[fishsnatcher]

I’ve had little experience on the canals apart from fishing there ounce or twice [caught a small 2.5 lb salmon escaped from the farm and a 3lb trout],

plesent place to fish and i have heard of some big fish [stories] coming from around there.

Add anything you would like to this foum, images, info, reviews of how good you think it is up there methods.

[I had success with live bullies;bigger the better]

[Yakkaman]

I fish the canals around Twizel for salmon and also use live bullies, always on my way home after flyfishing the rivers or lakes.

[fishsnatcher]

Ya they really are quite plentiful and every 4-5 times you attempt to catch them you get a nice big one.

Thr bigger the better seems to be the way to go i caught that salmon when the bully was still sinking with the sinker!
The trick is catching ’em.

[Yakkaman]

I will be camping at Lake Ruataniwha this weekend, hope to catch a few stray salmon i find if you use a 1/2oz sinker with a 500mm trace lift the sinker off the bottom and allow the livie to swim then watch the line start moving don’t strike as they only mouth the bully give it a couple of winds and stop usually they attack it then.

[fishsnatcher]

MMMmmm… i know i lost a decent size trout/salmon juding by the tug…. i striked at ’em and lost em

Thats also exactly the same rig i use, seems it must be good, quite popular live-bullies.

[Yakkaman]

Well i’m not one to boast buttttt we hooked up on 18 Salmon and one brown trout out of the canals livies is definately the way to go, these were all caught within 2hrs between 3 of us and my mate and i were out fished by his wifey,

sorry no photo’s as dopey left his camera at home

[fishsnatcher]

lol i have to admit we only fished in the morning and i got a fish within half an hour then went home I’ll fish a little longer next time, and incidently i did exactly the same rig as you, with a sinker up the line and livie on trace sticking out the bottom.

The fish often eat the bully whole so you often gut-hook them, which is fine if you plan to keep the fish but not if you plan to release.
What size hooks were you using I used small hooks, a single size 1 hook through the bottom jaw of bully.

[Yakkaman]

exactly what i use only thing is bullie seems to take off up the leader and hook ends up back of throat not too bad long nose pliers do the job only had one that started bleeding so had no choice but keep it only about 1 1/2lb shame to have to smack it on the head bleeding heaps out of the gills

[fishsnatcher]

Yeah i caught two salmon and the small one was gut-hooked [only 1 1/2 pounds] so again i had to keep him.

[gunnercoops]

I am heading down south via the canals this weekend…how do you go about catching Bullies? Do they live in all waters? It would be good to try this method out, and hopefully get one of those canal monsters….size of an elephant.

[fishsnatcher]

Do i dare tell you the deep dark secret of bully catching???
Ofcourse lol.

You have probably seen those butterfly nets at the warehouse and the like well they are useless, heres how you do it, you buy a large mosquito net the ones with the plastic/metal ring around the top and the nettting hanging down, you then on the top end of the net [the circle bit] cut out the netting Leaving the circle ring in place [this is where the bullies will enter] then tie a knot in the tube of netting aprox a metre from the circle ring.

Then cut off any excess netting and you have a large bully net. [or you can buy a $70 dollar whtebait…]

How to catch bullies:

You need to people for this to work.

First one person holds the net and slowly quietly enters the water….
The other enters the water maybe 2 metres away again slowly and quietly then you start mucking they start mucking up the water around the and scare the bullies into the net, while slowly getting closer to the net.

Then scoop the net through the muddy water, in case of stary bullies and take the net out of the water, you will hopefully see some big bullies.

If not keep trying, the bigger the better, they survive better and more appeal to fish

I find the best place is down by the dam past the salmon farm which is just out of twizel, for catching bullies, and trout and salmon!

Keep bully out of water for minimal time possible, store mine in a water bottle, and refresh the water often othewhys the will die.

[gunnercoops]

thanks for that, there are a few of us going down to Aviemore, so we shall see what comic efforts we can make to catch some bullies!

[fishsnatcher]

Yakkaman I fishing on the canal nearest the salmon farm, right off the dam.
Which canal is that? Ohau A?

Where were you fishing?
By the sounds of it you were by the dam aswell [or at least A dam]?

[Yakkaman]

There are several salmon farms, Lake ohau is A Ruataniwha is B. Benmore is C i think this means between each lake so Benmore to Aviemore would be C

I don’t fish opposite Salmon farms fish the ends above and near where the water is released. If waters moving away from you you can use soft baits as long as you get them down near the bottom.
If coming towards you bullies everytime.

See you there at xmas 0277262102

[fishsnatcher]

look for a 14 year old ginga haired guy

[Author]

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