Opening day was on a Monday this year, so I felt obliged to deprive myself of going to work and go fishing instead.
After making this difficult decision, the next decision was where to go to have the best chance of catching a few fish. I checked out the regional council's websites to see which water looked the most promising. The Waipahi looked good and the Pomahaka was not far behind and the lower Mataura was unusually low for opening day.
Nearer to home, the Waitahuna and the Tokomairiro were at a good fishable level on Sunday evening but after some rain they were up a little on Monday morning.
I decided to drive south and assess the river as I went. The Taieri was dirty and the Tokomairiro was, too, much higher than I anticipated. The Clutha had been running high for a while and it was no surprise that it was still doing so. The Kaihiku was very dirty but the Waiwera was definitely fishable. The Waipahi was low and fishable but I kept driving and was pleasantly surprised when I found the Mataura was not only at a good fishing level but it was also quite clear.
I had spotted a few anglers' cars as I drove down and so too there were quite a few on the Mataura. Looking off Wyndham Bridge I saw a couple of anglers well downstream so I decided to fish the pool immediately below the bridge.
There was a new addition to the pool - a large tree was stuck about half way down, 20m from the west bank and I thought that there could be some fish around it. I started at the bottom of the pool with a beadhead nymph on the point and a small hare's ear nymph on the dropper. As I approached the water a fish moved in front of me and three casts later it was attached to the beadhead - an auspicious start to the season.
I worked my way up to the tree and, sure enough, there were three obliging fish in the swirl from the left of the tree.
There was little happening above the tree so I fished the lower half of the pool again before stopping for lunch.
Above the bridge little happened for the first hour until I spotted several fish cruising the shallows, feeding on drifting nymphs. I soon caught a couple but then the wind got up and I was unable to spot any more rises. However, I assumed that the fish were still feeding and continued to fish the water blind and it paid off, too, with several coming to the net.
Further up, I saw a couple of definite rises, both of which resulted in a fish coming to the net. The action tailed off at that point and I wandered back towards the car but the large lump of coal that was home to a fish on the way up produced another to finish off.
And so ended a pretty good opening day. Long may it last.
