Hoping to reverse trend of fishing in dams

Over the many years I have fished in Otago, most of the fish I catch in the spring have been in rivers, but the trend in recent years has seen rivers high in October which means fishing dams more often provide the chance of catching a fish.

This season, I have only fished two rivers so far and four dams. I hope this weekend reverses the trend, as I will, with other entrants, be fishing for the Waipahi Gold Medal today. There are one or two rivers that look fishable among them, the Mataura and the Tokomairaro.

Most stillwaters are fishable, there have been lots of good fish caught on them over the last week or so. The small dams that have recently been stocked by Fish & Game with mainly small fish still have some big ones in them. The small fish average about 10cm long.

But in more fertile waters they could reach 500g by the end of the season. Some of the dams have had big fish stocked too, such as Sullivans and Southern Reservoir. Those that have resident brown trout have also been producing some good-sized fish.

The rainbow trout released by Fish & Game come from the hatchery at Macraes Flat and I am sure the first trout caught by many anglers over the 20 years since the hatchery opened have come from these releases.

Murray Smart and I fished a couple of dams on the Maniototo last weekend on what started as a fine day, but was a bit damp and windy be the time we finished.

We started at Blakelys and flogged away for several hours with only one missed take between us although we did see the odd fish rise mostly out of range.

After lunch, we moved to Matthias Dam, where there were a few fish rising often within range. Murray fished a single fly, a midge pupa and landed two 2kg brown trout and I caught one of similar size on a water boatman. We then made a dash to the car to beat the threatening rain.

On Wednesday I was back at Blakelys on a beautiful fine day with just a light ripple on the water. I saw a fish rise as soon as I started and it seemed to be a single fish on a regular beat. I started to fish towards one end of the beat gradually working towards the middle.

There were lots of water boatman in the water, so I fished an imitation on the dropper and a damsel fly nymph on the point. As soon as I started I missed a take and on the next cast had one on briefly.

Shortly after, I hooked and landed a 2kg fish. A few casts later I hooked another which got off in the weeds. Obviously, I had misjudged how many fish were feeding there. To confirm this, I then landed a 3kg fish. Both fish landed were on the damsel nymph.

Next week I will report on the trials and tribulations of the Waipahi Gold Medal.