Rivers have dropped to low levels again and some hot days have warmed up the water, although clear cool nights have stopped them getting to a critical temperature.
The exception is the Clutha, which was running at about 800cumecs, and was discoloured when I crossed this week.
The Taieri on the Maniototo is flowing at only 1 cumec and is reaching 23°C, which is not good for the trout. If you return your trout to the water it is a good idea to avoid hotter parts of the day.
Most waters will be fine up to noon, but from then on will be too warm to safely return fish. Unfortunately, the lower the flow, the faster the water will heat up. The last time I fished the middle reaches of the Taieri it was 16°C at 9am and had reached 20°C by mid-afternoon.
The Mataura keeps getting flushes of water from its upper reaches, which has kept it at a good temperature for fishing, although I prefer it a little lower for ease of fishing. I was there at the weekend with a fishing course for the Southland Fly Fishing Club and the weather played its part, but the fish didn’t.
We saw very few rises and few fish were caught, but one of the young attendees got two, which bodes well for his fishing future.
I have had three outings on the Pomahaka since New Year, fishing the same couple of kilometres of water, and have found that of the fish caught, many were in totally different spots, though I fished the likely ones each time.
There is a lesson from this: if you only fish the spots that you have caught fish before, you will miss out on fish from the spots you do not normally fish. It pays to fish as if you are fishing a river or stream for the first time — as if you are looking for the hot spots, but remembering that they are not always in the same place.
I remember once fishing on the Mataura and having great fishing on a short section; I fished it many times, but it was several years before another great day.
On the Pomahaka this week there were some mayfly spinners on the water, but very few fish rising — I caught the odd one on a nymph. Late morning, I came to a pool where there were several fish feeding flat out under large willow which was a big clue. The first fish I cast to took straight off, as did the second fish — then I could not get another take, and eventually gave up on them.
Spotting and catching a fish rising in a ripple restored my equilibrium. There were few further fish rising but they were keen to take; I did not hook them all, but enough to round off a pleasant day on the water.
