As the main fishing season for coastal brown trout rivers closes tomorrow, Fish and Game Otago believes compliance with regulations has been higher than expected.
While reports from rangers were still coming in, it was thought compliance this year would be above the expected 95% threshold, South and West Otago fish and game officer Morgan Trotter said.
The number of licences checked was in the thousands and more than 30 volunteer rangers helped Fish and Game during the season.
Most of Otago's waterways had fished well, mainly due to the lack of a significant flood, especially in the Southern Lakes district, he said.
That had meant in the Greenstone area there was good fishing with several ‘‘trophy'' fish of over 4.5kg caught.
Low flows during the second half of the season in North and Central Otago also affected fishing.
Rivers such as the Shag and Waikouaiti, and central lake reservoirs, did get quite dry which made fishing difficult.
However, rivers which were known to have didymo produced well-conditioned fish, which was encouraging, Mr Trotter said.
