The Mohaka is Hawke's Bay's great back-country river — a long, wild freestone cutting through gorge country off the Kaweka and Kaimanawa ranges, holding both brown and rainbow trout. The accessible reaches give good sight- and searching-fishing; the remote middle gorge is wilderness water reached by foot, raft or jet boat and rewards effort with uncrowded fishing. Read the level: it colours after mountain rain and is at its best falling and clearing.
The Mohaka cuts a long gorge out of the Kaweka and Kaimanawa ranges to the Hawke's Bay coast, a big, wild back-country river of greywacke and white water, much of it reached only on foot, by raft or by jet. Brown and rainbow trout hold in its boulder runs and green pools, in country that feels a long way from anywhere.
Wading: Remote gorge, big water, rapid rises after rain — back country care
Warm summer months bring caddis hatches and heavy surface feeding, and come November sea-run trout gather at the river mouth to take advantage of the whitebait run — a genuine prey event rather than a hatch, and specific to the tidal reach.
- River
- Mixed sedimentary
- Confined
- Pool riffle
- Gorge
