The Waitaki gathers the Mackenzie's great glacial lakes and pours them, dam by dam, down a broad braided valley to the Pacific between Canterbury and Otago. Below the hydro lakes the lower river runs big, cool and comparatively clear — a major sea-run salmon river and a strong trout fishery, its size held steady by the turbines upstream.

Wading: Big cool river, dam controlled level changes, braided channels — wade with care

The upper main stem above the Hakataramea confluence sees prolific early-summer caddis hatches producing reliable evening and night fishing on its reliable, clear lake-fed flows — this doesn't carry unchanged below the confluence, where the river becomes more braided and unstable.