Have a nice lie-in while you wait for the water to warm

River temperatures have plummeted this week. The smaller streams are down around 6˚C in the morning, which is a bit on the cold side for trout feeding.

They have been warming up 2˚C or 3˚C during the day which makes them just about fishable. This means you can have a lie-in and not miss the best fishing of the day.

The Clutha is the exception — its large mass of water cools and warms more slowly than lesser waters and will take a week or two to drop from its current 11˚C.

Still waters are big masses of water and most will still be fishable. It pays to fish as deep as possible as at lower temperatures there will be fewer insects hatching so food will be more plentiful close to the bottom.

On larger lakes that have tributaries where trout spawn, fishing the river mouths is worthwhile as the fish gather there waiting for a rise in water level so they can swim upriver.

Feathered lures are a good bet if you are fly-fishing. Such patterns a red setter, Mrs. Simpson and fuzzy wuzzy will catch fish. They are probably taken for small fish, at least the latter two. The red setter looks like two trout eggs on a hook and rainbows follow brown trout to feed on the eggs that drift away from the redd. I have watched brown trout spawning shoals of rainbows vying for the best position to pick up the eggs. As they get closer to spawning brown trout become more aggressive and attack small fish in the vicinity of the redd. So spinning lures work well for the threadline fisher.

Sea trout will come into rivers at this time of year to spawn, although some will have been in for a while and are well up river. Fresh runs can be expected in the tidal reaches when there is a rise in water level. Some of these sea trout are quite large, real trophy fish.

My outings recently have been to the Maniototo dams mainly to dodge the wind and the rain and in that respect the choice was successful. Fish activity was limited. Surprisingly first thing in the morning gave the best fishing.

One morning the air temperature was 2˚C and there were fish rising. The water was clear and dropping the fly too close to a fish resulted in a bow wave heading of a high speed. Just covering the water or dropping the fly a long way in front of a fish, if it was possible to see which way it was going, worked. When it was fine and warmer in the afternoon fish rose less but still took a fly.

I had the unusual experience of breaking on two fish in succession. I was fishing blind when a fish rose off to one side and as I turned to cast at it pulling the fly through the water resulting a smash take and the same thing happened a few minutes later.