Through the wonders of modern technology, I am writing this column on the other side of the world, as I am in England on my way to Finland. By way of the same technology, I know exactly where I should be fishing this weekend. I have checked the regional councils' websites and, if I was in a position to do so, I would be fishing the Mataura or the Pomahaka, as both are at ideal levels for this time of year.
The weather forecast is good, so there is a good chance of hatches of mayflies which should occur in the afternoons and could be preceded by a fall of spinners if it is calm.
The Taieri is looking good throughout its length and so is the Clutha, with the last hour of daylight and the first hour of darkness being the best time on the latter river.
As I type this, I am sitting a few hundred metres from the river Coquet in Northumberland, the river where I first took up fishing.
It is very low after several dry weeks and two weeks of heat wave. Unfortunately, the heat wave ended a few hours after I arrived and the following day it snowed for hours. It did not lie where I am staying, but the hills to the west where the Coquet rises are still covered in snow this morning.
Fortunately, on the first day I had a walk on the river with my brother Dave.
There was a fine drizzle when we set out ,with barely a breath of wind. The river was very clear and because of the low level we could easily see the riverbed right to the other side.
We walked by the Mill Pool just above the dam and there were a large number of sea trout kelts.
Kelts are fish that have spawned in the winter and are waiting for a rise in the water level to help them drop back to the sea about 20km away as the river flows.
Sea trout survive to spawn many times, unlike Pacific salmon, which die immediately after spawning.
Some of these kelts were quite large: several would have been over 5kg when they were fresh from the sea.
To keep out of the icy wind I made a pilgrimage to the Hardy factory and museum a few kilometres up the road.
It is good to look at the latest advances in tackle, as well as looking at the development over the last 140 years or so.
Hopefully, this will sustain me until I fish again next week.
