The midweek rain had little effect on rivers other than cooling the water.
All waters remain low and clear at the time of writing and look promising for the weekend, The lower Clutha, which is less prone to flow fluctuation, at the weekend should be worth a try.
If it is warm and calm there could be a fall of spinners and towards evening there should be a dun hatch followed by a hatch of sedges. An evening session on one of the flats on the lower Taieri would also be worthwhile.
If small streams are your thing, the Waipahi is worth a visit even though it is very low. I crossed it the other day and there was remarkably little weed in evidence.
In the reefy sections of the river trout usually feed on green caseless caddis at this time of year and bigger fish can be caught as they start to move around before heading to the spawning gravel.
After struggling on the Mataura on recent visits I decided to give it another go on Good Friday. The day looked promising with a clear sky and no wind. I arrived at a spot I have not fished since last season and was surprised to see what the intervening floods had done to the course of the river.
Where there was once a deep pool and an island, there was just a wide flat with several gravel bars running through it. The channels between these bars were very silty and trout were cruising slowly through feeding on the bottom.
I put on a bloodworm imitation and immediately hooked a reasonable fish which screamed off towards some bushes at one end of the flat. It broke off as I tried to turn it. The next couple were more co-operative and came to the net.
Crossing the river I eventually came to a long cut bank where I spotted the first rise of the day - just a dimple - and as there were no surface flies to be seen, I put on a small nymph. This fish turned out to be 2kg, which is better than average on the lower Mataura.
Another fish rose a few metres further up and it was like this till halfway up the cut bank when the action petered out. Half a dozen fish averaging over 1.5kg was a pleasing catch.
By this time the wind began to blow with a vengeance and it felt like lunchtime. On the way back to the car I came across a small backwater with trout cruising the bottom. On bloodworms I wondered? Presumably, as a couple of them nailed my imitation.
After lunch, finding somewhere out of the wind I fished a couple of nymphs blind and caught a fish. Then I spotted one in the shallows and it, too, took the nymph. I slowed up and fished blind in the deeper water and sight-fished the shallows and picked up several more before calling it a day. The Mataura had redeemed itself.
