It seems that will be the story this week too. Cool and damp on Saturday and Sunday after a hot Friday.
Luckily there is not a lot of rain forecast, so rivers should not be affected enough to spoil the chances of a fish.
All of the Taieri is looking good and most of the small streams.
I hear that the Pomahaka is very dirty, although it is at an ideal height for fishing.
This is due to the slip that spoiled much of last season there.
Water temperatures are perfect at the moment, varying between 10° to 12°, which even makes wet wading quite pleasant.
I was asked the other day what were the best flies to use on rivers this time of year.
You can not go far wrong with flies that cover the mayfly life cycle.
A weighted nymph and an unweighted nymph, an emerger, a dun and, if you are lucky enough to strike a spinner fall, a spinner imitation.
If the water is deep and slightly discoloured, add a bead head nymph to the list.
I was on the lower Taieri during the week for a casting lesson and arrived early to check out the river.
It was clear and quite a bit lower than last week and there were mayflies hatching in good numbers, and even better, several fish rising.
I had tied on a nymph before I left the car and the first fish I cast to, took it. This is going to be easy I thought.
It is not a good idea to have thoughts like that when you are fishing.
Not another fish came near it. I tried an emerger to no avail. After casting at three or four rising fish I did the sensible thing and put on a dun imitation, in this case a size 14 Adams.
That did the trick, with two fish landing on it before the rise petered out.
As I had arrived at about 2.30pm and they were already rising, I will try to be on the water at 1pm next time.
At the weekend, Bruce Quirey and I fished the Shag River and were full of optimism — for a while at least.
We met whitebaiters who had not seen a single trout recently, and one told us there was a seal in residence which could account for the lack of fish.
We covered about a kilometre of river and only saw one small fish. Combining our brain power, we decided to try further upstream.
We had walked about 500m before spotting a fish. Bruce quickly got on to one which weighed 2kg.
We fished through some likely water before spotting another right by the car, which obligingly took my nymph. We fished for another half hour or so without catching another fish, so called it a day.
