From 2020 to 2023 there were 1851 eel fishing events of approximately 15 fyke nets set per event, from 21 fishers. About half of the eel fishing events were from lakes and half from rivers. Most fishing on rivers was from the riverbank where the target species was longfin, and most lake fishing was vessel-based where shortfin were targeted. Nearly three-quarters of longfin fishing events and half of shortfin events were in Southland, Otago, and Westland, with most of the remaining shortfin effort focused on Te Waihora (Lake Ellesmere) and Lake Brunner.
A total of 3714 unique river reaches (totalling approximately 2700 km) were fished over the four years. Half the river reaches were fished only once in the four years, with a fifth of the reaches fished more than four times. The total area fished for longfin in the South Island from 2020 to 2023 was 55.4 km2 and for shortfin was 42.7 km2. Of the total current longfin habitat in rivers, and in lakes accessible to longfin in the South Island, about 14% is currently fished. Compared to the previous estimate of the proportion of longfin habitat fished in 2016, the current estimate has declined by about 20% reflecting a substantial drop in fishing effort in recent years.
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