Mackenzie Country Fishing Report

Will Spry

Wow, what a start to the season! This season has so far seen, rain, sun, rain, snow and yes, even some good fishing at times! For the first time ever, I have cancelled a day of guiding, when the weather turned particularly nasty, with snow, rain and flooding in Twizel. It is not something I would do lightly, however, sub-freezing temperatures forced us to abandon it all late in November.

Despite some difficult conditions with many rivers being well above average flows and quite discolored, there have been some real highlights already. With a wonderful series of mayfly hatches at times on the Tekapo River, I witnessed one of the best hatches I have seen over here for some time, early in November. At any one time, 20 or 30 mayflies of various sizes were seen on the water in one place. Whilst the fish couldn't keep up with the numbers, it was still a delight to walk up the stream and work over a large number of rising fish. The really amazing part was that later that evening, a couple of centimeters of snow blanketed Twizel township - so I guess my theories about low atmospheric pressure events may need to be revised! The mayflies, although around still in a few areas, they have dropped away now until their expected return in late March/April - we'll keep you updated on their return!

Summer time traditionally brings the warmer weather and the terrestrials on the go but, recent rains and cooler weather has kept numbers down. However, working with terrestrials has proven successful when the conditions allow it. There's nothing quite like a large head swallowing down an offered "Blue Blowie" or cicada. Here's hoping the weather fines up enough to allow plenty more of it this season. The early word is that we are expecting a later summer, so well keep our fingers crossed for a fining up of the weather. Backcountry trout stocks are looking promising.

Will Spry is an independent fishing guide; his reports are not officially representative of Fish & Game NZ