OceanaGold | Waihi North Project | Recreation and tourism assessment 37 place. The river has been prone to severe flooding in the past but fish stocks are rapidly replenished from the parent river, the Waihou. Above Karangahake Gorge there are pools, runs and backwaters but trout are difficult to spot in the brownish water. The best fly fishing is upstream from Waihi, where dry flies can be used in summer. Through the gorge there is a wide variety of water, with the rougher water more suitable for nymphing and spinning. Holds a good stock of browns and rainbows in the 0.5-1 kg range but fish seem to move about in this river, leaving some pools barren while others hold plenty. Late in the season, a spawning run of larger trout enters the river from the Waihou. Below Karangahake Gorge, the river is best fished with a downstream lure, smelt fly or spinner. Mullet are present in this stretch and are easily mistaken for trout. A small headwater stream south of Waihi, the Waimata, holds fish; access is off SH 2 on Ford or Crean roads. Unwin (2013) is a survey of relative national angling river values based on an update of the survey methodology used in the national angler surveys of the 1979/81 season (Richardson et al 1984, for example) and a pilot survey undertaken in the Otago and Nelson/Marlborough F&G regions (Unwin 2009). The survey was distributed online to a random sample of 11,923 whole-season and family licence holders for the 2011/2012 angling season. Parallel telephone surveys on non-respondents in the Southland, Wellington, and Hawkes Bay regions were completed to test for sample bias. Respondents were asked to identify rivers they had fished over the last 3 to 5 years, to rate their enjoyment of the fishery on a scale from 1 (least enjoyable) to 5 (most enjoyable), and to identify up to three reasons, from a list of ten, why they fished each river. These were: Close to home, Close to holiday home, Easy access to river, Plenty of fishable water, Scenic beauty, Wilderness feeling, Angling challenge, Expect good catch rate, Chance to catch trophy fish, Other (including a brief description). No lakes were considered in the study. Summary scores for enjoyment level, and for nine of the ten reasons why respondents fished each river (excluding “Other”), were generated for all rivers. The enjoyment level was calculated as the numerical average of the individual 1 to 5 ratings. Scores for each reason (or attribute) were generated by expressing the number of respondents who had nominated that reason as a fraction of the total number of respondents who had fished each river, yielding an attribute score from 0 to 1. The Ohinemuri River was ranked (out of 27 popular river reaches in the Auckland/Waikato region) (with 77 respondents): 5th for level of use, 20th for enjoyment, 4th for close to home, 5th for close to holiday home, 1st for ease of access, 8th for area fishable, 16th for scenic beauty, 23rd for wilderness feeling, 24th for angling challenge, 17th for anticipated catch rate, Last equal (with 15 other river reaches) for anticipate large fish.
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