Hello to you All!!!

All night I heard the rain pouring down as if it did not want to stop and as usual when I'm about to guide a client I worry about the weather. This night had me a little worried more than others as there was a constant patter of rain on my tin roof, I awoke in the morning to see my boat filled with water and huge puddles in the car park.

A new casting pond appears in the car park!

I did my usual short drive to river for a river condition check and found it to be up by nearly two meters. I headed back to the shop and my client arrived and we decided to cancel until another day. It was the highest I've seen the upper Mataura river in over 10 yrs, most of you will know the main road bridge were I took these photos.

The famous Mataura gin clear river..

and all the small trout get washed to the ocean!)

The days of guiding before that were awesome with plenty of trout in the riffles and by mid afternoon sipping mayflies from the surface. The trout are all healthy and fat with beautiful fall colours and big spots on them as they start to get ready for spawning.

Richard my client had never fished in Southland or NZ before and had a ball catching the first trout of his day within the first 20mins . The rig of the day we mainly used in the riffles we fished and hooked fish was a nz tungsten bomb and a size 18 king pogo floating nymph floated just behind it on a short length of 4lb fluro tippet.

The guiding has tapered off, and I always note that by the number of friendly nz guides who come in for a chat and cup of tea at this time of year. I can always tell the keen guides as when they have finished guiding and there is a few days left in the season down this way, they all head in -search of the famous April mayfly hatches of the Mataura. Sometimes even the guides get skunked down this way and that also includes me, but that's what keeps us all going - the challenge of being outwitted by something the scientists say has the brain of a pea!!

I've just managed for the first time this year to get my hands on the new Sage xi3 saltwater fly rod and Sage 6080 fly reel and believe me its a great combo, not the cheapest, but if I was only going to buy one good saltwater fly rod and reel this would be the combo so in-fact, I have! So it looks like I'll be sneaking off to some saltwater destination armed with my new weapon of mass destruction.

As the nights get darker its time to sit down and watch a few good DVDs  or practice some casting indoors with the Echo micro practice casting rod  I have only a few of these left so best to get a hold of one from me soon rather than later. All of you out there take care,

Cheers,
Stu.