This is my first post, I am planning a trip to NZ. First of all thanks A LOT for all the posts about river trips in NZ. I carefully read almost all of them and it’'s a great amount of information to prepare my trip.
I would like to ask about fishing there. I am a beginner in fishing, but I think it would be awsome to have a light rod and try to fish in NZ on the evenings after walking or packrafting. I already tried to gather some information and from what I understand, a tenkara would be the lightest and easiest gear to put in a backpack. I am right ? If not what are the alternatives? It is impotant to me that it is light and small in order to forget it, but be however able to try to fish from time to time. If Tenkara seems to be the best solution which rod should I buy?
I think it would be important to have a day with a fishing guide in NZ at the beginning of the trip to increase my chances of catching fishes.
The Tenkara rods are not very easy to use and are somewhat limited on the bigger NZ waters. A light spinning rod would be the easiest to master and would be more versatile, you can get 4 piece rods that pack down nicely, some good lightweight reels and you only need a hand full of spinners. There is some great info on here regarding fishing in NZ and what sort of gear to use
Thanks for your answer. It is very interesting, because knowing nothing about fishing, I searched for fly fishing and ended up with tenkara systems (probably due to their low weight/cost and the cliché picture of river+fly fishing).
If I understand well, as a beginner, I will have more chances of catching fishes in rivers with a spinning rod? I probably (unfortunately) won’t have the time and courage the learn classic fly fishing, and a classic setup seems appealing.
I’ll look the website more in details, search for a light setup on the market, and come back to you, it would be nice to have some feedback.
I am thinking of going in December around 20th for 1 month, probably divided in 4 week-trips. Looking forward to see again these amazing landscapes, meet the nice locals and maybe catch some fishes… who knows ! We are two with my GF but we would very happy to go with others folks.
