Sunny skies carry a lead lining
Wild side
Geez, it’s been hot out on the river lately. Some days fishing has been really hard work in baking hot, almost scorching conditions.
It has been a stellar burst of weather over the past month with near-record temperatures but the downside has seen dwindling rivers and increasing water temperatures that make trout lethargic at best and nonexistent at worst.
Low flows and increasing water temperatures see trout moving into faster, more highly oxygenated water to function but when the water gets really tepid, trout will hide under logs and rocks, seek shade, cooler inflowing streams or springs, migrate, or in worst case scenarios, die.
In the ideal world of a trout, feeding is best undertaken in water temperatures of 12-18 degrees Celsius but lately afternoon water temperatures in many lowland rivers are regularly exceeding 20 degrees.
Once river water hits 22 degrees plus, then most fish life is in mortal danger, with water in the mid 20’s being a death-zone.
Even alpine or mountain rivers have been getting too warm lately, and we aren’t even into mid summer yet.
Ironically, New Zealand’s moderate year-round water temperatures are what made our fishery famous in the first place because trout can grow year-round and aren’t stunted by harsh northern hemisphere continental winters.
Alas, the advancing impacts of ongoing climate change are upon us, with increasing extremes of temperature and rainfall, causing increasingly severe flooding that scours out river habitat and fish life, and heat-waves that send summer river temperatures soaring into the stratosphere.
When you mix in the cumulative effects of 150 years of riparian mismanagement in New Zealand, it’s no wonder that our trout fishing resource isn’t getting any better.
But hey, you need to go fishing to catch trout and recent conditions have been a delight most days with bright hot sunny days and low flows which allows for easy wading and concentrates fish into smaller areas.
Wading wet is the way to go with light nylon pants, long sleeved shirts, wide brimmed hat, and lashings of sunscreen and lip balm. Some days we’ve even gone swimming at lunch time.
Pete Gamble of Melbourne, Australia is a great guy to take fishing but the hot weather and comatose half-baked trout made for tough catching.
Our first day was pretty much a disaster in the luke warm waters of the Maruia. Our farmer friend John, had never seen the river so low at this time of year, and the farm was parched and dry desperately needing rain to grow grass to feed stock and make hay.
Another farmer friend noted that the best growing months of the season were now past, and they had virtually no hay, a long hot summer ahead, and a bleak winter prognosis beckoning. Luckily we were only fishing but the intense heat radiating off the ground and rocks was stifling, and you could have fried eggs on the metal cover of my Hilux load lid.
Day two was another scorcher when we climbed down the bank into the Otututu or Rough River near the West Coast town of Ikamatua.
The fishing was fairly ordinary as we worked our way upstream so we tried to enjoy some of the other pleasures of being outside while fishing instead.
Pete is interested in a total experience not just the trout so I explained how my grandfather and his brothers, and their father before them had carved the farm land around us out of native forest with axe, saw, and fire.
The fallow deer are long gone now, annihilated by incessant waves of 1080 poisoning, but fishing up into the edge of the rainforest at the Mirfin’s Creek confluence an animal was splashing about in the water. The large pig didn’t hang about and swam the river in front of us and bolted into the forest.
Around the corner we saw some goats and had fun stalking in close and calling them closer with imitation goat bleats. We even caught trout, fishing the fast oxygenated water, before a long boulder-hopping session to get back to the truck at day’s end. At 3pm water temperatures had reached 22 degrees Celsius.
That night I worried about where to go the next day given the heat, low flows, high water temperatures, and hard-boiled trout but salvation came in the form of a cold bleak day, strong winds, and driving rain.
What a difference a day makes as nature responded to our change of fortune. The trout were feeding hard and Pete was hitting fishing form. Wet and sodden, we couldn’t quite manage our tenth trout landed before retreating to the truck for warmth and dry clothes. Maybe our luck was about to change.
Heading to Canterbury, the rain had also benefitted the rivers.
The stifling heat and hot earth had gone and the rivers noticeably cooler than the previous days. Trout were active again and Pete’s two best trout were the biggest he’d ever caught after a lifetime of fly fishing.
The true highlight of the day was an errant back cast that saw me wearing a dry fly impaled to the barb in the bridge of my nose. Back at the truck we were able to rip the hook out and celebrate with a cold beer.
We had more days to fish and hoped that it would rain again soon, and often ...