The glorious weather just went on and on at the end of this season. Most fly fishers must have had a surfeit of top fly fishing earlier in the season as the pressure went right off in the last two months. The balmy late summer and autumn weather and lack of strong winds created some fantastic opportunities throughout South Canterbury and the Mckenzie Country.

As water levels dropped in big rivers like the Rangitata and Waitaki fly fishing came into its own with plenty of large, well-conditioned fish available during the middle of the day. We enjoyed some particularly productive dry fly fishing when the big browns came to the surface to take advantage of prolific mid afternoon caddis hatches.

Nymph fishing was still productive right up until the last day of the season on the Opihi with the writer enjoying some of the best fishing of the season during the last week, and with not another angler in sight. A team of #16 nymphs fished under a small indicator proved deadly with the fish holding in fast, moderately deep water.

It was interesting to note that some fish were already on their spawning redds during April.

The writer is now avidly awaiting the arrival of the first sea-run browns in the lower reaches of the main Canterbury rivers. A good rain is overdue. When it comes it should attract the sea-runners along with the first runs of whitebait. Last winter saw some spectacular sea-run fishing, especially during August. Whitebait patterns such as silicon smelt work well but so too do standard gold and silver beadhead nymphs once the fish get up-river a bit.