David's Blog on trout fishing on the Mataura River, Southland, New Zealand

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21 February 2021
It was a very tough week, I thought I would concentrate on the lower Mataura, check out it has changed as there have been three good floods through it since the big one last February. I have managed to get a look at all of it below Mataura and the changes are immense, some for the better but other good spots have just disappeared.

The weather has been superb, sunny and hot, not great for fishing but good for seeing into the water and what I saw was not a lot of trout. Maybe the floods have knocked a few of them out but when the hatches start in a couple or three weeks this should give us an idea of numbers.

I saw nothing rise all week except a few in a couple of foam lines, I was not surprised with the warm weather and mainly NW winds, "When the wind is in the north you don't venture forth". I managed the few in the photos out of the foam lines but boy did I lose fish this week, striking to quick possibly and also just coming off for no reason I could see but still fun if a wee bit frustrating. I probably could have nailed a few more by nymphing but I am enjoying just wandering around the river looking for rises without the pressure of guiding. Nothing has been happening in the early mornings either.

I have added a photo of Greville with a trout out of the Motueka, he has been having some good fishing up there, the Motueka is a river very similar to the the Mataura. I have also added a short video of me playing our pet trout, Mike is still playing around with these videos and he is going to try and get them longer.

Tight lines
David

14 February 2021
It was another rough week, the Mataura almost perfect and then it was up and just a tad too high so that combined with some strong winds and some must watch cricket I only got out once this week. Mike and I went to the only small stream that was in good order and a light east wind that was just perfect.

In fact it was getting a wee bit low, much lower than when we were in here last week and there were not a lot of fish up, it was very hot so maybe that had something to do with it. Again they were not all locked into willow grubs, Mike was under orders to keep a couple of fish for the "On the Fly", Mataura river festival next Saturday, some fancy chef is going to cook them up, we didn't like doing it but it gave us a chance to see what these fish are eating, also that's why Mike got most of the shots.

The first one was obviously on willow grubs but he still took Mike's brown biot bodied #16 parachute and sure enough he was full of them so they will still take other flies. The second one took the same fly and he was full of stick caddis, one cicada and one willow grub, see photo. I have had a brief love affair with the grubs but that is over now, we have proved that trout can be taken on proper dry flies and if they can't well just move on and find one that will, it is much more enjoyable.

If you look carefully at the trout I am holding, compare him with a fish last week and one Mike is holding, it is the same trout, we have caught him in exactly the same place the last three trips, he sits in a fast shallow run which comes out under the willow in the picture of me holding him. He is obviously scoffing willow grubs and we have tried those to no avail but he took an #18 parachute with a black post first cast, the second time he took the same fly first cast except it had a pink post, see last weeks blog. Yesterday he wouldn't look at anything I cast, willow grub, same wee parachute but he took a caddis looking thing that Mike cast, it was yellowy in colour and maybe he took it for a grub. Anyway he was returned unhurt, he is now our official pet and mate.

Tight lines
David

8 February 2021
We have been poking around small streams this week, I tried the Mataura three times in select spots when conditions were perfect and not a nose was to be seen. I was not expecting duns because it is too warm at this time of the year but there should have been spinners because the times I tried were warm, cloudy and no wind. I will continue to check as next month should see some afternoon dun hatches starting to appear.

Mike and I did a couple of small streams expecting to see everything locked into willow grubs, they are taking them to be sure but they are still quite happy to take other flies. For example I had one that was rising well, obviously to the grub and I must have put a dozen casts over him. I was certain I had covered him so I put on one of Mike Lee's for want of a better name we call "hangy downies", see photo, #18 and he took it first cast, this was early morning so I left the fly on and hooked everything else on it.

One morning Mike and I started off by catching a fish each on willow grubs then we could not get them to look at them so we went back to our Klinks and caught fish for the rest of the morning. I think this was the morning we hooked 8/9 but only landed three, they broke off in weed, came off and one even came charging down through Mike's legs and that was the end of that! So we gave up using willow grub patterns and ended up hooking fish on all sorts, Mike even hooked one on a Love's lure of all things.

We found the mornings best, we got there around 7.30 and fished until around just after lunch as the afternoons this week just got too hot. As I write it is raining and it looks like some more tomorrow, it won't hurt as it will freshen the small streams up, the Mataura is at a good level right now.

Tight lines
David

31 January 2021
It has been a tough week with rivers only just starting to come right, I went out on Friday for the first time, the Mataura was almost at normal and it was a very cold, showery SW. I thought there might be some mayflies coming off in the arvo but not a head or mayfly was to be seen, in desperation I swung a wee bead head nymph down a long beach but touched nothing.

Saturday was a gorgeous day, light east wind that would suit a small stream that in spite of being still a wee bit cloudy was at a good level. Mike could not start until after midday, we were expecting willow grub madness but as we walked downstream to a section we had not fished before we never saw a rise. In fact I think we only saw a couple of trout that you could say were genuinely on the grubs. Maybe it was the cold and rain of the week had had an effect on them, I don't know but I am going to do the same stretch again tomorrow just to see if they appear.

