With more warm weather forecast over the next few days, the water temperature could rise further, so the best fishing will be early and late in the day.
There is still a chance of catching fish during the day, especially in deeper ripples and in the shade of willows.
I have noticed some willows now have lots of the little red blisters on their leaves that are the temporary home of willow grubs, the larvae of the saw fly.
But strangely enough there are adjacent trees that have very few, hopefully when they do start to drop on the water, there will be sufficient to keep trout near the surface for long periods of time.
I think willow grub fishing is underrated by fly fishers.
It is sight fishing par excellence and gives a chance to target bigger fish, that do not come to the surface much at other times.
If you catch a fish feeding on willow grub, the water is probably warm and when you put a trout back in the water it will take a while to recover and swim away. Remove the hook quickly and get the fish back in the water if you have had to lift it out of the water.
When releasing hold the fish upright in the water until it swims away of its own accord.
Do not push it away and hope it can swim, Also, hold it in the current as it will be cooler than the still water at the edges.
This is more important in still waters on hot days, as the water at the edges an be over 25°C, especially on the Maniototo dams.
Wade out into open water and hold the fish as deep as you can until it swims off.
Making the most of rivers that are now fish-able as the levels have dropped, I have been out on the Taieri a couple of times in the past week.
Once on the upper river and once on the middle river. I cannot decide if the first cast having a fish take not paying attention and missing it was a good sign or not.
Either way, I was paying attention often enough, to land a few nice fish.
On that occasion I used a diving beetle pattern which is good for exploring if there are no rises.
Diving beetles are on the move in warmer conditions and can be seen swimming about near the bank or flying over and diving into deeper water and are keenly sought after by trout.
The second outing was a bit harder.
There were a few trout rising first thing in the morning, three of which took my fly but only one made it to the net, one made it into a bush and I missed the take.
It was late afternoon before I landed another, but in between I did see three large eels.
