Angling

I am writing this early in the morning.

Anglers making their regular pilgrimage to the Waitaki River mouth for a New Year fish, say shark not trout was on the dinner table on New Year's Eve.

Heavy rain at the end of last week knocked out most rivers and streams for the weekend after they were looking good for most of the week.

The midweek rain had little effect on rivers other than cooling the water.

From the angler's point of view, things are looking about as near perfect as you can get for fishing during Easter weekend. Rivers are low and clear and the weather forecast is good.

There are showers forecast for the weekend but not enough to radically change river levels, which are still very low.

For the second weekend in a row it looks as if fishing conditions are about as good as they get. All waters are at a fishable level, although some may be too low or weedy for some anglers. The difficulty will be which water to choose.

I always think of February as one of the better months of the trout-fishing season. Usually the weather is warm and relatively settled and it has been reasonable in the first half of the month.

The rain that fell at the beginning of the week did not affect rivers and streams too much and all except the Clutha are at a reasonably fishable level for the weekend. If you are both a salmon fisher and a trout fisher you will have difficulty deciding where to go at the moment.

The glorious weather of the last week or so has brought all running waters to a good fishable level, except (there is always an exception) for the Clutha, which has dropped a lot but still has a way to go. And just as the rivers settle, the cicadas start on the tussock lakes to add to the surfeit of riches, making the decision of where to fish that much harder.