There is a hard core of fly fishers that compete every year and others will be competing for the first time or compete only occasionally. One thing that most competitors agree on is that the Gold Medal day is usually the hardest day’s fishing of the season.
There are several reasons for this. Each angler is restricted to a single beat, which may or may not be to their liking. There is also the pressure of trying to avoid making mistakes. To make matters worse, trying to avoid making mistakes increases the chance of making them. It is better to think of the competition as just a normal day’s fishing, competing against the trout rather than other competitors.
The competition is a good way to improve an angler’s skills. Fishing for a fixed time on a fixed length of river, trying to make the best of it, focuses the mind. At the weigh in competitors can compare their results with everyone else and the elation, if results are better than anticipated. If the opposite occurs there is no despondency, as there is always next year and there is plenty of useful advice (and some not so useful) to be had from fellow competitors.
For those that catch fish, whether medallists or not, they help increase the knowledge of the fishery as Fish and Game takes the heads of any fish weighed in and extracts the otoliths (ear stones) from them and analyses them to determine the origin of each fish. The migratory patterns of each fish can be determined.
Another way in which the competition helps contribute to the state of the fishery is by comparing catch numbers from year to year, showing short and long-term variations in the fish population. The long-term picture does not look good, as the number of fish weighed in has declined in recent years, but the average weight has increased. Numbers weighed in have never been high and roughly half the field will not weigh a fish in, but we still keep coming back.
For those not on the Waipahi this weekend the Taieri is looking good, so too are many of the smaller streams throughout the region and there have been good reports from the tussock lakes.
Because of the mild weather the evening rise is worth fishing and trout will be feeding from early morning.
If you live in Dunedin and only have a short time to fish, it is well worth a visit to the Southern reservoir and Sullivan’s Dam, as they have a good head of fish. Or you could stay at home and keep warm and dry.
