I always think of February as one of the better months of the trout-fishing season. Usually the weather is warm and relatively settled and it has been reasonable in the first half of the month.
The weather forecast for the next few days is good enough to keep anglers happy this weekend. If it is warm the cicadas should be falling on the tussock lakes as they have been recently and some anglers have had good catches of trout on a suitable imitation. I was at a meeting of the Fly Flingers and Stream Bashers this week and listened to a dis-cussion among several expert anglers on cicada fishing. They would have had several hundred years of experience between them and were well worth listening to.
The distillation of their wisdom offers the following guidance: Cicada fishing is usually better when there are a few cicadas on the water, which means getting there early before there are too many insects flying. Do not fish too big an imitation and when a fish takes your fly do not be in a hurry to strike. Wait until the line starts to draw away before tightening. If there are cicadas on the water and there are no rises try something else. A damsel fly nymph or a corixa are good options. One option that I use is to fish a coch-y-bondhu instead of a cicada pattern. The takes tend to be more gentle and positive. There. All you need now is some sunshine to put it all into action.
Other places worth fishing this weekend are the Mataura and the lower Clutha, which has dropped a lot in the last week. The lower Taieri is about as perfect as it gets at the moment clear and down to about 6 cumecs. It should fish well during the day to willow grub and to sedge in the evening.
Murray Smart and I had high hopes when we drove south to fish the Mataura last weekend. It was fine and warm and the river was low and clear. Things started well when I saw a fish rise and it took straight off. Shortly after I landed another but it was lunchtime before another came to the net. Despite the water being clear there were few fish to be seen.
Back at the truck for lunch, Murray had the same story. A change of location was called for. Unfortunately the wrong location was chosen as a herd of bulls was present and although they were not threatening us, Murray's truck was receiving some attention from them, so we moved again. This turned out to be a good move as there were a few fish rising at the new spot and they took a small nymph. Interestingly, the fish were all in the flat water and although I fished a favourite ripple it produced not a single fish. The end of the day was very hot and we were glad to get back to the truck for a drink.
