Fishing near Cromwell, Otago

Cromwell sits at the heart of Central Otago, where the Clutha River / Mata-Au and Kawarau River once met before the Clyde Dam created Lake Dunstan in the early 1990s. That 26-square-kilometre lake — stretching through the Cromwell Gorge, across the Lowburn flats and into the Kawarau Gorge — is the centrepiece of local fishing, holding brown trout, rainbow trout and landlocked Chinook salmon. Beyond the lake, the surrounding river systems and more distant waters like Lake Wānaka and Lake Hāwea extend the options considerably.