After a relatively dry but cool week, waterways are still low and eminently fishable. The forecast for the weekend is not looking too good, especially if you want to fish the tussock lakes, but if you don't mind getting cold and wet there is every chance of catching fish.
My pick would again be the Mataura. Autumn on the Mataura usually produces the best fishing of the year. Looking through my diaries, April is on average the best month but since we are having April weather at the moment we are getting April fishing, too.
The Pomahaka can be good at this time of year and it was when I fished it recently. The whole of the Taieri is in great order and well worth fishing, especially with the fly, which is the most productive method in low, clear water.
Speaking of low water, Environment Minister Nick Smith has been at it again, testing anyone who cares to listen to him with riddles.
He now says that swimmability targets do not apply to all waters, as many waters are too shallow to swim and it would not be feasible to monitor every stream. My question would be if they are not monitored, how do we know if they are too shallow to swim?
Also what is the test for swimmability? We know that streams can be deep in some parts and shallow in others. All streams would be need to be waded to find out if there were bits deep enough to swim, presumably knee depth or deeper, and of course width needs to be taken into account.
Another interesting utterance by the minister states that under the new regulations and standards that there would be a 1 in 20 chance of being infected by campylobacter.
This is a particularly nasty disease for adults and must be worse for children. Would you cross the road if there was a 1 in 20 chance of being run over or even fly in an aeroplane at the same odds? I do not think I would.
Luckily, the Mataura was clean and clear at the weekend and I caught my first fish of the day within 5 minutes of starting. Unfortunately, it was quite a while before another gave itself up.
During the afternoon, duns began hatching and there was a spasmodic rise. Fish readily took both both the weighted and the unweighted nymph. Some of the fish were in very shallow water and it paid to fish likely areas even if there were few rises.
If the rest of the autumn is like this, I am looking forward to it.