We walked down and gave ourselves enough room for an easy fish back up to the car, with no trout up on willow grubs it was just a matter of moving up slowly and stopping at likely water looking for rises Nothing much doing for a few pools, just some dinks until we got to a pool where two trout were rising regularly, Mike hooked the first one on a #14 black Klinkhammer and as he was landing it there were what looked like house flies in his net and on the water so the black klink was a good match. I tried for the second one with my Dad's but he wouldn't look at it and soon drifted away, should have used the black Klink.

There was a trout rising along the bank in the next pool so I put on a black Klink and he took first cast. There was no more evidence of these flies but every fish we hooked for the rest of the arvo took the black klinks and took them well, the fly was always deep in the mouth. There were not trout rising everywhere but every now and again we would find one rising now and again along the bank, if one had moved to quickly it would have been easy to miss them.

Mike landed everything he hooked except for one which came off, I landed one but had dramas in weed and general clumsiness but it was one of those fabulous afternoons that couldn't be measured in numbers of fish in the net. Talking about weed there was not that much around, certainly not as much as there was before Xmas, I guess two big floods saw to that.

The weather looks great for the next week so hopefully the rivers and the fishing will come right.

Tight lines
David

24 January
What a terrible week, another flood almost as bad as the one three weeks ago and the Mataura was still clearing as this one hit. Not a river near me that I could fish, although there are a couple of very small spring creeks I could have visited but the wind and rain precluded that.
So I have nothing to report but I have put up the two flies that caught me fish in the middle of the willow grub madness, the Adams Iresistable was a #18 and is a fly I have not used for years but I am going to float it a lot more in future. The other was a black bodied Humpy in #16 and that caught too, the other fly is one I liked the look of from Hunting & Fishing, it is a Humpy with a peacock body which I shall copy, I have not fished it yet.

If you are wondering about flies I talk about, for example the Dunedin dun, scroll back to the beginning of this season's blog and there are some photos of my basic flies there.
One other thing I did when I was fishing willow grub patterns the week before last was to tie a tiny white wool indicator about a foot from the fly. It didn't catch me any fish but at least I knew exactly where my fly was, something that is impossible to do with a wee fly and a 15'
plus leader.
I hope I can find some where to fish this coming week.

Tight lines
David

17 January 2021

It has taken the main river a long time to clear, it was a very silty flood this one, even the backwater I use when the river is high was discoloured, it is coming right slowly but I don't like the look of the weather for next week. Although a bit of cool weather won't hurt the small streams and even the big river as this last week has been very hot indeed for Southland.

I wrote last week about the various things you have to watch for when trout are rising on the lower Mataura so I thought I might elaborate a wee bit. Hatches are not often what they seem, I remember being bluffed several years ago by what looked like a normal dun hatch, emergers, floating nymphs and dun patterns were being ignored before I did what I should have done earlier. I waded out and stuck my nose to the water and sure enough there was the answer, there were spent spinners on the water, not many but they were easier to take than the duns and that was what they were on.

I did small streams the four days I fished this week, I started early to beat the heat and finished early, these streams right now are willow grub heaven or hell depending on which way you look at it. They are tough too, one would think that with the lack of pressure they could be a tad easier but no, using the same willow grub patterns which worked last season on the same waters I have been skunked! The only flies that worked for me this week were some #16 brown bodied Humpys and of all things and the most successful were #18 Irresistibles, a fly I have not used for years, so I guess there must be some beetles around.

The other two things I noticed was how spooky they were, usually they hang around and ignore what is going on but I found that after a few casts they would just move away, maybe my casting is getting rougher as I get older. Also usually they will pick away at the grubs all day but twice this week they stopped completely around midday, one minute they were going full on and the next there was not a fish in sight. Mind you I am not complaining as it has been absolutely absorbing fishing, big browns with every spot on them visible in the sunlit water and I saw my third angler for the season on Tuesday.

Tight lines
David

10 January 2021

A happy new year to everyone, as I write this there is not a fishable river near me at all, there was a huge amount of rain at the end of the month, mainly north of Gore that put everything out. Luckily there was a test match that week and I have not fished anywhere since, there was a test match the week before as well but when the river was good I would go out early, around 7.30 and make it back for start of play at 11.00.

This worked well because as I keep repeating the mornings are the best time to be out, I made it a practice to go to a different spot each morning, sometimes there was some action and rarely nothing happened. I could have caught a lot more trout by nymphing but I have not caught a fish on a nymph so far all season, not through any purist ideals, more sheer laziness. I am content just to wander down to a new spot and if anything is rising try and catch it. The idea of going to new spots was to get a handle on the river after the February floods and I was well on my way to achieving this goal and now the latest floods have probably made these trips irrelevant.

