Spring continues way down in the South Island

The spring weather down here at 45 deg South continues which is not unusual as it normally goes on until Xmas.

This last week has seen me doing some big miles around Southland in particular ducking and diving around the weather.

Yesterday we ended up on predominately rainbow trout water and had success with 3 landed, 2 lost and 2 missed strikes. Most of the day was fine and sunny on us but all around was frontal storms barreling thru. It snowed on us once briefly and rained twice - again briefly. Considering the weather our choice for the day was a very good one.

Rivers (29th Oct):

Upper Mataura - brown dirty in am (due to stopbank works above fairlight) clearing later in day.

Oreti - discoloured in am clearing and fishable by afternoon above Mossburn

Mararoa - clear and low/medium flow

The fishing has been excellent during the last week but the ability to dodge weather has been of the upmost importantance. Fish in all the rivers have been very accepting to most standard nymph patterns.

The backcountry rivers open this Saturday the 1st of November 2008.

Tight Lines.

Improving weather in The Southern NZ regions

Since the 1st week and a half of the fishing season the weather has improved (for the time being) down here in the lower third of the South Island. This has created a vast improvement in water clarity and all the rivers and streams are clean at present.

I have visited quite a lot of waters in the last week thru West Otago and Northern and Western Southland - all have been clear and fishing well although flows are quite large still (be careful on your crossings). The fishing has been good and we have been able to sight and catch many fish using standard nymphing techniques. A few trout have sucumbed to the dry fly as well.

As normal at this time of year some of those little hidden gems are the place to be as they are holding fish while they carry good early season water flows.

The trout themselves are a mixed bag with some very well conditioned trout and some trout needing to work hard over the next 2 months to put their condition back on.

There is still plenty of snow to melt off the mountains so we will see some high, dislcoloured water soon enough again - remember you can still find clean water usually and there is always the option to fish a streamer fly.

In 10 days most of the South Island New Zealand back country rivers open.......

Tight Lines

New Zeland Southern Spring Weather and fly fishing

Yesterday I had the opportunity to drop down to the Lumsden accommodation and do some work around the yard etc and then took off from there on a big circuit checking water out.

Upper Mataura - big flow and green murk - no sight fishing - fishable
Lower Mataura - Big flow green/brown - no sight fishing - worm country!
Oreti @ Lumsden - Big flow green/brown - no sight fishing - Woolly buggers and worm country
Oreti @ Mossburn - Big flow green/brown - no sight fishing- Woolly buggers and worm country
Aparima - Big flow brown - no sight fishing - Woolly buggers and worm country
Hamilton Burn - Big brown - no sight fishing - Woolly buggers and worm country
Waraki - Medium flow - clean - sight fishing
Borland - Medium/big flow - tan clean - semi sight fishing
Lower Waiu - Big flow - brown - no sight fishing - woolly buggers and worm country
Mararoa - Big flow - brown - no sight fishing - woolly buggers and worm country
Upper Waiau - Big Flow - clean

More rain overnight turned to snow this morning for a short period so more water has been sent into the catchments and when it warms up again there will be plenty of melt coming off too.

The NZ Southern Fishing Season is open

1st of October finally arrived in Queenstown. After 2 weeks of stormy wet and nasty weather we were expecting some big water. As it turned out the day dawned to heavy rain turning to snow to 300m and then dropping back to a biting SW wind. Our drive South saw us looking at a great deal of water and found all of it big and dirty (a worm fisherman's dream). We decided to drop into my fishing crib and get it set up before driving around for more exploring. 1700 saw us on a water a good long jumper could get across and a fish was spotted and hooked 1st cast and in the ensuing battle the fisherman forgot felts were banned and he was in rubber soles - turned around like a ballet dancer and promptly crashed to his knees smacking one on a sharp stone (right on the knee cap) - a yell followed quickly by an appeal to come and take over the rod end up in us both working a very nice 4lb brown trout to the bank. It was time to go home and get the voltaren to work and some whisky to celebrate our opening and the team work required to get this fish on one hell of a nasty opening day.

2nd of October was meant to be a corker but the next front moved in faster than expected and we woke to more howling winds and decided to leg it to an area that just might have cleanish water and might get us some shelter - but a serious 4wd track to get there with the possibility of getting stuck. This approach worked - we didn't get stuck and we found ourselves hooking a few more fish in a great scenic location.

The 3rd saw us heading to another point of the compass to get out of the still vicious winds to one of my little back up areas and a couple more fish out of clean but big water - no wind tho and time to head home and shelter. The drive home saw lots more dirty water and continuing high winds and today the 4th was another storm coming in with heavy rain.

Oh the fun and joys of spring time fishing