Weather and Fishing

Since last writing the week has been dominated by the weather. Rain and cold. We have had 85mm (approx 3.5 inches) of rain which normally is significant. The long drought and resulting dry ground has meant that heavy rainfall is soaked up and not running off as we would expect. This has resulted in a rise in the river level to 58 cubic meters per second (cms) from a norm of approximately 22 cms.
Today the flow was still above 30 cms.

I have a smile on my face as a result. In the lower reaches where I like to fish, the river has filled in the holes and is shallower. The vegetation debris has mainly been covered but there are a lot of small green twiggy snags to catch your flies on which is annoying. The slightly higher flow levels has passed over a lot of these snags. There are fish in the river and I am reassured that the fly I use is working. I haven’t seen a lot of anglers and have not seen a lot of successful anglers. I’m still not meeting anglers returning to their vehicles carrying fish but my experience this week has been that the fish are on the take.

Under low flow conditions I have found the shallower water unpleasant for wet lining. I even managed my dry line before the rain started but I had little success.

The temperature has been cold but the lack of wind compensated on Wednesday to make the fishing experience enjoyable. Snow sat all day at the peak of Pihanga.

The Fishery Management Plan

The plan as yet has not been released to enable discussion on the  content.

Eric WilsonSec

retary/Treasurer