Fishing Reports

 

It has been a wet start to the year in the Southern Lakes. 45mm of rain on New Years day! Not a great start to 2002. At present all rivers are high and dirty as they have been for most of the past couple of months. In short there is still a lot of expectation and opportunity available. Having said in the last report that we could face low water conditions by now, I will take that all back and thank myself for saving the fishery from drought. I can count the number of days I’ve been able to get at the Young, Wilkin, Makarora, Matukituki, and Hunter, on one hand. If it has been like that for me it will be tougher still for those that only have the weekends and holiday period available to fish. The one shining light has been the Hawea River. As a tail water it has not been affected by the heavy rains. Contact Energy have left Lake Hawea full and not released water down the river. How long this will continue is hard to gauge, but as Wanaka and the Clutha River are presently very full there is hope that the Hawea River will stay at low flows for some time yet. There are a lot of very healthy, hard fighting rainbows around 1kg that supply endless sport. It’s blind fishing in the main with a pair of nymphs 2-3m below a good buoyant indicator, that will work most of the time. You have to get down deep and hold the drift as long as possible. A weighted green caddis in 14 to 16 and a PT 12-14 is my pick. I have on a couple of occasions in the past week hit a short but very productive mayfly hatch. A CDC emerger and a non-weighted PT have been deadly. These hatches have been in the mid to late morning and last for less than an hour. As far as I can tell they seem to be triggered by light conditions. On bright sunny days (I think we’ve had 3 in the last month) there is little activity and it’s the same on completely dull cloudy days, yet get a combination of both and a hatch seems to come off. The rest of the day is spent covering the likely water, of which there is an abundance of in the Hawea. I fully expect the weather to get into summer mode for the next couple of months and as the rivers in the region have had very little fishing, there should be excellent prospects all round. The dry fly box is hungry for an opening, especially the stimulators and cicada patterns. There are some good browns holding in the margins, especially with the high flows coming down. The rainbows have been difficult to get to as they are holding deep in the heavy water and have required very heavy nymphs and long leaders. Away from the mountains, the rivers have not been quite so full, but a rise in temperatures and sunshine will help. These are the Nevis and Manuherikia rivers and the Poolburn and Manorburn Dams. By all accounts Poolburn is fishing extremely well with some good fish being landed, especially from boats trolling and harling. Just keep a watchful eye on the weather if you venture to Poolburn and Manorburn as the southerly change can drop the temperature very quickly and a hot sunny day can turn to sleet and snow. With a 3-4 day spell of hot sunny weather there will be lots of tussock cicada’s about. Watch the gulls that rest on the many rocky outcrops, as they are also waiting for the cicadas. Once the gull has moved you should see fish do the same within 20 –30 minutes. As a rule 2pm should see plenty of action. So lets wait for the weather gods to get into line. For the most part the season hasn’t really started in respect to the trout. The trout have seen lots of water but very few flies or anglers. It can but improve. Gerald

 

From The Fishing Website

Report type: Freshwater

Report date: 29 January 02