Although there is fishing available throughout the winter, the season for the majority of waters comes to a close at the end of this month and this weekend for many anglers will be the last opportunity to fish.
The fine weather of recent days is predicted to end but there does not seem to be enough rain on the horizon to spoil the last outing.
All streams are in good order, so once again we are spoilt for choice.
My choice of water would be the Mataura, Waipahi or Pomahaka but any small rain-fed stream on the lower Clutha would be fine, too.
I have had a couple of outings lately and, as usual at this time of the year, have been chasing mayflies.
The best outing was with Murray Smart, and we went to the Mataura below Wyndham. It was a perfect day, almost calm, warm and sunny. The water was low and clear but, at 11degC, was rather cold.
There were spinners on the water from mid-morning, although there were few rises. I winkled out a few fish on the nymph. The first came on about the fifth cast of the day, having already lost one on the second cast.
Then things really slowed up.
Murray fared better, with several rising fish coming to his net.
The afternoon was much better. A good hatch of duns lasted for over an hour.
I caught a couple on the nymph to start, then switched to a parachute dun. Although I caught a couple of fish on it, there were too many refusals, so I tried an upside-down pattern, basically a hackled blue dun with the top of the hackle clipped off.
This produced a fish, but then the rise abruptly stopped.
Some fish were still nymphing and the good old hare's ear produced some more fish.
As the sun started to sink in the west, a fall of spinners commenced and a few fish rose. An upside-down spinner accounted for a few of them.
And so ended a very pleasant day on the Mataura. If there was one blemish on proceedings, it was falling in and losing my fishing net.
The other outing was on a small tributary of the Clutha, again in perfect weather and good water conditions.
I messed up a few chances in the morning but did land a nice fish of just under 2kg, which I spotted cruising a deep pool edge.
The first fish of the afternoon came from exactly the same spot as the first fish of an afternoon there 18 months ago. Again, there were spinners on the water but no rises, but, about 3pm, duns began to hatch and there were a few rises and few fish came to the net.
As the water cools, fish begin to think about spawning. I saw three spawning sites, one of which had a large jack fish nearby.
I apologise for mentioning the Waitaki as a place to catch salmon recently.
The Waitaki used to be closed above Bartons from the end of March but is now completely closed in April.
This error could have occurred due to old age, jet lag, senility or all three.
Have a good fling for the final weekend.
