Lowland waters likely spots

Rivers and streams have been dropping this week and most lowland waters are at a reasonable fishing level.

However, the bigger rivers and those waters rising in the mountains are still showing the effects of snow melt. Lowland waters have also warmed up considerably and this temperature increase encourages trout to feed earlier and later in the day.

The weather forecast is not perfect for the weekend and is certainly far from ideal for the tussock lakes, so my pick would be for any lowland water with trout in it. In the calm of the morning, there is a fair chance of finding trout rising to mayfly spinners or feeding on cased caddis in the gravelly shallows.

There is an even better chance of finding trout rising to sedges as the sun goes down and with a bit of luck there will be duns hatching in the afternoon. What more could an angler wish for?

One topic that comes up in the news more and more frequently is the declining quality of the water in our rivers, lakes and streams. A headline grabber recently has been the Waituna Lagoon in Southland, where pollution has almost reached the point of no return. Suddenly there is a flurry of activity at great expense to save this valuable lake.

The decline of the water quality in the lagoon has been recognised for years but little or nothing has been done.

The same can be said for many of our lowland streams and little or nothing is being done to stop the decline, let alone improve the water quality in them. Do we have to wait to the point of collapse before anything is done?

The main sources of pollution come from moneymaking ventures, but who pays the cost of remedial action?

Certainly not the polluters.

I think a pollution tax would be a good idea - after all, the general population is taxed for pollution through our rates to cover sewage treatment.

How much intensive farming can a catchment take?

Do regional councils know the level of development a catchment can take before waterways get to the point of no return, or more logically, do they know what the sustainable levels are?

Surely they should stop granting consents until they know.

I guided for my son the other day. River conditions were not ideal, the river was misty and rising and despite a good hatch of duns there were few fish to be seen. I saw a fish come close to the top in a ripple and got him to cast to it with a nymph. The fish followed but did not take. A switch to a small bead head did the trick and a 1.5kg brown trout rounded off nicely a couple of hours on the water.

•By Mike Weddell.