One morning I arrived at the long pool in the photo, trout were rising, this was about 8.00am, I immediately thought spinners because that is what I have been seeing in the mornings and I had one on but then I caught sight of a single dun lifting off. I put on my #18 parachute Dad's favourite and thought this will do the job but I didn't touch a trout. They could be on floating nymphs or emergers I thought so I put on that old stand by a Dunedin dun, there are photos of this fly in earlier blogs, an unweighted pheasant tail looks much the same and would do the same job. I was immediately into fish and caught several before they started to ignore it even though they were still rising so back to the dad's and I was catching trout again. I just tell this typical tale to illustrate how you have to be aware of how the trout on the lower Mataura will change their feeding pattern over a short period of time.

The Dunedin dun came about as a result of meeting an angler on the lower Mataura over twenty years ago, the dun hatch had just finished and he showed me what he had been using and gave me a couple. I did not know his name but I knew he was from Dunedin so that was how the fly got it's name, often when you think they are on emergers they are actually taking the rising nymphs just under the surface before they turn into emergers and this is where this fly comes into its own.

The photos in this blog are a cross section of what I was catching before the flood came, all the Mataura trout have been in good condition. I was reminded of a technique I use for rigging my leader up, I was shown this by a client many years ago and have used it ever since and never think about it but I was watching a short video of Chris Dore's and he was demonstrating the same method. It is great for the long leaders we use, quickly into action without pulling leaders out through the rings and avoiding getting tangled in all the long grass we have on our stream sides now. When I reel up I hook the fly into about the 5th guide from to top of the rod, then I loop the rear of the leader around the reel and wind it all up. Most anglers do this but the fly usually goes into a guide not far up the rod. When it is up on the 4th/5th guide all you do is un loop the leader from around the reel, drop the tip of the rod down a bit and sharply tap the cork handle just where it joins the start of the rod. The fly will fall out and you are ready to cast, as the Dillmah man says "Do try it".

Tight Lines

David

20 December 2020
I only got a couple of outings in this week, there were several days of nasty NW that kept me home for the rest of it but there were some very pleasant hours spent when I did get out. It is nice to get out just for quality time and a few trout caught and then I can remember all the details, everyday and heaps of fish becomes a blur.

I hit a small stream early in the week, the wind was meant to be easterly which would have been perfect but it turned out to be NW which is a killer on this stream. I managed to find a sheltered stretch and hooked two out of the first pool, one out of the tail which took off downstream and came off. There was another at the head of the pool which I thought was a small fish but turned out to be a cracker as I got a good look at him before he broke me off under some flax bushes and that was that.

I walked up to the pool in the photo and took a 2lber out of the tail, all these trout took the #18 red bodied comparadun. There was a fish rising now and again just above the willow on the left in the photo, I was standing under the tree so he never saw me but I could see every spot on him. I don't normally spend much time on a fish but as I could see every movement he made I persevered for over an hour. I think I cast just about every fly in my box, sometimes he would lift and look and once I thought he took, I even cast a couple of nymphs, I think he might have been on willow grubs but he never moved for any I cast. I gave up in the end but it was rather fun, I have heard from a reliable source that trout are on willow grub in slower pools on the Waikaia.
I also gave this trout various beetles but nothing, normally at this time of the year they don't hesitate to take a beetle but I have caught nothing with a beetle this season, I have talked to other fishermen and they all say the same.

I had a great morning on the Mataura on Thursday morning, they were on spinners again, I had an email from a mate last week who had had a great time on spinners in another part of the Mataura the same morning I had. It then went dead for him after lunch, the same as me so the message is get out in the morning, it happened again on Thursday, fish up but it was all over by 1.00pm. I took several small, stroppy sea runs, see photos and some good trout along the bank in the photo, at this time of the year you will be lucky to see big hatches in open water but with a kind wind banks like the one in the photo will always have some action in the morning.

I got a lot of feedback on tying comparaduns so I have put up some instructions below from my mate Mike lee who I consider a master tier even though he does not think so. I have also put up a couple of photos that Greville sent me from "somewhere on the West Coast".

Tight lines
David

Some great deer hair wing tie tips from Mike Lee

Hi David,
Your responders example is a nice tie. Great quill body!
But to make sure the deer hair wing stays 90 degrees to the hook shank, here are some methods I use.
First. Wax tread base on hook shank.
For a size 16, use good sparkle dun coastal short hollow deer hair.
Cut a deer hair swatch a bit smaller in diameter than a pencil. If too much deer hair, it will twist around shank and not spring up when you cinch it in.
Wing as long as body or a bit more. Use pinch method to secure hair on top of hook. Not around. Good ole, pull thread up, pinch, pull thread down other side of hair. Repinch. Pull straight down, pull up and pinch again, then cinch with several strong wraps. Don’t spin your thread clockwise to decrease diameter on thread. Tight thread will cut deer hair.
After tied in, trim butts at an angle to avoid the dreaded bump step. Wrap to secure. Then pull hair back towards rear of hook. Pull back the back half of hair. I separate with bodkin. Then cinch the remaining front half of hair. Right in front of initial cinch. This will flare the remaining hair. Don’t let cinch twist hair around hook. Want all on top.
Now pull all the hair back towards rear. Beyond vertical.
Then create tapered layer of thread, front to back to make thread dam holding hair back. Ok if past vertical back. The laws of physics and nature want to make the hair flop forward despite all our best laid plans.
I glue the thread dam into base of hairs.
Now move thread to back of wing. Coax stray hairs into 180 degree fan position
Now you can tie in some aero wing or cheaper poly translucent grey fibers right behind wing. This boosts wing density with little bulk and won’t push wing forward.
Craig Mathews uses sane diameter for wing and trailing shuck. I trim the back part out a bit so shuck doesn’t look so bulky. If you want regular mayfly tail, like comparadun, trim aero wing fibers at angle to enable tapered body.
Then wrap body and wrap dense but thin dubbing to sandwich wing. This is where stray deer hairs can be moved into proper position or... executed.
Be sure to get a few tight wraps of tight dubbing in front of wing for your last preventative measure against dreaded wing droop.
Here’s some photos. Note myriad of special request “sparkle dun” deer hair patches I’ve collected.. only a few work great.

