All the rivers away from the east coast are at summer level. The Mataura in particular is looking very good having settled at a good height for a couple of weeks. This bodes well for the event On the Fly to be held on that river at Gore tomorrow. There will be lots there to attract the keen fly fisher with demonstrations and talks from experienced anglers.
With the river being in good order, a day’s fishing on the Mataura with a break to visit the event, which runs from 1.30pm to 5.30pm, will add interest to the day.
Recent days on the water have felt autumn-like with mornings being cool and misty but with river conditions being good the fishing has been good. As mentioned last week, the smaller waters have been fishing well.
In previous seasons I have fished the lower Taieri quite often but this season the opportunities have been limited by high water and discolouration from the Kyeburn. The upper river has been fishable and is easier to fish than the lower river.
I fished there last weekend and it was cool and misty to start as mentioned above but soon fined up to a nice day for fishing. The day started off well with a good fish from a backwater on a diving beetle but it was a while before I saw another, or rather thought I saw a rise as a slight ripple appeared from round the corner of a grassy bank. I covered the area several times before the leader pulled away, resulting in another good fish.
I did not see another fish until after lunch when there were a few jumping out at hovering damsel flies and some of them were just as happy to take the diving beetle.
My other day out was on the Pomahaka. Weatherwise it was much like the Taieri day. There was little action in the morning. Even though it was calm there were no mayfly spinners on the water which is unusual for the Pomahaka.
There were odd rises possibly to the odd duns that were hatching. I lost one shortly after hooking it on an unweighted hare’s ear nymph but it was after lunch before I found a steady riser. The first time I put the nymph near this fish it grabbed it and was well hooked. Things were looking up.
From then on there were rising fish to cover. Some were covered successfully and others not so successfully. The fish were all in good condition and of good size. The average size if fish I have caught in recent weeks has been well above average which is a good thing but, I wonder where all the small fish are.
I found a net on the Taieri recently. Contact me on mike@mikeweddellflyfishing.co.nz if you think it may be yours.
