The weather has gone from one extreme to the other, very cold and wet to very warm with strong winds thrown in for good measure.
The result is a lot of water in river systems, and it will take a week without rain to get rivers to good fishable levels.
These streams are in South Otago, the Waipahi and Waiwera being the best bet. The Taieri on the Maniototo is very high at 40 cumecs — a good level for fishing is about 4 cumecs, and it will take a long time to drop as the water moves very slowly through the upper Taieri system.
The small streams of east Otago are low enough to fish and are still dropping.
There are low numbers of fish in these waters, so be prepared to walk to find them.
The Clutha is high throughout its length but if you can find a clear backwater there is bound to be a fish or two in it.
Luckily, we have ponds, dams and lakes to keep us occupied in the meanwhile. There are still plenty of fish in the stillwaters around Dunedin and they are well worth fishing. Lake Mahinerangi has been very low recently but as it rises trout will be feeding round the margins as new ground is covered and worms and insects provide a feast for them.
I have fished three stillwaters this week. One day I sweltered on Sullivans Dam for a small return for my efforts, no doubt due to the nor’wester that was blowing. I had not expected great sport, but I was free to go fishing so I went. The fly that worked was a damsel fly nymph, fished deep.
The other dams were on the Maniototo. Murray and I started on Mathias Dam; it was rather cool but with not much wind and the water was high.
There was the odd rise here and there, but they were hard to get on to. Some midges were hatching so it seemed logical to put a midge pupa on the dropper. Unfortunately fish logic and angler logic did not match up.
But the damsel fly nymph on the point did work, producing my first and of course biggest brown trout of the season — but no rainbows, Murray caught them.
Bruce Quirey joined us as we headed to Blakely’s for the afternoon session.
By now the wind had risen and it was rather cool. The water had risen since last week and was a little discoloured in places, but otherwise looked fishy. Midge were hatching and this time the pupa caught the odd fish.
Bruce hooked several fish in one spot then wandered further along so I fished the same spot and caught some, then nothing for a while.
I went back and fished it through again and was immediately into fish again.
Why were the fish concentrated along 20m of shoreline? Goodness and possibly trout know.
