Mataura River

The river

The Mataura runs across the Southland plains from the Eyre mountains to the sea near Fortrose, and its middle reach between Athol and Gore is one of the great brown-trout rivers of the southern hemisphere. It is wide, shallow and full of weed, with a mayfly and caddis hatch that keeps fish looking up from November through March. This is technical dry-fly water rather than a numbers fishery: the fish are big, educated and often rising in flat water.

On this river

Spotting fish in flat water

The Mataura's middle reach is flat and weedy and most fish are found by their rise rather than by searching. Walk the bank 5 metres back from the edge, scan for the rings, and only then plan a cast. A fish rising steadily in the same spot for ten minutes is catchable; one that is moving is usually not, so wait.

The downstream presentation

In flat water a fish faces upstream and sees everything coming. The standard Southland trick is to walk below a rising fish, cast upstream but well to the side, and let the fly come down into the fish's window on a slack line. The fish sees the fly first, not the leader.

Evening caddis on a windy day

Southland wind is a fact of life and the Mataura's evening caddis hatch is often fished in a 20 km/h nor'wester. Counter-intuitively, the wind helps: it puts a chop on the water, hides your line, and pushes the caddis onto the lee bank, where the big fish are waiting. Fish the windy bank, not the sheltered one.