If I were logical about it only one in three days would be like that although being retired, I have more opportunity to pick good weather for fishing these days.
Checking through my diaries the best weather for fishing is not always what non-fishers would call good weather.
In fact, my best two days ever when fishing still waters would be classed as bad from the weather point of view. I think the moral of the story is, if you are free to go fishing — go.
Checking the diaries for the last four outings shows that the weather was fine and warm and the fishing was good if not exceptional, so there is no need to wait for foul weather to go out.
There must be more anglers out over the holiday period as I have seen several on the water. Prior to that I had seen very few since the start of the season.
Where I have seen anglers has been on the smaller dams which are ideal for taking the family as it is possible to supervise and fish at the same time and introduce children to fishing as well.
Hanging a worm below a bubble float is a good method as it eliminates getting stuck on the bottom and losing gear.
I took my grandson fishing the other day and although we did not catch anything, we did spot some big fish which was exciting for me at least. They were cruising beneath a dense line of willows we could see through the branches as they patrolled back and forward just a few metres away in a long, deep pool. The only way I could see to catch them would be to hire contractors to remove the trees but that would probably scare them away.
One of the fine days I spent on the Taieri on the Maniototo. As I approached the first pool a nice fish rose, a sitter, I thought.
It took first cast, took off at a high rate of knots through a weed bed and broke off. The next sitter thrashed on the top and dropped off.
The next few fish did not like being approached with the sun behind me: they just stopped rising after one cast.
Eventually I caught a fish where I was fishing into the sun as was the next one. I was using a diving beetle imitation and as it was working I kept it on throughout the day. Fish began to jump at damsel flies making them easier to find and liked the diving beetle, too.
I did not see as many fish as I expected, but there were enough to keep it interesting.
Towards the end of the day, I spotted a fish next to the mouth of a backwater.
It ignored the first cast but nailed the second and after a hectic couple of minutes among the weed beds it came to the net to nicely round off the day.
