Tauranga anglers are angry about having their vehicle access to Rangataiki trout fisheries during the peak fishing season blocked by Timberlands'.

Tauranga angler Mike Jarvie says Timberlands has put the ‘kybosh' on the arrangement whereby responsible fishermen could access Rangataiki trout fisheries through the Kaingaroa Forest.

Timberlands closed the Kaingaroa Forest to recreational vehicle access from October 28 in line with its policy that only allows vehicle access during weekends of low fire danger.

It is a change of policy that effectively closes off practicable fishing access to about 30km of the mid and upper Rangitaiki River, Wheao River, Flaxy Lake and Wheao Canal for the summer, says Tauranga Anglers Club spokesman Mike Jarvie.

'The forest management company has made a decision to close down on everything,” says Mike.

'They say we can still walk in from State Highway 38 or State Highway 5, but that is a 25-30km walk to get into the fishing areas.”

When Timberlands was state owned two years ago, permitted anglers and hunters were free to use the forestry roads when the fire danger was moderate.

At this time, the Tauranga Anglers Club, and others, maintained the river access tracks they used and consider themselves responsible users of what was then public land.

Two years ago ownership was returned to central North Island iwi, who Mike says are happy to allow access to anglers and hunters, but the forest management company Timberlands has other ideas.

'In the past we could apply for permits to go into the forest, they knew who we were, we could camp in there,” says Mike who notes they have now, 'put the kybosh on the whole thing”.

'Permitted anglers and hunters are not doing the damage. They are not dumping or burning out cars. Timberlands have never come up with any facts about whether permitted hunters or anglers have caused any damage.

'We are really angry about the heavy-handed way that they have started out with this.”

The affected fisheries receive up to 9000 angler visits per year, with 75 per cent of them being summer visitors. This is about the same level of use that Lake Okataina gets during a season.

'The closure of the majority of Kaingaroa to vehicles is equivalent to someone locking a gate across the entrance of the road to Lake Okataina and saying it can only be opened to cars during the winter weekends, but you are welcome to walk in,” says Mike.

'We have been negotiating with Timberlands to try and present a solution to them but progress has been very slow and we need to show them just how important this issue is,” says Mike.

United Future leader Peter Dunne also believes the restriction on access to an important fishery is unacceptable.

He's called a public meeting for Monday, November 22 at 7.30pm in the Rotorua Energy Events Centre.

'We must encourage all of you that can attend this meeting to please be there,” says Mike.

'A strong showing of concern and support is required to convince the politicians, the media, the New Zealand Public and Timberlands that restricting public access to a fishery that is on public land running through the forest is not acceptable to the community nor is it a socially responsible way to run a New Zealand business.”