Fishing News index>February 2007

A SEASON OF TWO HALVES

The current fishing season has been very much a “game of two halves”; the last 3 months of 2006 were punctuated by bouts of cold, wet weather and by high, discoloured rivers. Early season, spin-fishing was pretty much the only game worth playing. With rivers being discoloured for days at a time, conditions were generally marginal for fly-fishing but spin-fishers cashed in when river levels fell, visibility improved, and the trout began to feed. Some excellent brown trout over 2.5 kilos were landed on spinning gear in the lower reaches of the Hutt, Ruamahanga and Otaki Rivers during October and early November coinciding with runs of whitebait. But for fly-fishers conditions were frustrating and when the rivers were fishable the fishing was slow.

How things can change in the course of a couple of sunny weeks. Landing a brown trout on spinning gear proved a tough assignment over the Christmas school holiday break as the rivers cleared and fly-fishers were greeted with the spectacle of trout feeding on or near the surface in clear water. With the stable clear river conditions prevailing throughout the Wellington Fish & Game Region at present prolific hatches of caddis and Mayfly have stimulated some excellent opportunities to stalk trout with dry flies or small weighted nymphs.

The Wainuiomata, Manawatu, Mangatainoka and Ruamahanga Rivers have all proved excellent hunting grounds for those anglers who like spot and stalk their trout. Despite being subjected to some heavy flooding last winter, the Wainuiomata is still holding plenty of good trout over 2 kilograms. A size 16 Parachute Adams has proved a very consistent deceiver of surface feeding trout in the Wainuiomata River over the past couple of weeks, and is a good generic pattern to fish when the trout are feeding on or near the surface during or just after a Mayfly hatch. The parachute style hackle allows the fly to sit well down in the water, providing a very passable imitation of an emerging Mayfly dun, or a spent or crippled fly trapped in the surface film.

Intense hatches of both caddis and Mayfly over the past couple of weeks have produced some excellent fishing on the Manawatu River above Woodville and on the mid-reaches of the Ruamahanga River between Martinborough and Masterton. Try searching sheltered backwaters for cruising trout during the early morning and presenting them a size 16 pheasant tail nymph or a bloodworm imitation if they happen to be feeding over a muddy bottom. Wairarapa and Tararua anglers have enjoyed some great evening rises lately and with warm settled weather forecast for the rest of the season; dry fly fishing is likely to really pick up. Another good tactic is to fish small wet flies such as a turkey-wing or deer-hair caddis pattern during the early evening.

The Hutt River hasn’t seen the same proliferation of caddis or Mayfly hatches that have been evident on the Wainuoimata, Rumahanga or Manawatu Rivers lately, and most trout have been caught on weighted nymphs. As water temperatures rise over the next month or so most trout will be found in the deeper pools or nestled under sections of undercut bank or willows where there is abundant shade. Try fishing the deeper pools between Moonshine Bridge and the Akatarawa confluence with a tandem rig consisting of a big bead-head nymph or stonefly imitation with a smaller pheasant-tail nymph behind it on a short dropper.

Although this season hasn’t seen the glut of cicadas that produced such excellent fishing this time last year, some very good trout have been caught on cicada patterns on tributaries of the Hutt River and Ruamahanga Rivers and in the upper Otaki over the past fortnight. Last year, March saw some frenetic fishing on the Ruamahanga, the upper Manawatu, Mangatainoka, Makakahi and Pohangina Rivers with the trout feeding almost exclusively on cicadas and even poor castes being rewarded by some crashing strikes. The chorus of cicada voices around much of the Wellington Fish & Game Region is intensifying as the unbroken spell of hot fine weather continues, and having a few cicada patterns could prove to be a very worthwhile inclusion in your arsenal over the next few weeks.