For the first weekend in a while, the prospects for fishing are good, with rivers and streams falling to normal levels and the water temperature rising.
The only waters lagging behind are the bigger rivers, Clutha, Taieri and Mataura, but there are good chances of the latter dropping to a fishable level by the weekend.
Despite things warming up, trout will still be in spring mode, with most of the action after midday. If the morning is unproductive, hang in there for the afternoon.
A couple of times this season, the fishing has been slow to start. Then, suddenly, fish have begun to feed and taken the fly for a couple of hours. Just as suddenly, it stops. Ant trout outside this feeding window are a bonus.
I know where I will be fishing this weekend, and not just which river but which exact stretch of the river. For the 32nd consecutive year, I will be fishing the 129th Waipahi Gold Medal competition on the Waipahi. I will be on section 22, which is about 1km upstream of the state highway bridge at Arthurton. I have fished this section before and I must admit it is not my favourite bit of water, but the challenge is there to make the best of the opportunities presented.
If you are not fishing in the Gold Medal, the Mataura as mentioned above could be worth a visit, The Waiwera, too, is looking good, as are the Waitahuna and Tokomairiro.
The Pomahaka is close to fishable but it could be into next week before it makes it.
I fished a weekday recently, and a perfect day it was, too - warm calm and sunny. I was with Richard Fitzpatrick and we decided to fish Nenthorn Dam as I had a good day there three weeks ago. Because we had to pass the Shag River on the way, we thought it worth a look.
The water looked good, fairly clear with a flow of close to 2cumecs, which made a nice change to the dribble of water that is the Shag most of the time.
Usually, the sunshine helps spot fish, but at that time of the morning the shadows of the bankside trees made fishing difficult on much of the water. We did spot one or two that came to the fly but would not take.
However, Richard tempted one beauty of over 3kg, with my best being about half that weight.
Full of anticipation, we moved on to Nenthorn. It was a bit breezier up there but not unpleasant.
We flogged the water for quite a while before a couple of miniature rainbows appeared, which suggested it had been restocked recently. We had takes on almost every cast. For a bit of variation, we caught a perch each before one 2kg rainbow was landed.
That was it for the day - not a lot of fish but a very enjoyable day out.
