Most of Otago looks good from a weather point of view, Southland less so.
Otago streams and rivers are fishable or close to being fishable.
Small streams are the best bet as they are slightly low for this time of year but well above summer level.
With recent warm days stream temperatures are closing in on the perfect range of 14-18°C.
Any insect activity that may bring trout to the surface is likely to be from noon on.
If days are warm there could be an evening rise too, so do not leave the water too early.
If trout are not rising it does not mean that they are not feeding.
Trout predominantly feed on subsurface food, so if they are not on the surface the logical thing to do is to fish sunk imitation in the form of a nymph.
Nymphs used should imitate mayfly nymphs or caddis larvae and should be fished close to the bottom preferably drag free, although you can expect takes when lifting the fly to the surface when recasting.
It is more productive to fish the tail end of ripples, where the water is deeper and slower, and if you have the patience cover the slower water on flats and the tails of pools.
Watch the end of your fly line for hesitation as this may be the only indication of a take: a quick strike is needed.
If you are not catching anything it is tempting to change your fly, the assumption being that the one being used is the wrong one.
To change flies, you should be sure that you are fishing it in the right way and that fish have actually refused it. If you fish a water regularly use the fly that usually produces fish and only change when there is a logical reason to do so.
Hotspots, anglers love hot spots — these are spots that produce over the years. Although it pays to concentrate on such spots there will not always be fish there, so try other likely areas too.
Hotspots in the mind of anglers are places where they have often caught fish but different anglers may have different hotspots on the same water and often these hotspots live up to their reputation as that is where most angling effort is applied.
Where you fish the most produces the most fish as does the fly or lure that you fish the most.
On the subject of hotspots Murray and I fished a cold and windy Blakelys Dam last Sunday.
Of course, we started on a hot spot, which produced several trout for Murray but only one for me.
I tried other places to no effect; Murray stayed in the hot spot and hooked more.
After lunch I tried a different spot and immediately hooked fish.
After seemingly exhausting the supply of fish there I moved back to the original hot spot and caught another.
So I now have two hotspots.
