The rest of the country may not be as lucky as us.
Rivers look good at the moment — all clear and low.
The main drawback at the moment is leaves falling on the water as they turn yellow and drop from the trees, willows, which line most of our rivers.
As soon as you hook a leaf it pays to pull your line in and take off the leaf.
If you try to flick it off by casting back and forward the leaf will spin and twist the tippet and you may well end up with a tangle which requires the tippet to be replaced.
If you think this sounds like the voice of experience speaking you may well be right.
The one advantage of the leaves, if there are a lot of them, is it is possible to get near the fish without spooking them, then persist casting until a leaf-free fly is taken.
Of course, if the weather is calm the leaves are not too much of a problem.
So if you look out of the window and it is calm immediately head for the river.
It is easier to fish a nymph when there are a lot of leaves about as the chances of catching a leaf are not as great as when fishing a dry fly but it can be difficult to detect a take.
Fish with as short a line as possible and try to induce a take by lifting the rod tip gently to lift the nymph in the water.
This way a take will be felt rather than having to be seen.
The induced take can be made several times as the nymph drifts downstream.
I was lucky to be on the Taieri near Middlemarch last Sunday, starting just before noon, and there was barely a breath of wind and it was sunny and warm.
At my usual starting point there was a man operating a suction dredge in search of gold. I asked him if he had seen any fish but he had not.
He said he came from Te Anau and the fishing was better there with fish up to 10 pounds.
I did not think that I had time to drive there and back to Middlemarch to rendezvous with my family after the A&P show finished, so I continued up the river.
There were a few mayflies about and the odd rise. The first rise was just a dimple on the surface downstream of a trailing branch.
After a lot of casts it took my unweighted nymph to open the tally for the day.
Not far upstream there were several fish rising and the same nymph worked on a couple.
Further up in a willow tunnel there were fish on willow grub.
One good-sized fish refused the nymph. I caught another further up and on returning the good fish took first cast.
Then the wind and leaves curtailed the fishing.
