Taupō anglers get bigger catch as trout bag limit rises to eight

Anglers in the Taupō District will be able to take home more fish this trout fishing season, thanks to regulation changes.

The Department of Conservation (DOC) says the changes will improve trout quality and benefit anglers, with the bag limit rising from six trout to eight.

Licences are being sold from Wednesday, with the season officially casting off on 1 July.

The regulation changes are intended to help maintain a healthy balance between trout and their main food source, smelt.

DOC's Taupō operations manager Dave Conley said people are increasingly not taking fish home - but harvesting is critical to the fishery's management.

"Trout have no real predators in the system here, anglers are the primary predator, so we need anglers to take fish to keep the population in check. So raising the bag limit is basically saying to people if you want to take more fish for the table then fantastic," he said.

There was also a significant regulation change that will favour anglers at Lake Otamangakau, which is known for trophy-sized fish.

It is usually closed in February because of warmer water temperatures, which can lead to post-release mortality.

But Conley said there have been several cool Februarys in recent years, so a different approach is being taken this year.

"Instead of closing the lake in February as a precautionary measure, we are going to only close it once our environmental monitoring points to the fact that we're going to have an issue with high temperatures in the lake.

"So it's a more reactive, adaptive approach that we're taking," he said.

Other minor changes were being made with the goal of simplifying the regulations - for example, the regulations around soft baits have been streamlined.

In addition, fly-only restrictions have been relaxed at the underutilised Otaketake and Waitetoko stream mouths.