Weather: 12.3°. Cloud increasing this morning, then the odd evening shower. Northerlies.
River Flow: 27.5 Cumecs (m³/s)
The upside is that the rain will give the river a much-needed flush of fresh water. If levels rise and the river colours up, it’s a great time to start fishing larger, more visible patterns, think bright streamers, rubber legs, flashier nymphs to push water, be seen and get attention in those murkier conditions.
A controlled release on Saturday bumped the river up to 45 cumecs, bringing in a coppery tint. Since then, flows have dropped back to a more fishable level and clarity is improving — if it hasn't cleared already. Conditions are shaping up well for anglers who are willing to adapt to the changes and fish the edges or deeper seams if we see a lot of water in the river.
Michael was out on the river with his mates and sent me this photo of him with a nice fresh hen.
October 1st
Opening season for most of the backcountry is around the corner on October 1st, with daylight savings on 28th Sep, seeing us into more daylight hours after work into the evenings.
The evening rises will soon be upon us also so pop in store to stock up on emerger patterns and adult mayflies. Whispers that people have already been seeing small evening rises and even a few fish caught on some dries during them.
Dry dropper fishing is already proving productive when fishing to spooky fish in shallower water as they recover from their winter spawning. A small dry suspending a light or unweighted pheasant tail on a long tapered leader is essential to target fish in the shallows who are off-put by indicators or large beads splashing the water.
Try the Rio super strong tippet in a 4x or 4.5x to suspend your nymph to be extra stealthy in the low clear flows. Backcountry waters call for small natural, dark nymphs, of which we have plenty in store and should be hosting good conditioned brown trout who will have recovered after their late summer spawning and the occasional great conditioned rainbow still to spawn among the recoverees.
Consider moving to those more delicate presentation lines for the dry dropper fishing. You can't go past the Rio technical trout line which is beautiful to cast those dries, landing softly on the water, ideal for sight fishing while still being capable of casting heavy nymphs into deeper faster water with ease.
Charlie (aka Dinny — my father) and I (Niamh) headed out to the lake over the weekend and enjoyed a solid day on the water. We mixed things up with both nymphing and wet-lining, adapting to the conditions as they shifted. The hail hung around longer than expected, but with breaks in the weather, we managed to land a few quality fish before calling it and heading to the river for an evening session.
Lake season has been underway for the past 3 weeks, with heavy winds keeping a lot of anglers at bay, but those who've braved the weather have reported some cracking fish around both stripping streamers in the rougher water and on indicator set ups with natural pheasant tail patterns.
Hamish and Tim went to Lake Rotoaira on Saturday and had great fun using the Redington Butter Stick! It was a stunning day all around by the looks of it.
Tight Lines everyone!
~Niamh and Rosie