All hopes for the 1995-96 salmon season were that it would be the same or better than the previous and so it proved for a lot of salmon anglers, big fish and plenty of them. For me it started really well and early, with good numbers of fish caught in the Rakaia in November. For cousins Martin and Owen, brother Colin, wives and kids, our fishing season started as usual, at Lake Coleridge. We were in those days able to rent for a weekend former electricity workers' quarters at the head of the lake which we did for the 3 day Canterbury Show weekend.
It’s one of our favourite fishing spots. Up at five and onto the water at the picket fence, so named as the High Country opening weekend, the first in November, is the busiest of the season on the lake, with several thousand anglers congregating to fish. In those days the picket fence could have more than 100 anglers lined up around the Northwest corner of the lake, mainly targeting landlocked salmon. That sadly is no longer the case. Changes in land ownership and DOC closing what they called illegal batches and camping grounds, have caused a depletion in numbers.
