Making the most of continuing ideal conditions

THE golden weather continues for us anglers and the only down side is that we will take even more badly to less pleasant conditions when they inevitably arrive.

I suppose we will just have to make the most of things until then.

At the time of writing all waters are fishable and the mayflies that I mentioned last week are appearing with spinner falls in the morning and I presume that the duns are hatching in the evening, as I have seen only a few during the day.

Fishing is hard for spin fishers in these conditions but using small dull lures in the ripples should produce fish.

I have seen trout chasing inanga on the lower Taieri and targeting those with such a lure should work.

There is little rain on the horizon, so the weekend should be ideal but as always it is best to make up our mind where to fish on the day when you have checked the relevant websites.

How did we ever do without the websites?

Being retired, I have more opportunities to fish and have been out a couple of times in the last week. The first outing was with Murray on the Mataura.

When we dream about fishing, we always imagine a sunny day with no wind and the water in perfect order, well just to prove it can really happen that is how Sunday turned out.

I started on a favourite ripple covering all the likely water with a pair of nymphs but it was some time before one of them was taken.

Midmorning spinners appeared in good numbers and the odd trout began to sip them from the surface. Putting on a spinner imitation, I waited until a fish rose then got the fly in front of it as quickly as possible, as they were moving around in the slack water.

I had several refusals which I put down to the visibility of the leader in the bright sun but I landed enough to indicate I was doing the right thing.

In one spot, several fish were rising in a small area and after failing to hook two takes, not another fish would come to the fly. Luckily, the fish in the afternoon were more obliging.

There were right up in the shallow ripples and took the nymph readily.

The other outing was with Trevor Millar on the lower Taieri.

The water was low and clear and the weather was calm and cloudy. There were fish rising from the start, just dimpling the surface.

I fished an unweighted nymph and although I spooked a few fish I did get some to take.

Landing them was another story, on hooking the fish most of them jumped high in the air and threw the hook.

About noon the weather began to cool and a breeze sprang up and the fish stopped rising and it seemed like a good time to pack up.

A pleasant morning and we were happy with four fish between us.