There has been a considerable amount of rain in the past week or so and this fell on land that was still quite wet from earlier falls.
The result has been high rivers which are only dropping very slowly and most waters will be marginal for fishing this weekend.
The pick would have to be stillwaters especially the tussock lakes and of those Poolburn and Upper Manorburn look the best, always provided there is no more rain.
If stillwaters are not your thing then a small rain-fed water is the next best bet. On average the smaller the stream the faster it will return to a fishable level, so it helps to have a good scan of the regional councils' websites before setting off.
The water temperature is at a reasonable level for morning fish activity, which extends the fishing day a little.
Murray Smart and I cruised south on Sunday morning in what was quite heavy at times but the streams that we crossed this side of the Clutha were not discoloured, but south of Balclutha streams were beginning to colour a little but still looked fishable.
I had checked river levels before leaving home and it looked as if those rising to the south would be higher and two of these, the Mimihau and the Mokoreta, would discolour the Mataura which looked fishable above Gore.
So we headed to Gore and were pleasantly surprised to see that the water was clear although up a little. We hoped to get a few hours fishing in before it inevitably rose.
It was still raining heavily when we started but luckily there was little wind. We fished weighted nymphs through a lot of likely looking water, but other than seeing one fish there was nothing doing. When we came to a shallow ripply section Murray landed a nice fish then soon followed it with another. I managed to have two takes, hooking one but losing it. At least things were picking up and by lunchtime we had five between us.
We were soaked through by this time but a cup of tea and a bite to eat perked us up and we were soon back into action. Murray was straight into a fish, then I go a couple.
There was even the odd dun on the water but unfortunately a good hatch did not materialise.
A couple of fish cruising over a large weedbed succumbed to the nymph which boosted the spirits. However my spirits were soon dampened when my feet went out from under me and I landed on my back in a half a metre of water. "Oh dear", I thought, or words to that effect. Vast reserves of stupidity are a great advantage in fishing and so I carried on.
Eventually I landed a couple more nice fish before Murray and I decided that we had had enough and called it a day. On the way home all streams were bank full and rising. We were lucky to get any fishing in at all.
• By Mike Weddell.
