The warm weather this week has had a beneficial effect on rivers and streams. Last weekend, they were mainly high and somewhat discoloured due to snow melt and rain, but now have dropped back considerably.
The dropping of levels and the current weather forecast should combine to give good fishing conditions this weekend.
Even the lower Clutha, which has been high for a while, is dropping between generating peaks to a reasonable fishing level.
Given the above information, the decision is not where can I fish, but where do I want to fish, as everywhere will produce fish.
It is said that anglers go through various phases in their fishing careers, although not all anglers go through all phases.
The first is to catch a fish, and any fish will do.
After a while, catching the odd fish is not enough, a limit bag is the aim or even more if catch and release is your approach. Even then, catching lots of fish starts to lose its shine.
Next comes catching bigger fish, although this is relative to the water being fished.
Catching lots of big fish is the next phase, but this takes careful selection of the waters to be fished and you will still have to put up with the odd smaller one.
Everyone would like to catch a trophy fish, at any stage of their career, but there is a phase when trophy fish are targeted and even blank days are tolerated in pursuit of the ultimate fish.
If this logical progression is followed, the next stage is catching lots of trophies, but if you catch lots of them, are they really trophy fish?Trophy fish are by definition exceptional and therefore not very common, but it is possible to build up the score over many years.
The other difficulty with trophies is that the size that qualifies varies considerably according to the water being fished.
In some tiny streams, a 2-3kg fish would be a trophy, whereas in others, fish would need to be twice that size to attain that status.
There is, however, one more stage that you may attain if you are lucky and it could be called paradise, nirvana, valhalla or heaven.
This is the stage of fishing a water that you like using a method that you enjoy and catching a few reasonable fish.
Which brings us back to this weekend.
If I wanted to be in with a chance of catching a good number of fish, the lower Mataura would probably be the best bet, although the middle reaches of the Pomahaka would not be far behind.
For better-sized fish but fewer of them, the Taieri would be the pick.
If you wanted to catch a big or even a trophy fish, the Maniototo dams would offer a good chance, although hooking one and landing one are different matters.
But then it all depends on which phase you are going through.
- Mike Weddell
