Mataura River Fishing Calendar

My regular updates on fishing and conditions can be found at www.nzfishing.com on the Southland page.

 

October

The weather can be variable but there can be excellent dry fly and nymph fishing in the smaller streams.  Streams such as the Waipahi are famous for their intense early season hatches of mayflies.  There are also very few anglers about.


Tama Osawa


Tatsuya Yamazaki and family

November

Early November weather conditions same as October but halfway through November the brown beetles start to hatch.  The beetles plus the mayflies make for some exciting fishing on the small streams.  These streams carry some very large trout.  The Mataura is now coming into its own as most of the snow melt should be gone by now.  Still very few anglers about.

December

This is my favourite month along with April.  The Mataura by now is fishing well and the small streams still have plenty of water in them.  Beetle activity is at its height, there are plenty of mayflies and caddis about -- it's a great dry fly month.  Angling pressure is still at a low level.
 
January

The rivers start to get pressure now, as this is the holiday month in NZ.  On the Mataura there are good hatches early morning and in the evening, also on cloudy calm days there can be excellent spinner falls.  There is good terrestrial fishing on smaller streams as the cicadas are starting to appear.


February

This is the month that gets the most pressure from visiting anglers but in Southland there are still plenty of places to go.  Some of the smaller streams are getting a little low but there is some fabulous cicada fishing in the high country lakes.  The regular afternoon hatches on the Mataura start about halfway through this month.

March

Visiting anglers are starting to thin out and the weather is usually very settled.  There are regular afternoon hatches on the Mataura often followed by a fall of spinners.  The smaller streams have been freshened up by rain and there are still cicadas about.  Mayfly activity also increases as the days get cooler.


Mr. Hamamatsu with a 5lb trout 
from the Otamita Stream



Mr. Hamamatsu with a good Brown Trout
 out of the Waipahi River

April

This is my favourite month along with December.  Most overseas anglers have gone and the cooler weather really gets the mayflies going on the Mataura.  They go on the small streams too but it is very hard to leave the Mataura when it's fishing well.  The weather is generally settled with very little wind.

May

The season has been extended to include May this year. As the seasons have become warmer, May has become the new April with the same great mayfly hatches of March and April. This has come about as a result of pressure from anglers who had to stop at the end of April but now can take advantage of the wonderful hatches that now carry on through May.


Hiroshi Ozaki in small stream.

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