Despite this, trout continue to feed as their optimum temperature is in the mid-teens. Most waters are now low or very low which should make it easier to find fish but not necessarily easier to catch.
A cautious approach is needed to avoid spooking fish in any conditions but never more so than when the water is low and clear.
Check the water for fish well before you get near the water and always stay off the skyline if possible. I spooked a trout on the Taieri recently and I was about 50 metres from it, you cannot be too careful.
Even if you cannot see fish it does not mean that there are none there. I remember fishing a small stream in the late afternoon and hardly seeing a fish but when the light started to fade in the evening there were a number of very good fish rising which helped save an otherwise unproductive day for me.
Exploring a stream when it’s very low is a good exercise as it enables likely spots to be identified and remembered when fishing in higher water levels. Of course, low water levels also concentrate fish in what areas remain to feed and find cover as well as a good supply of oxygen when the water is warm.
On a couple of outings on the lower Taieri recently I have found trout in very shallow water but never far from cover.
I believe in moving slowly when fishing in such conditions but even then it was not slowly enough as I spooked quite a few. At times it pays just to stand and look and a trout will appear or in several cases they can be heard rising.
If you can trace the origin of the sound it is then a matter of getting a fly to them. This can be at the cost of losing a few flies but can be well worth the risk in the long run. Low water conditions often let you get near the whoppers that remain hidden for most of the season.
Talking of whoppers, I fished the Pomahaka mid-week and did not catch any but caught a few fish. It was a scorcher of a day, the water was low and still a little misty from the slip in one of the tributaries. It was calm all morning and spinners were falling on the water for a couple of hours. There were not many fish rising to them. I could not even get a fish to look at my spinner or an emerger but I did get a couple on the nymph.
In the afternoon it all changed — there were fish going flat out on willow grub and they were catchable, at least most of them, but there are always a few that banish the word infallible from the angler’s vocabulary.
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