Content

Lake Rotoehu

Located halfway between Rotorua and Whakatāne on the eastern Bay of Plenty, Lake Rotoehu is a stunning, secluded lake providing great fly fishing for the large population of hard-fighting rainbow trout.

Rotoehu is Māori for ‘murky water,’ so it’s likely the lake has never been clear. Years ago, Lake Rotoehu was heavily populated with many pa sites located nearby, and today its shoreline is home to a number of traditional Kiwi baches.

Formed by lava damming of a river valley, Lake Rotoehu is very shallow, although it’s able to hide a sunken island underneath its waters! The lake’s water quality remained fairly stable until 1993 when the level of nutrients and algae rose dramatically due to a drop in water level after a long, warm summer.

There’s been a lot of effort over the last few years to improve the lake’s water quality (including phosphorus locking and weed harvesting), but there’s still more work to be done. Land management changes, weed harvesting and two voluntary agreements with landowners in the catchment have been implemented to keep the momentum going, but it’ll take time for the effects of these changes to reach the lake. In the meantime, our programme will continue to roll out short term solutions.