Angler created fishing app to help others avoid frustration

Friday, 29 December 2017

Okato man Jeff Gorringe has made a trout fishing app to help New Zealand fishermen find places to fish.

Angler Jeff Gorringe lives and breathes trout fishing - so much so he's launched an app to help others enjoy the sport too.

The Okato man behind New Zealand Trout App - which shares local knowledge, public access points and contacts for local guides - said the idea had been born out of personal irritations.

'I'd have a finite time to fish and would get frustrated trying to find public access points,' he said.

'For the everyday angler, you're completely blind.'

* More trout tourism as tourists find out about Rangitikei

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* Trout angler has vision set on chasing his own rainbows**

Gorringe, who grew up in Katikati with a line in the water, has held a side-job tying flies, worked as a trout fishing guide, and currently works at Hunting & Fishing New Zealand in New Plymouth.

He knows New Zealand waters and has a passion for sustainable fishing.

But Gorringe has spent his life 'fumbling' with how to get to a spot where he wants to cast his line and wanted others to have an easier time.

'All the information is out there but it's 20 years old and old websites or in books,' he said.

'What was available was old, irrelevant and not practical for modern-day technology.'

New Zealand Trout App is a webpage designed to be used on a mobile phone but includes too much data to be used as a downloadable app yet, Gorringe said.

Users are able to click into a region from the app's map and visually see rivers and stream systems known to contain trout.

These points include further information such as fishing techniques, suggestions on which type of fly to use dependant on the season and nearby businesses or guides.

And while licence holders are free to keep caught trout and the app will notify users on which areas can sustain heavy fishing, Gorringe said the site strongly recommends catch and release.

'I'm always going to push for fishing education and trout fishing etiquette,' he said.

'When I first got into fishing back in KatiKati, I probably caught the same fish four or five times.

'If I had kept it, I'd only get to catch it once.'

The service is free for users but Gorringe hopes if successful, a subscription fee for advertisers would return a steady revenue.

Naki Trout Fly Fishing Tours guide Julian Bracegirdle has taken tourists to streams and rivers around Taranaki for a decade.

He said having an app such as Gorringe's would be incredibly helpful - not just for visitors to New Zealand, but for Kiwi anglers as well.

'There's so much access to fishing and everyone is using apps these days,' he said.

'It would be quite good to use.'