Rain in the past week or so has affected rivers throughout the region to varying degrees, waters to the south and west being lower than those to the east and north.
The waters looking the best for the weekend are the Mataura and the Waipahi. Surprisingly, the Waiwera, which is very close to the Waipahi, is too high for good fishing. The lower Clutha is gradually dropping but the window for good fishing between peak power generation periods is rather short.
I suspect the higher lakes in the region will be on the cold side, as lowland rivers have dropped to around 8degC earlier in the week.
However, lowland still waters should be worth a look. Ideally, water temperatures should rise above 10degC for trout food and consequently trout, to be active. Smaller streams warm faster during the day than larger waters, so they would provide a better chance of catching a fish and the best time would be in the afternoon.
Last weekend, I was in the North Island on Saturday and did not return south until mid-morning on Sunday, which ruled out fishing any distant waters, so I decided to fish the Tokomairiro.
I could see from the website it was up a little but falling, so thought it was worth a go. At Crichton Rd it was rather discoloured, so I checked Mt Stuart Reserve and found it was much clearer.
Incidentally, even when the Tokomairiro is low, the quality of the water deteriorates considerably over that short distance. At Mt Stuart the water is usually clear enough to fish when it is totally unfishable further downstream.
The weather was kind with little wind and odd spells of sunshine, and I saw the odd mayfly dun on the water straight away. It was not long before I spotted a rise. I covered the fish and hooked it but it dropped off after making a short run. This was repeated several times in the first hour until I eventually landed a fish. By then there were a few more flies on the water and a few more rises, and a couple of these took the fly.
As I was walking downstream at one point, I scared a duck, which took off and flew low across the water. It spooked a trout which swirled and swam off.
About 45 minutes later when I was walking back upstream, I thought the fish might be back in position so had a couple of casts in the general area.
Nothing happened, but as I was winding in to move, it rose. I quickly got the fly back out and the fish took. Brown trout are very territorial and live for whole seasons in one location, and have particular feeding lies they prefer.
Even when they have been spooked, they return quickly to those lies.
Things went quiet after 4pm as they usually do in the spring, but the best fish of the day came to the net just after 5pm, rounding off an enjoyable afternoon.
