Although rain is forecast for the weekend, rivers have been fairly low and are all fishable, as I write this.
Surprisingly, the Clutha has been lower than last week and is at its lowest continuous level for a long time and well worth fishing.
Fish have been caught on the cicada and if there is a warm day soon the tussock lakes are worth a try and even if there are no cicadas, a midge pupa in the early morning and a damsel fly nymph during the day will catch fish.
The cooler days at this time of year are almost like autumn from as fishing point of view, but the hot days are definitely still summer, so the angler needs to be ready for anything. There could be hatches of mayfly in the middle of the day if it is cool, and if it is hot, fish will be jumping in the air to grab damsel flies.
The one thing that is consistent is that fish will feed on nymphs in ripples so, if in doubt, fish a nymph in the ripples.
This is the approach I used last Sunday on the Mataura. I had not been to the Mataura for several weeks and a glance at the Environment Southland website showed that the river was at a good fishing level.
I fished below Mataura township and the water looked perfect - good level and very clear. I started with a pair of nymphs, a weighted size 12 hare's ear on the point and an unweighted size 14 hare's ear nymph on the dropper.
I covered some flat water at the tail of a short ripple. I fished it thoroughly, as I usually do at the start of the day, casting upstream then out to the left in steps of a couple of metres or so until I was casting just above square to the current. I then moved up a couple of paces and started casting straight upstream again.
I had been fishing for about half an hour before the first fish took the nymph on the point, a nice fish of just under 1kg.
Then I saw a fish rise well across the river, so I cast in that direction, gradually wading within range of it.
That fish took the same fly and was exactly the same weight as the first fish. Things were looking up, or so I thought, but it was well over an hour and a vast expanse of water later before I hooked another fish of identical weight to the first two.
I crossed the river and walked down to a deep, swirly ripple that had produced fish for me on many previous occasions and I was not disappointed this time either.
After lunch, I moved further upstream and fished one of the most productive reaches of the Mataura for me over the years.
I fished hard all afternoon and managed to hook only two fish and landed only one of them.
Remarkably, I only saw two others in the same time. It has to be better this weekend.
- Written by Mike Weddell
