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TROUT FISHING WITH MAURICE RODWAY - Weekly Column: 26-November 1999
 Southland, New Zealand

The Flood - After The Rains

As people's homes are at the centre of their lives, a record of their past labours and security for their future,  the lives of anglers are intertwined with rivers.  Today people rescue sodden treasures from their investment for the future and at the same time, and in the same place the mesh of the angler-river fabric is twisted into a crumpled garment lying in a muddy puddle.

From the seat of a plane a few days after the rain has gone old river channels that once carried rivers can be seen to be full again. For ten thousand days the old river channels are the bread basket of the region, producing wool and meat, milk and grain. Then for just a speck of this time the channels become a river again. The profit of the past becomes the agony of the moment. We can only watch the river rise, smother all before it then watch it recede.  From 3000 metres rivers look benign, while snowy mountains jutting from clouds are like jagged teeth erupting from cotton-wool gums. From the ground however, fluffy white clouds caressing shining mountains are friends and muddy rivers are deadly rivals.

Anglers are the historical defenders of rivers but after a flood is a hard time for anyone  to defend the rights of rivers. Their right to flow and not be pushed around. Their right to carry water fresh from the mountains to the sea. Its a time when the friendliness of rivers is forgotten.

There is however, a place for rivers, and a place for people. We like to live by them when they are peaceful and quiet, but we need to remember, like a tiger in a cage we cannot live in their space. We can fraternize with them, but only on their terms. When the boundaries are broken it is only a matter of time till we feel the terror of their claws.

There is a little piece of an angler in all of us, the bit that likes a river in a gentle mood, the bit that likes to sit under a willow and feel cool water tripping by. Lets not forget that part of us when we see farms and houses built close to those gentle creatures that bring solace and contentment. The more we intensify the use of river banks the more we will lose when the tiger's tail is twisted.

If our works, our investments, are of value to us, and they are; and if we truly love rivers when they are meek and mild, which we do; we should  keep our works at a safe distance so when their wilder side emerges there is enough space for us all. The fabric that makes up our lives can then stretch but not be broken.

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

Article © 1999 Maurice Rodway, All Rights Reserved.

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