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TROUT FISHING WITH MAURICE RODWAY - Weekly Column: December 28, 2001
 Southland, New Zealand

Tropical Weather & Manuka Beetles

While tropical weather systems breathe warm winds over us the trout fishing remains productive. In still, moth filled evenings the  chill is overtaken by mild mannered breezes that barely ruffle the surface of a still pool in the river. Trout rises are easily detectable.

It is early in the season for warm days and nights. As I write, thunderstorms send flashes of light and rumbles of thunder circling around the horizon. Tropical weather in temperate latitudes? Heavy downpours that partner the natural light and sound show swamp our rainwater filter systems and in the dark no doubt flow on to streams.

Farther inland they bounce soil particles out of the ground and into streams resulting in a dirty water flow, making some blame a bulldozer in the river and spoiling a afternoon's fishing. Summer showers make the grass grow but they are a mixed blessing for the angler. They refresh the rivers but their benefit is short lived. For trout the warm weather they travel with does more harm than good.

There is no doubt that the sunny days and gentle breezes stir small manuka beetles into life and this is a blessing for both angler and trout. They make an easy meal as they float helplessly downstream and they are easy to imitate with any sort of bushy dry fly that has a reddish hackle and a bright green body.

This summer, as happens every few years, the manuka bushes, from which the manuka beetles fly, are lavishly covered with small white flowers. On the margins of the national park and on hillsides too steep to plough these tough little trees grip on to life in a way that reminds us that there is good in every thing. We just need a perceptive mind to find it. Manuka plants shade out palatable grasses but every now and then they turn a forlorn hillside into one of glory.

Trout can grow well on manuka beetles as they are easy to catch and they drift is quiet parts of the river. An edge by a tussock where water moves slowly or where an eddy concentrates the river's flotsam could be where a trout waits quietly for the little emerald jewels to drift by.

Just as tropical storms on a warm December night send shivers down our spines, a small beetle armed with a hook is a reminder to a trout that all is not well in the world. We had all better be on our guard and do what we can to guarantee our future. For the trout this means warily inspecting each potential mouthful as it drifts by. For us it means making sure we don't contribute to the warming of the world for with every warm night in December there is the prospect of a dry stream in the autumn.

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

Article © 2001 Maurice Rodway, All Rights Reserved.

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