The couple that trout fishes together . . .
FRAN Davies has fallen hook, line and sinker back in love with trout fishing.
In a world where female anglers are in a minority, she has reeled in her partner Joe Williams for the adventure.
“It’s usually the other way around,” Miss Davies said.
“Fishing is the ultimate date night. It is a lot cheaper and more exciting than going to the movies.”
The trout season opens today, and the Dunedin couple are looking forward to fishing rivers and lakes in the South.
Miss Davies said her passion for trout fishing began as a child.
“My dad took me fishing on the Clutha River as a kid, but I have only recently rediscovered my love of fishing.”
Childhood holidays involved camping beside the river, “getting up early, staying up late, long hours staring at the end of the fishing rod. It was all I wanted to do. It was me and my dad”.
Miss Davies said she “fell out of love” with fishing in her early teens and came back to the activity two years ago.
A month ago, she and Mr Williams signed up for a beginner spinfishing class run by Otago Fish & Game. Now they are extending their skills through a flyfishing course with Mike Weddell.
Fishing created opportunities to explore areas that she otherwise might not, and to connect with nature, she said.
“It’s a good opportunity to destress. It’s good for your mental health and wellbeing. Plus once you’ve got a bit of gear it’s a cheap activity, too.”
Miss Davies had noticed more women getting into fishing.
“It can be quite empowering to catch a fish, learn a skill such as that, and pass it on to your friends and family.
“I’d encourage women to give it a go.”
An estimated 30% of New Zealand freshwater anglers were female, Otago Fish & Game officer Bruce Quirey said.
Fish & Game was working to broaden the angling demographic across gender and ethnic groups.
“Our research has found most people are introduced to fishing by a family member or significant other,” Mr Quirey said.
“We encourage anglers to take others along this season. It’s a truly satisfying experience to share these skills,” he said.
There were other ways for people to learn about fishing, such as free online videos and information from Fish & Game, enrolling in a course, or joining a fishing club.
“If you’re lucky, your fishing buddy may even be the love of your life.”
I REALLY like elderflower cordial. What has this got to do with fishing, I can hear you ask?
Well, there is blossom on the elder tree in the back garden, weeks earlier than normal due to the very mild spring.
So mild that when I checked the temperature of the Taieri River at Outram this week it was 13degC, which is 45degC warmer than normal for this time of year.
This is good news for the angler — trout will be feeding throughout the day, giving us greater opportunities to catch them.
Normally trout would not start until the water temperature reached 910degC, which would occur late morning. But as things stand, they will be on the feed much earlier.
Their favourite food, mayflies, will also be hatching by the middle of the day instead of midafternoon. Even better than that, the weather forecast for opening day is fine and mild.
River levels are also lower than would be expected for opening, making it easier to spot fish and cover more of the water.
The lack of big floods in the winter means there will be plenty of food available for trout. The only rivers that were hit hard with high water were the East and North Otago streams, but they should have recovered over the latter part of winter.
All this means that we have plenty of waters to choose from for opening and a better chance of catching fish regardless of the method employed.
In recent years still water has been the choice for opening with most rivers being high and coloured, but not this year — all waters are fishable as long as nothing goes wrong overnight.
Murray Smart and I have had a couple of practice sessions in September. The first was on the lower Clutha on the opening of the whitebait season. We did not see any whitebait but we saw a lot of whitebaiters.
Luckily, we did find some obliging trout which rounded out a perfect sunny day.
The next session was earlier this week when we fished Sullivans Dam, which again was a lovely sunny day — although we saw very few rises.
The fish appeared to be feeding down deep and they took damsel fly nymph that was given plenty of time to sink before starting the retrieve.
All the dams have been stocked recently and hold plenty of nice rainbows — Southern Reservoir probably has the greatest concentration of trout.