Labour Weekend has a bad reputation for weather. I have often heard it said that the weather is always adverse, from the angler's point of view. My fishing diaries do not bear this out.
There are many instances of fine weather over the last 30 years, but, unfortunately, last weekend did not fall into that category.
Conditions are no more promising for the coming weekend, either. Most waters are still well above normal and although dropping steadily, the forecast of rain for the weekend does nothing to raise the hopes of a keen angler.
Again it looks as if still waters will give the best chance of a few fish. However, it will pay to check the websites to see what the rivers are doing. Small rain-fed waters will have the best chance of being fishable if the weather forecast is right. Another option is the tidal reaches of rivers that have a run of whitebait. Both resident and sea-run brown trout enjoy whitebait as much as we humans. If you can find trout slashing into shoals of this delicacy a whitebait imitation slowly and erratically retrieved through the area can fool one of them.
If you do end up on a river, look out for a hatch of mayfly mid to late afternoon, even if the water is discoloured trout can end up sipping duns from the surface, giving a short but definite chance of catching them.
Last weekend I decided to fish Phoenix Dam near Lawrence. I fished it a few years ago and caught several nice fish and with few other options it looked as good as anywhere to fish. Like most anglers, the picture of the day's fishing conjured up in my mind, fine, sunny, calm - you know the sort of thing - was far from reality. The rain was pelting down and as I got further up Phoenix Rd the worse things looked. The unmettled road was very slippery and decidedly muddy in places and getting back up the climb out from the dam did not look promising, so I abandoned the idea and headed for Gabriel's Gully and the various small dams up there.
The first one I came to was sheltered from the worst of the wind and rain and on the third cast there was a savage snatch at my damsel fly nymph which offered hope despite not being hooked.
A second take did not eventuate so I looked for another dam. This time the take that came soon after starting produced a fish of just under a kilo. Nothing else followed.
A third dam on approach looked even more promising.
After a couple of casts I spotted some rises near overhanging tussocks. There were three fish feeding. All three took my fly but none of them were hooked. I flogged away for most of the afternoon and eventually landed a fish of over a kilogram, again on the damsel fly nymph. There was the odd rise to keep me going but despite several takes only a couple more came to the net.
I hope next weekend is better.
