March 2017 Fishing Report

The big news is that the weather seems to be settling down, with light winds and clear medium to low flows in most backcountry rivers.

This has allowed fish to move up from the lakes and take up residence in stable water that had previously been subjected to huge flow changes.

Trout are actively feeding on cicadas in the backcountry, and willow grubs and other terrestrials such as blowflies in the lowland rivers.

There is also some bully fishing on the mudflats around the lake edges, along with cicada fishing over drop offs in tree lined areas around the southern lakes.

The high country lakes are all fishing well with tussock cicada patterns.

Fish numbers being caught are reasonable, with some larger ones coming to the net most days.

Looking ahead towards the end of March, we should start to see some “smelting” fish around the river mouths, but I won't be surprised if  they run late this year as just about everything else has been a few weeks overdue with the wet cold start to the summer.

Here’s a nice brown from this week taken with a cicada pattern.