John Jamieson shows off the 6kg salmon he pulled from Otago
Harbour yesterday to win the Otago salmon fishing
competition at the weekend. Photo by Linda Robertson.
It was a good weekend for fishing, but not for actually
catching fish, salmon anglers in Dunedin found.
The annual Otago Salmon Fishing competition on the upper
Otago Harbour at the weekend was as popular as ever with
anglers, but even 210 entrants could bring in only eight fish
for the weigh-in.
Entrants brought in 43 fish last year, but this year things
were ''just a bit different'', event organiser Wayne Olsen,
the chairman of the New Zealand Salmon Anglers' Association
Otago branch said.
What had been a fantastic summer for humans was a hot one for
cold-water loving salmon which, he said, were mostly still
lurking in deeper water off Taiaroa Head waiting for the
harbour to cool down.
With water temperatures in the harbour reaching 19.8degC
yesterday, conditions were not ideal fish-wise, Mr Olsen
said.
Still, the winning 6kg specimen, caught by John Jamieson
(61), of Dunedin, from the Leith wharf about 10.30am
yesterday, was not to be sniffed at.
Mr Jamieson, who had been a salmon angler for ''40-odd''
years, said he caught no other fish in 19 hours over two
days. He was not concerned about the lack of fish at the
moment, knowing they would be back.
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