When you want to go fishing and can't,
Console yourself with our gazette.

TROUT FISHING WITH MAURICE RODWAY - Weekly Column: 15-December-00
 Southland, New Zealand

Hottest Days of Summer

Some of the hottest days of the summer so far have descended from the north to warm the grass and all of us. Summer showers provide moisture, and the sun's rays complete this life's most basic recipe.

Grass is the most common converter of light into food, but in a stream this is mostly accomplished by tiny plants, some called algae and others called diatoms. The algae is usually bright green and includes the common spirogyra, recognisable under a microscope by its spirals of chloroplasts within each cell. Hence its name. Just as grass powers cows, algae powers the lives of mayflies and caddis. In a stream the next energy conversion is into trout.

So with the increase in the growth of plants comes the increase in the growth of trout and that is why December is one of he best times for trout fishing.

Warm days in the office become barely sufferable. The temptation to see if the sun – trout connection is occurring rises but there are compelling reasons to remain at work. We must delay the investigation until the evening. Fortunately December evenings are long with the sun staying with us long enough to find a place by the river. 

Trout fishing can be good during the day but it's quality is enhanced as the sun falls towards the southwestern horizon. This is because rivers are enhanced by fading light and the weakening of the wind. Songbirds save their music until the evening because sounds travel easy in the stillness then, and trout fossick near the shore at this time too. The darkened day and the quiet shore no doubt enticing them closer to where little fish life.

A small lure frisked amongst a shoal of smelt when a trout approaches will be sure to draw some interest. A bulky dry fly posing as a lost brown beetle will also seem like a meal to a trout that has gained some courage as the day draws in.

Even if the trout in the river have had their fill, and they are not responsive to the temptation of another meal, there will be a few to be seen breaking the surface. Not to take a fly but to remind us that they are not always easily caught. 

A swirl just out of reach or a trout haughtily disregarding your lure, or occasionally a trout on the bank, are always framed in the colours and the closeness of the time just before dark. When the western sky is etched in orange and cumulus clouds are like great transient mountains. Both promising a fine day tomorrow and more conversion of    sun to trout  to angler's dreams. 

Maurice Rodway
Southland, New Zealand                           E-mail: mrodway@southlandfishgame.co.nz

Article © 2000 Maurice Rodway, All Rights Reserved.

08-Dec-00   |   01-Dec-00   |   24-Nov-00

17-Nov-00   |   10-Nov-00   |   03-Nov-00

13-Oct-00   |   20-Oct-00   |   27-Oct-00

'99 Columns   |   '98 Columns   |   ´97-´98 Columns

Frontier Fishing Gazette has been published
every week for over one week.

trout@frontierfishing.co.nz

RIVER REPORT   |   MAURICE'S COLUMN   |   FISH OF THE MONTH

Introduction | Main Pool |  Rules | Bliss in Te Anau | Southland Angling Bible

Trout Encounters | River Descriptions | Fishing in Southland | Ring-A-River | Salmon Days

First Publication: 29 September 1996, Updated 01-Mar-03.
©1996-2002 NZ Country Matters Ltd.

Frontier Fishing is a South Island, NZ-based, owned and operated enterprise.