I was thinking that we factor lots of things into our lives that we do because we have to, not because we want to.
The want to does keep getting pushed out of the schedule. Now that I am retired from gainful employment I fish more often and have days allocated to fishing and mostly I succeed going fishing on these days.
Sixty years ago, when I was at school, I fished just about every day in the school holidays and that was almost enough fishing for me.
Where to fish is the next big question.
My pick at this time of year is the Mataura. The Taieri can be good in the middle and lower reaches but from the Maniototo upstream once we have frosts the fishing is not so good.
Small streams can be good, too, such as the Waipahi and the Tokomairaro.
The upper reaches of the Clutha and from Roxburgh down can have good evening rises to mayfly and sedge.
I have been out a couple of times over the last week. Both trips were to the Mataura.
Last Sunday there were fish rising in the morning although there were not many mayflies so I suspect the fish were mainly taking nymphs.
I caught a couple of fish in quick succession in fairly shallow water on a hare’s ear nymph a soon as I started but I fished a couple of hundred metres of the same pool before I saw a fish within range.
It took the nymph on the second cast.
Just above that I saw a couple of dimple rises in a slow, deep section of water.
I eventually got the nymph in the right place and landed another fish. The weather was cold and damp so a hot cup of tea was called for.
The afternoon was different with no rises at all and fish were caught in very shallow water but again on the nymph.
Not a great day by Mataura standards but still a good day.
The second visit to the Mataura was on Wednesday. There was a strong northeast wind blowing which was not ideal.
However, the day started well with three fish in 15 minutes from a deep narrow channel on a weighted nymph.
The pool above has produced quite a few fish for me over the season.
I saw no rises and hooked and landed only one fish midway up the pool.
Moving up to the next pool there were a few duns in the air but no rises.
After lunch I moved to where I finished on Sunday and immediately got into fish in the shallow water.
I did cover a lot of water to find the odd fish here and there.
The last fish smashed off on the take and that seemed to be the time to pack up.
