Pelorus River This beautiful small to medium sized river holds both brown and rainbow trout. It is one of the few places where rainbows can be targeted in Marlborough.
The lower reaches are deep and slow moving with difficult access. One productive way to fish it is from a kayak or small boat.
The middle reaches hold good numbers of fish spread across a large area. They are there but can often be difficult to catch. It's best to focus on the ripples and edge of rapids.
Fishing cicadas durng late summer can be very productive.
The upper reaches offer fantastic scenery but quite a bit of rock scrambling required and the occasional swim.
While the river looks like it has the potential to fish very well it can be fickle. Club members have reported fishing the area and seeing just one or two fish (normally big) or none in a day. While on other days there have been good numbers, making for excellent fishing.
Rai River
This small to medium river holds good number of fish, but heavy angling pressure make the fish wary even early in the season.
When not spooked the fish respond positively to both nymphs and dries. Make sure to have a few willow grub flies during the summer months as the river is lined with willows.
Long thin tippets can help trick the spooky trout. If you put in the effort to reach the difficult to access spots is often very worthwhile. The river holds mostly browns with a few rainbows around - mostly close to its confluence with the Pelorus.
While the river has one of the best stocks of fish in Marlborough, the overgrown banks make for challenging casting conditions.
Wakamarina River This is the second largest tributary of the Pelorus, and holds a fair number of fish, but they are often spread thinly across wide and long pools.
In its normal flow the river is small and easy to cross.
While fish numbers might be low, they are often of good size with mostly brown trout and the occasional rainbow. Low summer conditions do tend to concentrate the fish, but in the skinny clean water they become very easily spooked.
The lower few kilometres normally have the best fishing. Much of the river is an all but impenetrable gorge which prevents further access upstream. There are fish further upstream, even above Butchers Flat, but they are few and far between.
Generally fish numbers in the river vary greatly from year by year - some years it can hold a lot of fish and other you will struggle to even find one to cast to.
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