was some huge boulders and very broken water in this section. I spotted a trout of about 4 pounds lying just to the side of the main current, using a size 18 hare and copper once again I managed to hook this one. It put up a really good fight requiring me to cross the river several times to keep the line from getting caught on the boulders, eventually I managed to bring it in ... a nice fish but not in the best condition. I hooked a few more in this area but the only one I landed was about 6 inches long.
Further upstream after walking past the Moonstone lakes I eventually came to a junction in the track you could either go right onto a highlevel track or left across the Karamea and follow the river up to Trevor Carter hut. Obviously I chose to follow the river, the river here is quite a lot smaller as there are several tributaries that join the river between here and Thor hut. Not far upstream from where the track crosses the river I came to a slow flowing shallow section, this didn't look like the best place to find a trout but as is often the case brown trout are were you least expect to find them. The river up here was even clearer that it was downstream so I didn't fancy my chances of hooking it in this shallow water. Usually wind is a curse when fly fishing especially if its blowing dow
nstream, but in this case it was a blessing ... the wind was ruffling the surface of the water which meant I was less likely to spook the trout, however after a few good casts the trout still hadn't moved. It was so motionless that I was starting to wonder whether it was actually even a trout. I decided to try one more cast before moving on, this time the fly (my now trusty size 18 hare and copper) landed directly in front of the trout. I didn't see the trout move at all but when my indicator stopped I struck and the trout exploded out of the water. It looked like a really good fish and as browns always do it headed straight for the snags on the opposite side of the river. After a few worrisome moment I managed to get it away from the snags. At this point the trout resumed its arial display. Everytime I managed to get it into the shallows it would take off out into midstream and leap into the air once more. This was repeated several more times before I was able to land it, a nice fat 6 pounder which I released along with all of the others I caught on this trip.
I fished to about a dozen more nice fish on the way up to Trevor Carter hut but the wind had died down and with the glassy surface on the water I didn't fare so well. Still a very enjoyable day. In the evening I had a look upstream from the hut, saw a few but had no luck. There was a really cool section were the river flowed through the gaps between some massive boulders.
In Summary
That was the end of my fishing trip on the Karamea. I had been amazed at the trout population in this river, although I was a little disappointed not to catch a few more good sized ones. There did seem to be a lot of anglers about though, I imagine the river could fish very well early in the season before it's had to much pressure. Perhaps even a little bit of rain to put some colour in the water. Failing those options you could try being more skillful than me, I'm sure that would do the trick also.