At this time of year, I would be happy to just carry three fly patterns on the river. Hare’s ear nymph, mayfly emerger and upside-down spinner. The hare’s ear would be in two sizes, 12 weighted and 14 unweighted. The emerger is a size 16 and the spinner size 16. The spinner and emerger are specific imitations and the hare’s ear a good general imitation that covers sedge pupae, cased caddis as well as being a mayfly nymph imitation.
No need to have a fly box cluttered with dozens of other patterns, especially if you have patterns you have no idea when to use. And you should have decided which fly you need to put on before you open your fly box if not you are just guessing.
Murray and I fished the Mataura last Sunday. The weather forecast was for gale northwesterlies but we went anyway. It was flat calm when we arrived at the river which was clear and falling which looked promising.
It was a cool morning but we hoped there would be a fall of spinners when it warmed up. Murray fished the lower section of a long gravelly run and I fished the upper section.
This run has produced a good number of fish for us so far this season and things looked promising when I caught a fish in the first few minutes but we did not touch another fish for the rest of the morning. When it warmed up there was a fall of spinners, not many but I thought enough to bring the fish on to rise. We did see two fish rise, both well out of range and that was it so we had lunch.
A change of location seemed like a sensible option so we moved upstream a few kilometres. Just as we left the car there was a hint of a breeze and by the time we got on the water it was more than a hint. I did not touch a fish in the first ripple but remained confident when fishing the second section. I fished it carefully with two nymphs and caught a couple of fish quite quickly then moving to the next ripple caught several more. By this time the forecast gale was upon us it seemed sensible to have a cup of tea and go home.