13 December 2020
I only got out three times last week but I am very picky when I fish these days, not as it was when I was guiding and had to go whatever the conditions. Although I can remember many times when you wouldn't have left the house personally but went because you had a client and had a fabulous day but now I like to have the sun and the wind to my back.

I went to a small stream early in the week and was staggered at how low and weedy it had become since I was there last. The trout of course were pretty spooky but even so I managed to hook six, I only landed one two came off and the others buried themselves in the weed. Fabulous fishing as I had had a go at a lot more than the six I hooked, all on spinners, you must be sick of me going on about spinners but that is what is happening. I think the duns are hatching at night, they must be to produce the huge numbers of spinners I see on calm mornings and in the evening. My theory is that it is warmer now with climate change, the deleatidium duns like it cooler so they are changing their habits, hence hatching at night.

I am really enjoying fishing now, purely for it's own sake, when I was guiding and fishing on my days off I was always looking at water from a guiding point of view, always thinking how a client could handle this stretch and prospecting for them. I was also worried that guiding might have buggered up my personal fishing but thankfully no and I now wander the river without a thought except enjoying it for what it is. By the way I have only seen two other anglers on any Southland waters since the beginning of October.

I went out the next evening on the Mataura just below my house, it had been a gusty NW all day and then just after dinner the wind dropped to a dead calm about 7.00pm. They were really going on spinners, I have not yet come to terms with the Mataura since the Feb. flood and have not really fished it this season so this pool was a bit deeper than it used to be. So I couldn't get close enough to them although I managed to hook one that strayed over my way.

I had a fabulous session on Thursday morning, there was not a breath of wind so I shot down to a pool just along the road from home and what do you know the water was covered with spinners again, there wasn't enough room to put a fist down. I got there about 9.30 maybe I should have got there an hour earlier, from now on until the hatches start in March/April I much prefer the Mataura in the mornings, often the wind gets up in the arvo and shuts things down.

I caught a bunch of trout, good trout too on various #18 spinner patterns, I even used a classic spent spinner pattern, it you look closely you can see it in a trout's jaw, this spent style does work well but I prefer something I can see, especially when there are a lot of naturals on the water. I took a few photos of some of the fish just to show you what they are like, that morning and the other evening are the first time I have seen anything happening on the Mataura. It was starting to get low and that could be a factor, unfortunately rain and snow upstream has put it up a bit but it will certainly help the small streams.

Tight lines
David

6 December 2020
I only went out once this week, Tuesday was a lovely day, Mon/Wed were rather windy and then we had a cricket test starting on Thursday. Being the cricket tragic I am, I'll even watch beach cricket so that was the end of the fishing for the week.

I have 4/5 main small streams that I concentrate on and I spread my time on them, not over fishing any of them, where I go depends on where I fished last and weather conditions. I went to one I don't fish often and nor does anyone else according to the farmer, it was a beautiful day and I got there about 8.30. I wandered along some [pools and absolutely nothing was happening and I was contemplating going somewhere else when all of a sudden just before 10.00 there were spinners everywhere. I walked back down to where I had started and the pool in the photo was full of rising fish.

They were on spinners obviously but as I had an #18 parachute dad's on from the last time I fished and being a lazy bugger I put it over the first couple of trout several times. I doubt these trout had ever seen a fly but they were having none of this dun nonsense so I put on an #18 red bodied comparadun that Mike Lee had tied and the tail end trout took it the first time it went over him, thanks Mike. I have never really mastered tying comparaduns, even after expert tuition and the best deer you can get for them, they are a great fly but I have never enjoyed tying them and that's the problem. I took 5 more trout out of that pool on the same fly, they are the fish in the photos as there was an easy beach to lay them in the water, take a quick shot and let them go. They were not big, maybe 2/3lbs but it was fabulous fishing seeing them clearly as they rose in the sunlight to take the fly.

