The most disruptive thing at the moment is leaves falling from willows on to the water.
Spinning lures and flies seem to have a magnetic attraction for leaves, especially when casting to a fish that has just been spotted.
With lures they can usually be flicked off but with flies they seem to hang on and any attempt to flick off a leaf off causes it to spin and kink up the leader.
It is easier and quicker to pull in as soon as a leaf is hooked rather than taking out the twists caused by a couple of flicks to try to get rid of it.
If it is windy and there has been a frost overnight, the flotilla of leaves drifting down can make fly fishing almost impossible.
Using a weighted nymph does help, as it only has to get through the surface traffic without hooking up and once it is down there, the chance of a fish is increased.
Dry fly fishing is not a good option under such circumstances, unless a rising fish and a leaf-free area coincide.
I have seen may fly spinner falls and a few duns hatching first thing in the morning recently but as the nights lengthen, causing river temperatures to drop, spinner falls and dun hatches will be more obvious in the middle of the day and into the afternoon.
On a warm day there could be an evening rise to duns or spinner but this will be unlikely once we have a frost or two.
Murray Smart and I fished the Pomahaka the other day.
The water had dropped back after rising a few cumecs earlier in the week.
It was peat stained, making the deep water look black, but the shallows were clear enough to spot fish.
I chose a section of river that I have not fished for a few years. I was amazed at the changes, mainly on the banks, but also some parts of the riverbed.
The willow had grown a lot, as had thistles and gorse.
Gravel had been moved by floods creating new islands and deeper ripples so at times it was like fishing a new river.
I started at a spot where I had caught quite a few fish over the years and immediately saw a fish rise.
I suspected it was small, as it was in the middle of the river, bigger fish prefer a bit of cover close to the banks.
The smallness was confirmed on the first cast.
I began to fish blind under the adjacent willows and was soon into better fish.
A little further upstream I spotted a rise under the willows and then another rise.
It turned out they were different fish, one a good-sized fish and the other a bit smaller. Subsequent fish were all under willows, presumably all feeding on willow grub.
