They are already at low summer levels and are beginning to heat up, too. The effect of warm water is to concentrate insect hatches in the early morning and evening, so these are good times to target rising trout.
During the day trout will be in the ripples, especially if the water temperature gets over 20degC. When the water is low and clear there can be good sight fishing to these trout in the ripples despite the fact they are not rising. If the water is more than about 30cm deep a weighted fly is better; if shallower a smaller lighter nymph is better.
There are willow grub galls on the willow leaves now but it will be a couple of weeks until they begin to fall on to the water and bring the trout to the surface throughout the day.
Any willow-lined stretch of water then offers the chance of great, albeit difficult, fishing. The middle reaches of the Taieri offer such fishing and at the present level are easily waded.
Other rivers worth fishing over the next few weeks are the Mataura and Pomahaka. Even though the Waipahi is considered a spring river, I have had success there in midsummer.
Last weekend we fished the lower Mataura, starting in cool, overcast conditions which quickly turned warm and sunny.
For a start I had several fish chase a nymph in the shallows without any hook-ups. There were odd mayflies hatching but even odder rises to them so I stuck with the nymph.
I came to a favourite, ripply reach and caught a couple straight away, the second of which was in very shallow water at the head of the ripple. I made sure I covered the shallow water in each ripple and caught a couple more.
I passed a few fish while I was walking back to the car for lunch, thinking there would be more in the afternoon.
We moved a few kilometres upstream for the afternoon session. I spotted a couple in the edge but they were just as spooky as the morning fish. Coming to a long, fast shallow section, I could see trout feeding with barely enough water to cover their backs. They took the nymph but the strike had to be fast or they got rid of the fly. I managed to catch some but missed quite a few. When hooked in the fast water, they dashed off downstream at a high rate of knots and it was a mad dash to follow them and find slack water to net them.
I crossed to the other bank but because of the angle of the light was unable to see in the water. But I guessed that if there were trout on the other side, they would be on the near side too. I was right but there were not quite as many as I hoped.