I have noticed that on these small streams even when there is a heavy spinner fall the trout are only rising in certain pools even though the spinners are everywhere. Lovely, long ,slow pools nothing but other rather ordinary pools usually a bit faster and more shallow the trout are going nuts. You have probably noticed I have stopped using my Hardy Perfect reel, Greville likes quiet reels and although I like the clatter when a fish runs, stripping line to cast was so I changed to a Ross reel and I must admit I am enjoying the quiet now myself.

The rainbow was one of several my mate Paul caught somewhere in the Mararoa after he left me, he said the fishing was good in spite of the didymo, I must give it a go sometime, I used to love the Mararoa and I have not fished it since it got didymo.
Tight lines
David

29 November 2020
All rivers and streams are in perfect condition, we are getting a wee bit of rain which is topping up the small streams and quite a bit of wind which is not helping but overall things are looking good. For some reason the Mataura and the Waikaia are not firing, nothing is rising, I sat on a prime sheltered spot on the Mataura on Friday, cold SW, showers, perfect but not a mayfly or a rise to be seen. The nymphing seems to be OK as my mate went into the nearest ripple, a fairly ordinary one too while we were waiting and he hit three in quick succession. My spies tell me the Waikaia is the same and still carrying a wee tinge of colour.

But the small streams have been fantastic, plenty of good fish and rising well to lots of spinners in the mornings which seem to dribble off during the day with often another peak later, not a lot of duns with them though. I have put up the spinner patterns I use but I never use the spent version, see photo but I tried one last week in an #18 and it caught well, not as easy to see as the parachute version but it does not matter in a small stream. If I see a rise near where I think my fly is I just tighten up, not too hard just in case it is not mine.

A mate of mine came touring with his Ford Ranger with a camper van thingy on the back with all the mod cons so we took off for four days, the weather was great and we did small streams and the Oreti. I have not fished the Oreti for twenty years and probably won't for another twenty but it was interesting and fun, we arrived at the C/R zone and there was not a soul there, in fact we never saw another angler anywhere over the whole four days. The day was perfect, full sun, wind a tad strong but behind us so we did the "Lincoln Hill" beat, we saw about 25/30 trout and that included the ones in the deep holes. Anything we cast to either bolted at the sight of a fly or just sat there and ignored us but anything out and feeding was quite happy to take a dry. We caught some, lost some, screwed up plenty all on #14 blowfly humpys but it is an awful death march for a few spooky trout, the equivalent of which can be caught much closer to home. Mind you these are just the comments of an 80 year old man, I was just chuffed that I could actually walk up there and out!

The spinner pattern is just, cock hackle tail, red biot body, I put some glue along the shank before I wrap the biot, tie in a strand of aerowing, dub a thorax, trim the wings and that's it, I tie them in #18's but #16 would be just fine.

Tight lines
David

22 November 2020
I had a lovely afternoon with Mike on a small stream early in the week, no wind and they were on spinners, feeding well but not easy as you only get a couple of shots at them. I had one though that kept moving around under a willow and I thought I had put it down several times but it was just not seeing the fly, finally it was over his nose and it was taken. Mike took a wee video of me hooking one, I have put it up so check it out.

Then I had a couple of afternoons on the Mataura, good conditions, cold SW, showery and I sat there in prime spots but not a mayfly or a trout. I shall keep trying but for some reason the Mataura is just not firing at the moment. I could go and do some nymphing but my heart is not really in it as there should be early season rises. I think I will stick with the small streams as there should be beetles around by now although I have seen no sign of any.

Then we had some terrible winds, I didn't go anywhere, I have to admit I don't like wind, it just seems to take the pleasure out of casting so as soon as I get some wind I am off. Living close to the river I can afford to do so but it has made me a poor caster in the wind but as I can go whenever I want it doesn't really matter. I enjoy casting and if the wind is going to take that pleasure away I don't see the point in it.

I got up early on Thursday and drove over to western Southland to a small stream and again there was no wind and they were really going on spinners. I took 7/8 and stopped for lunch, I should have kept going although that was more than enough fish for me because as soon as I got up after lunch these was a puff of wind and the spinners and the rises had finished. I caught all these trout on a #18 spinner pattern that I have put up here before, it was attached to 4X Rio Powerflex plus 7lb, quite a thick tippet but these fish took it no trouble. This is good because you can really horse them in and get them released quickly.

I went down to the Mataura below my house this afternoon, it was a cold, showery SW and there had to be mayflies and there were at 3.00pm. I hooked one good trout on the parachute #18 Dad's favourite and he took off downstream and came off, I quickly hooked another who did the same thing and when I looked up the hatch was over. It could not have lasted more than fifteen minutes but there were mayflies!

Tight lines
David

15 November 2020
Every river is in great order today, we spent last week in small streams but tomorrow I am into the Mataura. Don't get me wrong I absolutely love small water but I have not fished the Mataura at all this season and I want to try some of the new pools/ripples that have formed since the big flood.

The trout should be in good condition as all the fish we are getting on small waters are in superb shape. I was asked about the fish in the photos and what I try and do is just put up what we are catching during the week. Sometimes I will put up an interesting trout or photo that is not current but for the rest it is all what happens each week. I also do not put up just the big fish, it just so happens that everything we are catching right now are goodly fish.

