The Rakaia is one of Canterbury's classic braided salmon rivers — a huge, glacier-fed, shingle-braided river running from the Alps to the sea, fished for sea-run chinook (quinnat) salmon through the summer run and for brown and rainbow trout in its clearer channels and the gorge. The salmon game is a hardware-and-fly mix, fished hard at the mouth and lower river when fish are running. Salmon numbers are under serious pressure: rules are restrictive and conservation comes first (see regulation note).
The Rakaia braids out of the Southern Alps across the Canterbury Plains to the sea, a vast shifting river of grey glacial channels spread wide across its shingle bed, framed by the long gorge where it leaves the foothills. It is one of the great salmon rivers of the east coast, its mouth and lower braids the stage for the summer run of sea-run chinook.
Wading: Braided glacial channels, cold pushy water, unstable shingle, fast rises — serious care; salmon mouth crowds
- River
- Mixed sedimentary
- Unconfined
- Braided
- Large river
