Fishing News index>May 2007

IT’S NOT OVER YET

With autumn rainfall well below average across the Wellington Fish & Game Region, rivers have remained low and clear which has been great news for fly fishers, prolonging the opportunity to sight fish to surface feeding trout. Although many rivers have been closed to anglers from the end of April, there are still several good options for taking trout on dry flies while the settled weather lasts. Both the Waiohine and Waingawa Rivers are open all winter downstream from the boundary of the Tararua Forest Park and offer some excellent water for spotting and stalking cruising trout, although an added difficulty at this time of year is the tendency for the fish to be preoccupied with breeding rather than feeding. You’re likely to see them chasing each other around in a furtive warm-up to the frenetic courtship that ensues when they begin to spawn. A highly visible Flashback-type nymph landed right on the trout’s nose is often enough to snap it out of its prenuptial trace and elicit a strike.

On the main stem of the Ruamahanga, Hutt and Manawatu Rivers try targeting large trout running upstream to spawn by fishing the pools above and below the confluence of tributary streams. Once the mature fish have made their way up into the tributaries to spawn, they will leave behind the smaller maiden fish. In summer in the Ruamahanga and Hutt, trout can often be found holding in shallow water very close to the river’s edge, but this isn’t the case with the maiden fish that remain in the main stem over winter. They tend to cluster along the main current lines and hold in deeper water through the “belly” of the pools. Try bouncing your nymph along the bottom working your way up from the mid-point to the head of the pool. Getting the nymph to reach the bottom is the key to success with this winter fishing as the trout don’t tend to move very far for the fly. Try a heavily weighted size 14-18 Pheasant Tail or Flashback Caddis.

The nymph fishing on the Manawatu River over March and April has been nothing short of frenetic with rainbow trout in the 1-1.5 kilo mould providing most of the action. Many of these fish will remain in the main stem over winter and offer fly fishers the prospect of being able to make up ground for much of the opportunity that was lost to bad weather prior to Christmas.

With the fine settled weather providing the piscatorial equivalent of an Indian Summer, remember that there is still plenty of water that is open, and many of the bigger mature fish are still back in the lower parts of the Hutt, Ruamahanga and Manawatu catchments waiting for a fresh to coax them on their way upstream. The fishing season is definitely not over yet.

Back to Reel Life May 2007