They are not easy these small stream trout and we catch a few but by gee we also mess up and break off a lot! You generally only have a couple of chances although I had one on Friday that I spent an hour on. I kept changing flies and thinking I had put him down but then he would come up and take something. I took him in the end on the fly in the photo which is an easy fly to tie, split tail, biot body, aerowing post and hackle trimmed off underneath on a #16/#18.

I don't know if this fly was the complete answer because I had had him up on a couple of other flies but I missed the strike, I also think there may have been some drag problems because of where he was sitting. So the three times I got him to come up may have been my only drag free drifts.

Almost all the trout taken this week have been on spinners, in the calm early afternoon there have been mainly spinner on the water and very few duns. I must try getting to some of these spots in the mornings as I think the spinner action would be even better. We worry about the effect of intensive agriculture on these streams but it can't be doing too much harm because mayflies are like canaries in mines, if these streams were too degraded the mayflies would be the first to go but they are there in huge numbers.

Let us hope that tonight's rain is not too much as the fishing is just coming right, beetles any day now and warm enough to wade wet, perfect!
Tight lines
David

8 November 2020
There was some rain on Sunday night which kept most rivers stubbornly high, although Greville managed to sneak one out of a very small creek. We had a road trip on Monday looking for clean water but everything was still up and carrying colour, even so we found some rising fish in a rather popular spot, Greville hooked one, lost it and the rest were just impossible. They just keep moving away as soon as a fly went any where near them but it was fun trying.

Tuesday was a lovely day, probably too lovely, we went to the clearer headwaters of a small stream in the afternoon expecting a good hatch of duns but it was very hot and not a mayfly or a trout was seen. Our local mayfly deleatidium vernale really likes things quite cool and even showery so that was two tough days although we saw a few promising spots and as they say reconnaissance is never wasted.

Wednesday I spent watching the US election which I must say has now hopefully come to a successful conclusion. Greville not being the political junkie I am managed to find one rising in a very dirty looking creek, you can tell his photos when he is on his own by the date on them.

Thursday looked perfect for a first day on the Mataura, cold, showery, SW and the river is at last at a good level and clearing but although I wandered up and down this stretch from 1.00pm until about 3.30, I never saw a mayfly or a trout rise. The same thing happened today on the same beat and almost the same conditions and although some mayfly came off between 2.00 and 3.00, nothing rose. I think I will stick with the small streams for a while yet.

Friday we did another small stream, everything was clearing and actually it looks good for at least another week out. There was no wind and there were spinners on the water all day with strangely only small fish up on them. A few duns appeared later in the afternoon and this brought up some bigger trout but they were actually caught on spinner patterns because this was what we had on and they were still on the water. I have been using my Sage SP 5wt but this day I changed to my Sage SP 4wt and I loved it, I have not used it for years so I may stay with it for a while.

Everything is clearing fast and the weather looks good for this coming week so tight lines.
David

1 November 2020
After a tough week when all the rivers came up last Sunday it has happened again! Over this last week waters were coming down, a lot were still unfishable but were trying their best to come right and then heavy rain in the upper reaches last night has put them out again.

I managed one afternoon on a backwater, it was the only day when I had sun to see trout even though it was still a wee bit murky. Using a water boatman, see blog of the 18th of Oct. and a small ball of putty indicator 10 cms from the fly I cast out to where fish usually cruised past and almost immediately the yellow putty went under and the first fish was on, not quite purist stuff but still fun.

I tried the same trick for a while, very pleasant sitting in the sun but nothing swam past and it was difficult to see them anyway so I decided to head for home. The water was a wee bit clearer the further I got away from the river so I laid out an ambush and waited. A couple of trout went right by the WB and totally ignored it, then I struck to soon on a good fish, I thought he was spooked but he kept circling around looking for the WB so I cast again and he spun around and ate it.

Greville and I tried the higher reaches of a small stream on Friday, it was a tad fuller than one would like and there were showers/rain and sun but no wind and from about 1.00pm there were duns and spinners and fish were up. So for the next few hours we hooked a few, lost a few as they are very strong fish in small, shallow water and plain screwed up a few. We used mainly parachute flies in #18/#16 and the trout were quite picky, I was surprised that we had to change flies a few times to get a hook up.

Next week looks like a repeat of last week with the rivers/streams still full, although there was not as much rain and things should come down a bit quicker.

Tight lines
David

25 October 2020
It has been a week for the small streams, most of which were a tad full but quite fishable and should be absolutely perfect by now. The main problem has been the NW wind which we have had all week and which generally comes straight downstream on most Southland waters, but we managed to find a few places where it was side on to us and even behind us. The Mataura is starting to look really good but the weather forecast is not, so we shall see what happens.

