As I wrote last time, my sight fishing river water once rose and it's already getting back to minimum flow again.
Sunday morning, although I went back there and tried to fish for a couple of hours, fish were really selective. A few times at least they came close to see my fly but they refused to take it after very carefully watching it.
No hook up and I just decided to change the river for the rest of the day.
Arrived and started fishing next river at noon. Beautiful but hot summer day again.
A nice riffle was holding the first fish took the dropper nymph.
A nice 2lb hen for the good start!
I mainly focused on fishing runs, riffles and drop offs.
Lovely second fish, small but good looking.
The next one, sight fished in a slow flat.
This was just a 17 inches hen caught in a drop off, not the biggest one but the strongest one of the day, was really a strong fish and I couldn't tell its size, honestly, expecting a much bigger one until I saw its visual!
Respect your fighting spirits.
Bye!
The next good one took my dry, Adams para.
Another strong one.
Getting another great fishing day, perfect weather, awesome fish!
Another hook up!!
Landed!
A nice and fat hen, 3lb.
Having big fun.
This one was on a dry. Already 8 hook ups and caught 7 fish in 4 hours fishing.
And then, I moved to another piece of the same river to end the day.
Got it on !!
Beautiful one!
The best fish of the day, 3lb jack.
A nice brown with shiny golden colour.
Thank you for making my fishing day satisfactory.
And hooked up the last fish.
A cute 13 inches hen to finish the great day.
It was not only a good blind nymphing day but also a couple of nice dry fly actions and sight fishing, just a awesome brown trout fishing day overall.
After a long period of dry days, Dunedin has been wet since a week ago.
This is the graph of my sight fishing river flow.The river water has finally risen close to the median level, the river I mainly fished from mid October to early December. And I stopped fishing here in mid Dec.
Because the river water had been lower than minimum flow ever since.
Usually, freestone rivers go turbid just after the rise and it is considerable to watch the water colour or worth waiting for a few days. But I know that this river water hardly get turbid even after the rain, have never seen the water badly discoloured.
Then, I felt like going back to the river for the first time in new year hoping some fresh sea run fish which have yet to get heavy angling pressure are running up the river.
It was a kind of chilly day for February and the weather was quite changeable, sunny, cloudy, showers...
The river was quiet through the day. At the first spot I tried, I did not see any fish rising or jumpimg, just saw few fish under water. My only chance was that a brown took a dropper nymph underneath the dry but unsuccessful hooking.
And then, I moved to the second piece of the river but still couldn't spot any fish because of the windy condition. Even between the winds, I saw nothing along weed beds where I usually spot cruising fish. I thought I was unable to catch anything. Maybe, the river water was too new and cold or the low air temperature kept fish stay down deep, something...
But I noticed that a fish jumped a bit downstream I was fishing and it sounded like a big fish's splash. I just walked down quickly and stalked for the fish.
" Where is he or she? I'm sure I heard it jumped and saw the ripple."
And I found a big one just below my feet.
As soon as I presented my dry & dropper nymph rig, it slowly moved away from my fly along the weed bed. Then, I made the second cast about 6 feet ahead of the fish.
And it headed toward the fly, and......., took it!! the dropper nymph!
Caught it! Nice 5lb jack, 24inches in length.
This is probably a sea run brown with blue-greyish colour.
Uhhh, such a nice fish. Bye!
And I caught one more fish an hour later.
3lb, 21inches jack.
This is definitely a sea run which doesn't have any warm tones of yellow, orange or red that resident browns normally have for their colour. Just silver-grey with a blueish tone.
Thank you for making me happy!
While fighting with the first fish, another brown of the same size was chasing the fish on my fly and after I landed the second fish, I saw another good one jumped, so I should come back here again, hopefully have a few more chance to catch nice ones.
Dunedin finally had some rain, not much, about 20mm rainfall on last Friday, and I went back to the river hoping river conditions turned more productive for fishing after the rain.
Actually, the weather was better than it was forecast, was predicted a few showers though. It was another hot day.
The river water level stayed almost the same, but when I started fishing, some fish were already rising which was good. It never happened over the last couple of weeks.
I caught two little ones soon on dry, #16 CDC Quill Dun. They were small but fun!
And at this stage, I had a hunch that I might have some good dry fly action today depending on the time, lights and spots and the main method for the day should be dry & dropper nymph.
This nice fish was rising at the pool where I saw a school of browns last week.
I love the colour!
Good looking fish with awesome colour.
Two more good ones on doropper nymphs.
Lovely hens.
I found the first half of the day easy to fish catching seven fish, supposed because the rain changed the river, but after 2pm the river went quiet.
After a few hours catching no fish, I just found a rising fish along a choppy run where I often take fish, and thought about what fly to cast.
First, I tied a #16 Quill Para Dun on 5X tippet and presented. The fish soon and quickly rose to the dry but refused to take it just before open its mouth.
"OMG!! Refused my Para Dun!"
And I thought I should not have shown the the same fly any more....
"Unnnh, what to cast next??"
I decided to try the most reliable and effective pattern through this summer which was #16 CDC Quill Dun next.
And then...
He emerged to the dry again and did not refuse! Just took it off the top!!
Not that big but a good one at the end of the day.
"You are such a selective fish but the winner is ...me!!"
What a effective pattern CDC Quill Dun. This has definitely been the most pattern that I can rely on.
Fishing has been quite good this river but just missing big ones these days.
Next day I tried to fish for a couple of hours at the river mouth. Because it is February, the time of the year NZ salmon are starting to run the South Island's east coast from now onward.
"Oh,I haven't been here and haven't got my hands on my spey rod for ages!"
Although I kept casting to fish the outgoing tide, I saw no jumping fish and nothing happened whole time. I just got a few sand fly bites which was totally unwelcome...so itchy!!
But I know that this is how fishing going to be like sometimes...
I think I should try somewhere else to fish salmon during this month.
As people in Dunedin told me that the last summer was awful, I was not expecting such a dry weather for this summer, but actually, it has been so nice and beautiful though...
Fishing has been not easy at rivers because of the hot and dry weather resulting low river water flow, however nymphing methods are still working well, especially European style nymphing is.
If I don't see any rising fish today, it is going to be another summer nymphing day for sure.
Due to low river water, productive pieces of the river are limited at the moment. These seem to be pools with a ripple flowing into, where the water holds enough oxygen in and fish comfortably stay and feed. So, once you could find one of those good pieces, you could possibly catch multi-number of fish at the same spot.
Czech nymphing worked well from the beginning, and my fishing went exacly what I was thinking.
I caught four jacks in weight range of 2-3lb, five hens of 1-2lb ones and two little ones that I could not tell whether jacks or hens, eleven fish all together.
At this pool, I encounterd a school of 20-30 browns, and took two out of the school.
The schooling fish were not that easy because they were quickly moving aroud, unlikely to stop often like a solo cruising fish that moves slowly searching for foods.
The best fish of the day, a nice jack.
Such a nice fish, awesome colour.
I was very happy able to land this perfect beauty!
Another beautiful day but it was quite tough to fish in the afternoon because of the heat.
The last two fish of the day were on dropper nymphs down the dry fly.
I had a big fun catching many fish, even though I could not get a big one again as well as no dry fly action.
