New Zealand's Named Rivers
The Designated Waters of NZ Fish & Game
In 2023 the New Zealand Fish and Game Council, who oversee New Zealand’s trout licence system, introduced a new additional tier to the Whole Season Fishing Licence called a Designated Waters Licence (DWL).
The DWL replaced the previously implemented Backcountry endorsement to your Whole Season Licence – allowing angling access to some ‘named’ backcountry streams.
Below we cover the introduction of this latest Designated Waters scheme, now deployed in twenty three rivers across six of New Zealand’s twelve Fish & Game regions and in its second year. We explain how DWL licence fees are charged for Resident and Non-Resident anglers (hint: it’s different for each group), and provide some tips and additional information on each of the named waters.
The purpose of this article is to strongly recommend that visiting anglers look beyond these designated water fisheries.
Designated waters only account for 2% of the fishing rivers and lakes available to anglers in New Zealand. The 23 rivers and their tributaries have been designated by NZ Fish & Game due to the high angler pressure that these streams have faced over the past decade. However an enterprising angler will find a close-by river with even better prospects and less chance of meeting another angler upstream.
Image: © Southflyfisher. The Designated Water Licence is designed to protect New Zealand’s most fragile and pressure-sensitive fisheries.
Note: this is a 20 minute read for Paid Subscribers to Exploration Angling.