On the small streams at this time of the year you are entirely dependent on getting a hatch of duns or a spinner fall to get some action. In another couple or three weeks it will be a different story because we can then add the brown beetles to the mix and that gets them looking up all day. We did a small stream on Friday, Greville got one that was rising in the first pool and then we never saw a rise until we were just about to walk out. The wind had completely stopped for a short while, then we saw a trout rise on the far side and then suddenly they were going mad in the shallow ripple at the tail of the pool. When the wind had dropped there had been a fall of spinners and for an hour we had a lot of fun catching, missing and losing a cohort of smaller, silvery trout quite different from the usual denizens.

This season I am using heavier tippet, I started at the end of last season and it seems to be working OK, I have a 12' tapered leader down to 3X (8lbs) and a 6.1lb tippet. Greville is up a bit with a tapered leader to 2X and a 7.5lb tippet, this new Gigafish tippet is a lot thinner than other tippets but even so these heavier tippets don't seem to be worrying the trout plus we have only wee #18/#16 dry flies.

I have been dropping a lot of trout too this last week, I had one session where I hooked five good sized trout, had then on for goodly time and then they fell off and I lost a few during the spinner fall. I don't know what the reason is, I have been using barbless for over fifty years so it not that, I don't really mind as I would rather just hook trout than play them but I am a wee bit curious.

I have bought a wee stand for my camera so I can take some self portraits, I have only done it once but it is quite easy on the trout. I have the fish lying in the net in the water, set the camera for 12 secs, then by the time I have picked the fish up the timer goes off. I won't do it very often but now and then it is interesting especially as I will be fishing solo most of the time.

I just hope we don't get too much rain tonight, the cooler SW will be good but the rain won't.

Tight lines
David

18 October 2020
It was a really mixed bag this week, two miserable days in the rain, hail and even snow with a gale downstream wind, no fish and three lovely days on small streams. I started the week by going to a backwater that I knew would be clear even though the main river was still high and dirty. In fact this pond works better when the river is dirty as it puts the level up while remaining clear and the trout move into it to get away from the dirty river. We actually went and checked it out today as our small stream venture had not worked out and the Mataura looked as though it was coming right but there was only one fish in it, the others had all moved out.

On the Monday it was full of trout and I hooked three on the black pupa you can see in a jaw but when I moved to the main part of the pond where most of the fish were they would not look at it, even though it looked as though they were feeding on midge pupa.

So I put on my water boatman pattern, see photos and the first trout did not hesitate and I hooked 4 more on it, I fished it the same as the pupa, about 10cms below a small indicator. I have started using the Loon biostrike putty recently and I find it stays on the leader OK and I can use only a small piece of it. I have been using the yellow and it is very easy to see, most times I can see the fish take the fly but when it is a bit further out I strike when I see the indicator move.

The water boatman is a very easy tie, I put 2 glass beads(Spotlight, the best fly tying material shop in town) on a #16/#18 hook, tie in a bunch of pheasant tail fibers, dub a small ball, push the beads back hard, run the thread over them, tie in another dubbing ball in front of the beads, bring the fibers over as a wingcase, pull one fiber either side back , wrap a couple of turns of thread in front of them and cut off the rest, cut the two fibers to size for legs and whip finish. I then give the wingcase a liberal dose of Sally Hansen nail hardener and that's it.

Greville and I then spent two awful days and three fabulous days on small streams, all the streams are fullish but OK and coming down, there were good mayfly hatches from about 2.00 and building during the later arvo with spinners. Not a lot was happening in the mornings and you can cover a lot of water that will have rising fish later in the arvo so we never bothered to start until late morning.

The Mataura is coming down and clearing fast but I think I will stay on the small streams for the coming week.

Tight lines
David

11 October 2020
The rivers are starting to come down but are still a bit ugly and although Greville managed a nice fish out of the headwaters of a small stream on opening we were forced to seek out some still waters. It looks like a few showers during the week but generally getting better, there is still a lot of snow melt to come down the Waikaia/Mataura so I will be looking at the top end of a few small streams next week

With not a lot to report I have put up some shots of my mainstay flies of last season, please forgive the standard of photography as I am still trying to crack this close up stuff. I am not sure which order they will come up on the blog but you should be able to tie my comments to the various flies. Also note that all these flies are for the Mataura and small streams.

The first one is my main dun imitation, I tie it in an #18 and is really just a Dad's Favourite parachute imitation with a stripped quill body, dark CDC post and brown hackle, it worked really well for me whenever there were mayflies on the water.

My spent spinner is also a parachute, my dun worked so well that I tied up the spinner the same, with a red stripped quill body, light CDC post and light ginger hackle and is also in #18.

The Dunedin dun I use if they are taking just in and under the film, I don't use so many emerger patterns per se as I think now that they are more likely taking the nymph itself just before it emerges. This is my version and the colour did not come out that well in the photo but I think an unweighted pheasant tail nymph would work just as well. This is also in #18 but #16 would be OK too.

My standard nymph, it is tied on a TMC 2488H #16 and has a 2mm tungsten beadhead which is as heavy as I go, any heavier and I will take up golf. I used to tie my nymphs in lighter hare's ear but after seeing the dark brown nymphs in stomach contents during a mayfly hatch I have taken to tying my nymphs in dark brown too, just as I tie the Dunedin dun in dark brown.

