Quite a few waters are at a good fishable level, and several are dropping at a rate that would suggest they will be worth a visit this weekend.
The better options seem to be the smaller rain-fed waters such as the Waipahi and the Tokomairiro.
The Mataura is running at 75cumecs at Gore and dropping steadily. Once it gets to 50cumecs, it is well worth fishing.
The Mataura usually fishes well at this time of year and the level is not as critical, and that is because there are hatches of mayfly during the day. Even if the water is above normal and carrying some colour, the trout will still rise to the duns.
At this time of year, the smaller rain-fed waters also have a hatch of duns but usually of a shorter duration than that of the Mataura and probably not as reliable, either.
Last weekend, Murray Smart and I fished Blakely's dam on the Maniototo, as most rivers were out of action. It was a very pleasant day, cool but not cold and little wind most of the time. The water was at a good height and the weed was not too troublesome.
When we arrived, the calm water was dimpled with rising fish, not a lot of them but enough to make it interesting.
The logical conclusion was that they were rising to midge pupae, but there were few midges in the air and I saw no pupal shucks on the water.
I started with a damselfly nymph and covered the odd rise but the best result was a bow wave following the fly for a few metres.
By the time I changed to a midge pupa, the rises had almost petered out and I did not get a take with that fly either.
When I caught up with Murray, he had landed two fish and lost another all on the midge pupa.
Logic should have prevailed. I saw a fish move several times over a small area around a weed bed so I fished the damselfly nymph close to the weed bed and soon had a 1kg rainbow in the net.
Further along, there was a fish rising regularly in the shallows and, as there were many water boatmen there, I put on a suitable imitation which was immediately seized by a fish slightly smaller than the first one.
The odd bigger fish moved in the deeper water in front of me so I persisted with the damselfly nymph and latched on to an express train which turned out to be a rainbow of 3kg, the fish of the day.
