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TROUT FISHING WITH MAURICE RODWAY - Weekly Column: September 21, 2001
 Southland, New Zealand

September Weather

September weather is often like the summer ought to be.  Fine and warm. Not much wind. Flowered trees decorated with birds. Their song urgently announcing that the world is full of promise. Before the winds of spring pink and white garlands fringe roadsides and park walkways. It really is a good time of the year.

Early in the month a frost accompanies a sunny day but temperatures reach the mid teens. Sensibly warm - just enough to discard a woollen jersey but not enough to extract perspiration during an early dig in the garden. 

With little rain the lower reaches of the major rivers are often clear but still fullish from the dampness of winter. Mayflies, like birds securing a territory, glide from their homes amongst the river stones and flutter skywards. Rings on still waters show that trout know the spring has arrived too.  A chaffinch sits on riparian boulders occasionally flying upwards, following a mayfly that has escaped the jaws of a trout. He leaves pinkish blobs to mark his launching pad. A new family is on his mind too.

The trout fishing revolves around fine weather, warm breezes, clear water and an isolation from the part of the world where toil and ordinary things occur. Where problems lurk around every corner and where stress creeps up like rising damp.

In the winter these images can only exist in the future but emerald grass shouldering frost and mud away brings them to life. A walk along a river bank on a warm September day rekindles the fire that is trout fishing.  It reestablishes that spiritual connection between anglers and the river. Bright green willows; the seed heads of grass, pale and naked, their life washed into the winter; new grass tillers sprouting from amongst the river side boulders; a wide expanse of river beach, washed clean by winter floods. The river is a friend to lean on. In it each angler finds a link to simpler times of the past.

Anglers often say they go fishing just to be by the river, to be alone. To catch a trout is not really needed. Anglers who say this are liars. They may wander the seashore and feel solitude but when they wander beside a clear water river they hope to see a trout because then they feel excitement, and fear. They fear that the trout may not take their fly, or that the trout may be the last they see, or that they may not have a trout river to wander along in the future. The excitement arises from the fear. They are intermingled, one within the other. Both living in the arms of their friend, the river.   

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

Article © 2001 Maurice Rodway, All Rights Reserved.

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