They ventured out on the first day, which turned out to be perfect weatherwise and many were rewarded with a trout or two.
I am often asked about the best times to go fishing and my answer is, whenever you are free to go fishing and you cannot catch fish if you do not go fishing.
Where to fish this weekend will be a problem as rivers will be high and even if there is no rain over the weekend enough rain has fallen already to keep them high for several days.
So if you wish to have a good chance of catching a fish or two, still waters are the way to go.
We are lucky to have a good number of still waters in Otago varying in size from the big southern lakes to small dams.
High water can provide good fishing on the big lakes as brown trout will cruise the shallows as the rising water covers ground that has been dry for a while. They will be feeding on insects or worms and provide interesting fishing. Water boatmen move into the shallows as the water is rising so fly fishers should use a suitable imitation.
Smaller still waters mostly are steep-sided and do not have extensive shallows but can be fished normally as their feeder streams are small and do not discolour all of the water. One area that can be productive is the line where the coloured water meets the clear water. Trout prefer clear water so they move to stay on the clear side of the line covering that area with a spinning lure or the usual fly patterns will produce fish.
Dunedin anglers could do a lot worse than fishing the three local still waters, Southern Reservoir, Sullivans Dam and Tomahawk Lagoon. All three have been stocked recently with rainbows with Southern Reservoir receiving 500 fish as it was used for the Take a Kid Fishing days at the end of September.
There were quite a few caught by these young anglers but there are plenty left for us oldies and not-so-oldies.
I went out on opening day even though I was pushed for time. A late start and an early finish gave about three hours of fishing on Sullivans Dam.
It was warm and relatively calm, making for a pleasant outing.
I started with my usual team of flies, a damsel-fly nymph on the point and a water boatman on the dropper. At first, I fished deep, letting the flies sink before retrieving, but this did not have the desired result, producing no takes and there were no rises either so I wandered around. Eventually, I spotted some rises and caught fish on both patterns.
