A special experience in the pools of the Mataura

TROUT FISHING

four to five metres deep. The water is cold, much of the flow must be coming from groundwater sources. It is as clear as gin.

The bed has a mixture of brown algae species covering the stones. None of it is didymo. It does not smother the bed in great mats, just thinly, providing sustenance for mayflies and caddis. On calm days the mayflies emerge and dance over the shining waters. Their party has uninvited guests, young black-fronted terns, beautiful and graceful to us, but as deadly to the party as a fire caused by drunken revelry.

Trout, too, are party-poopers, swirling as they swallow drifting mayflies, before they can complete the Gay Gordons. I always feel a sense of satisfaction when I take a trout that is feeding on mayflies as it allows others to at least complete their dancing.

Not that it is easy to turn the

‘‘I always feel a sense of satisfaction when I take a trout that is feeding on mayflies as it allows others to at least complete their dancing. ’’

tables on a Mataura brown trout. In the clear water the trout find the difference between a real mayfly and a fake easy to detect. They can see an angler on the bank easily too. A fish that is close to the surface, feeding regularly on mayflies, will drop downstream if a suspicious fly appears in its window. It’s looking for a familiar hunched figure on the bank. Once confirmed they slink away into the depths. I am sure they do this purposefully, and know what they are looking for. Some time after you move away they begin their feeding again.

The Mataura is popular with other anglers too, for all of the aforementioned reasons.

Meeting another angler on the river at this time of the year is a high likelihood. Rather than making the day less enjoyable this can make it better. Most anglers are gentlemen and meeting one to talk about the fishing, exchange flies and advice, then to share the river does make trout fishing a special experience, trout or no trout.