I have used the same beetle pattern for years, peacock herl body, round foam back, flat would be just as good, nice wide hackle for flotation and a pink post, I use a Kamasan B110 #14 The willow grub is the same as Stu's but I was tying this same grub pattern 30 years ago with yellow rubber bands, now I use a more floaty foam. I tie it in #18 mostly but last year I went down to #20 and it seemed to work OK but I have not yet decided whether it is better than an #18. I know there are heaps of WG patterns out there but this style seems to work as well as any, I actually don't think the fly is that important, check out a blog I did on willow grub fishing last season. The cicada is just a standard pattern and again it is not that important, it is just size and silhouette that they are looking for.

I got through with just those few flies, I often tried others that worked but I seemed to end up back with these, they are not the answer as a quick look through old fly boxes filled with world beaters will show. But I will start off the season with these and I am sure a few variations will appear, after all it would be terribly boring if we had only one super fly.

Tight lines
David

4 October 2020
The new season has started but what an awful start, after rain all night and today rivers that were already high are rising steadily so things are not looking good. As all the rivers were out on Thursday Greville and I headed for an estuary that might be reasonably clear and see if we could find some midge feeders, we did and caught a few nice fish but golly they were tough.

They would not look at a midge pupa 7/8cms below a small indicator but we had seen a few that looked like they were taking off the top instead of just in and under the surface film. We had already tied up a few shuttlecocks as they call this fly in the UK and by the way it works well as an emerger on the Mataura. They were still not easy but we caught fish on the shuttlecock flies and it was a lot more fun than using the indicator method. I have put up a couple of shots of the flies I used, one is tied with a CDC wing and the other has a TMC aerowing.

I will persevere with these flies as it is very visible, almost dry fly, well it probably could be classified as that, as that is what we call it when we do it in the Mataura. I don't feel as though it is as effective as a pupa under the indicator but as they say, one on the dry is worth ten on the nymph. The other interesting thing is that we have had to go up to 7.5lbs and 8lbs respectively 0.18 and 0.20 in tippet size as anything under that which was 4X these trout would just smash us off. These trout still took the heavier tippet and our flies are #16/#14, I often wonder whether we worry too much about our tippet size, Greville uses his 7.5lbs, 0.18 tippet in the mataura with small dries all the time.

Lets hope that is the end of the rain and we can get back into the rivers, please check out the blog below which I did last week on our winter fishing.

Tight lines
David

27 September 2020
A new season is upon us and it will be very different from what it has been but probably more like the way it was before the advent of tourist anglers, so make the most of it. The blog will be slightly different too, as with no clients there will be a lot less photos and it will be more an account of my own personal fishing and observations. I will be sorry not to see old regular overseas friends but by the same token I am rather looking forward to just fishing on a whim, where ever and when ever I want.

After a fabulous end to the season in May a very mild winter allowed us to do more winter fishing than usual. We used to fish the mouths of the local rivers for sea trout with shooting heads and heavier sink tips not my style but fun now and again on a nice winter day. But over the last few years we have discovered that there are large populations of trout further back from the mouths in the calmer estuaries, inlets and tidal lagoons in all the river systems in Southland that flow into the sea.

I am sure these sea trout feed on whitebait from August and smelt later in November but mainly they are feeding on midge pupa the rest of the time. The water quality in most of these coastal waters is not the best but ironically the worse the water quality the more midge there are and consequently more trout to feed on them. I have put up a photo of the stomach contents of a trout and as you can see it is chocker with midge pupa and nothing else, there is another photo of clouds of adult midge, whenever you see this have a look around and you might be surprised at what looks like it is rising. These trout are not actually rising but taking the pupa just under the surface before they hatch.

Midge fishing is big in the UK and also in BC but it is a very under utilized form of fishing in NZ, this is a pity as it is a difficult, technical but highly absorbing type of fishing. I use an #18 midge pupa, I have put up a photo of the one I like, it is just black thread, silver wire ribbing, some aerowing to imitate the breathers and then I coat it in resin and hit it with the UV torch. I hang this 6/7 cms below a very small indicator and proceed to ambush anything I see, these trout are very spooky and you can't put anything to close to them.

I use my normal leader system, which is a 12 foot tapered leader down to 3X with a couple of feet of 7lb tippet, I usually use a couple of feet of 4X or 5X but these trout are a good size and they can also bust you off in the weed which there is generally a lot of in these types of waters, so 6/7lbs is a good idea. So give these esturine waters a go, there are plenty around Southland and also any slower, lower quality water near the mouths of most Southland rivers.

Conditions look terrible for opening and the forecast for the next few days is awful, there will be a lot of snow to come down the Waikaia into the Mataura which is not good for mayfly hatches. So I may not get out on Thursday but I will be keeping an eye on the smaller streams and will be into those as soon as they clear.

Good luck and tight lines for the coming season.
David

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