Pomahaka readily gives up its trout
ONCE again, prospects are good for fishing at the weekend. The rivers that I have seen over the last week that have looked promising are the Pomahaka, Taieri, Waipahi and Waitaki.
All were at a good level and clear.
With longer hours of daylight, fishing an evening rise is worthwhile, there is always the possibility of a hatch of duns, a fall of spinners and most likely a hatch of sedge. The sedge fishing is best in twilight and on into darkness.
The giveaway of a sedge action is the splashy rises trout make while intercepting adult sedges as they skitter along the surface.
Sometimes the fish are preoccupied with sedge pupae as they swim to the surface to hatch out, so if your adult sedge imitation is not working try a pupa imitation.
Cast upstream of a rise, let it sink for a couple of seconds then lift the rod gently. This pulls the pupa to the top imitating the naturals and if a trout sees it there will be a solid take.
Even when the trout are taking pupae, they will break the surface, which can give the angler the impression they are feeding on the adult on the surface.
It is also a good idea to fish a strong tippet to avoid breakoffs on the take.
Most of the best sedge fishing I have had over the years has been on slow flat water. Slow flat water tends to be deeper and will hold better fish.
I went fishing on Wednesday, even though the weather looked bleak.
It was a tossup between the Mataura and the Pomahaka.
After checking the regional council websites, I went for the Pomahaka, as it was further from the coast and more likely to miss the rain.
It was lower than the Mataura and the strong wind would be upstream. There is nothing like logic — when it works.
When I got to the river it had the slightest tinge of colour, despite the flow being not far above summer level, but not enough to spoil the fishing.
The last time I fished the Pomahaka was on January 22 this year and since then the river had big floods in February and the effects on the river are obvious, with a lot of bank erosion and big trees bowled over.
Luckily, trout survive such events and one such trout was in a small backwater where I started and it took the hare’s ear nymph as if it had been practising for weeks.
It was a while before I saw another, several in fact cruising over an area of silt and they took the nymph, too.
Then the water suddenly began to colour up.
So I headed back to the car, only to find a large stretch of bank had collapsed into the river and above that was clear.
Luckily there were no more incidents to spoil the rest of the day.