On a lake this deep, depth is the whole game.

Trolling does most of the heavy lifting on Lake Wānaka and Lake Hāwea, and there's a simple reason why: these lakes are big, they're deep, and the fish don't stay put — they follow the temperature and the food through the seasons, and you have to follow them right back. Two techniques cover almost everything you need: lead line trolling and downrigger trolling. Knowing which one to reach for on a given morning is the difference between a good day and a long one.

Getting depth, lure, and speed all dialled in together is basically the whole game.

Lead Line Trolling

Lead line trolling keeps things simple: a length of weighted line ahead of the lure, no extra hardware, no gadgets. It gets you down into the water column at moderate depths and gives you the most direct feel of any method out here — when a fish hits, there's nothing between you and it. No clip, no release mechanism, just the strike coming straight up the line into your hands.

Downrigger Trolling

A downrigger sends a heavy weight down on its own cable, taking the lure to an exact, controllable depth and releasing the line from a clip the instant a fish hits. This is the tool for when fish are sitting deep — and on a lake as deep as Lake Wānaka, deep is often exactly where you'll find them, especially through summer. A downrigger lets you park a lure at 20, 30, even 40-plus metres and trust it's actually staying there, which lead line alone simply can't promise.

Reading the Season

Depth is everything out here, and it never sits still. In the cooler months, trout and salmon often stay shallow, close to the surface where the whole water column runs roughly the same temperature. Come summer, the lake stratifies — a sharp thermocline sets up, cold water sinking below the warm surface layer, and the fish stack up right along that line, following the temperature and the baitfish that follow it too. That's the moment a downrigger really earns its keep: instead of guessing, you park the lure exactly on that thermocline and let the fish come to you.

Lure Choice and Speed

Tasman Devils are the reliable workhorse on both lakes, year-round, but which one you tie on shifts constantly — brighter, flashier patterns for overcast days and coloured water, quieter, more natural tones when the light's bright and the water's gin-clear. Speed matters just as much: push it too fast and the lure spins itself stupid, too slow and it goes dead in the water. Getting depth, lure, and speed all dialled in together, on any given morning, is basically the whole game — it's the difference between a quiet troll and a rod bent double.

Want to see lead line and downrigger trolling in action? Book a full-day charter on Lake Wānaka or a full-day charter on Lake Hāwea and we'll show you how it's done.