The season of mellow fruitfulness slipped by, winter’s chill crept in, so what did you do when the weather went into cold mode? I know some of you will hit the water and “chase rainbows” in the latter stages of the cold season and personally I have had some very good days with brownies on water that remains open over Winter, but more on that shortly. However when the winds blow and rain spatters on the window panes there are other fishy activities to get involved in.
Looking over the gear for a start is a good option and that might include the boat, you can of course tie more flies, but you can’t do that for months on end until the sun gets higher in the sky. So what else will keep your enthusiasm for fishing at a reasonable level?
Maybe books? If you’re anything at all like me you might have a collection of fishing books that you have put together over the years. For a start they would have been of an instructional purpose – the “how to,” “what to” sort of book. Writers who have helped inspire me include George Ferris who mentored many people into fishing through his writings and also personal tuition. He was active in this manner around the 50s and 60s and as a kid I had the good fortune to have him check my licence one Saturday, alongside a North Canterbury stream, which happened to be one of his favoured locations.
If you can secure a copy of “The Trout are Rising,” you’ll find it interesting and informative from both an instructional and historical viewpoint.
Later you might have begun to enjoy reading about other angler’s experiences and their descriptions of places not yet visited by you. Norman Marsh was another who was helpful and told a good tale, plus there were a host of other angling writers of that era who shared their thoughts, insights and humour. More recently and into this century, people such as Derek Grzelewski have provided reading pleasure, then there is the inspiring Brian Turner who wrote with such passion about angling and the landscapes of his favoured part of the country in Central Otago, where he and good mates Dave Witherow and Kevin Ireland (both also fine writers) roamed and fished. I used the term “inspiring” and if you read Brian’s “Into the Wider World,” you’ll get the idea – it’s a stunning fishing book that’s not altogether about fishing, containing wonderful humour, along with thoughts on human and corporate avarice, as sights were set on changing the Central Otago landscape for the better of very few.
Of late I have availed myself of a story based around a river in Southland I fished as a young chap, the Mataura. Dougal Rillstone is from the fine town of Gore with it’s massive trout statue and he got his first fish in the river there in the early 50s. In later life he decided to walk it’s length from the ocean to it’s source in the mountains and along the way he reflected on his fly fishing friendships, experiences with rod in hand, his love of the river and it’s tributaries, plus he highlights the need to protect threatened waterways such as his favoured one. “Upstream on the Mataura,” is his colourful record of the 240 kilometres walk up his much loved river. Oh and if you happen upon a Mataura rise, have some tiny black gnats and your heart pills handy!
But fishing is still very much a viable option in winter. Here in the West Coast Region we get some wonderful days, because the oft-blowing southerlies that bring wet, cold, miserable weather to the Eastern side of the South island, have blown themselves out and dropped their moisture over there. What we get in the wake of their misfortune, is clear blue skies, the mere hint of a soft air movement from the south and quite reasonable temperatures. Does that seem a bit smug? It’s not meant to be, but I endured Christchurch weather for my first 23 years and my father used to say winter is six months long in Canterbury. He was right and it could rain for weeks no, not rain, drizzle, with a cold wind from the east, south-east, south, or south-west. It was fun riding the 4 miles (6.4 kays) into that on the way to school each day. The milder conditions were but one of the factors that made us decide to stay on The Coast after being transferred here so long ago.
So Coast fishing conditions in winter are conducive to some good days out – the leaves might be well gone from the deciduous trees, but there are still fish to target that haven’t gone away to spawn. A truly magnificent day to go out is after one of the rare frosts we get and the still air is refreshing, the mountains with their snow caps stand out in the distance, while closer in, the bush glistens in the sunshine and fish can be spotted in the clear, clean water of Lake Brunner which remains open over winter. I quite often have the lake entirely to myself, which is another bonus.
So don’t write off your piscatorial pursuits when it gets cold, check out what water is open and watch the weather charts, but if you can’t get a break, consider a visit to The Coast, it might just be a life changing event.
