3 The condition of the brown trout after the floods

. For the river fishers amongst readers I will have some comforting words – later. For the reservoir anglers, it is a more interesting situation, in that we have really not had such high levels throughout a season for such a long time that different questions need to be answered.I will start with the rivers! I was lucky enough to work in New Zealand for exactly one year. I arrived on the West Coast – a most remarkable part of the South Island, in January 1998. The “Coast” had just experienced its wettest year of the century – all to do with the El Ninio weather system. I had contacted a local guide via internet and e-mail links, and my first trip out with him was a “freebie”, due to the fact that he was seriously worried that most of the trout had been washed down river, and maybe even out to sea in the flood waters. I should explain that the area is sub-temperate rainforest, and heavy rainfall is not unusual, but the heaviest fall of the century had many anglers worried! The end of that year provided even more water, and it easily surpassed the previous year’s rainfall!It soon became apparent that there were indeed fish still in the river. I caught my first New Zealand river trout – a lovely brownie of six and a half pounds on that trip. But over the next few weeks what did become apparent was the fact that the fish were in very poor condition. Certainly much of the invertebrate life that the trout feed on had been swept out to sea. This left the trout with little food to sustain them until the terrestrials arrive on the scene, or the run of whitebait hit the rivers. I caught dozens of fish that would have been in excess of six pounds due to their length, but were in fact barely four pounds!I don’t wish to make light of the terrible floods that we have experienced here in the past month, but I can tell you that in October and November of 1998, it didn’t stop raining at all around where I was living and whole roads, fields and houses were washed away. It is quite a sight to stand on the floodwalls and watch a steady procession of trees between one and two hundred feet in length float past! However, the rivers did recover, and there was excellent fishing to be had later in the season. Many of the old favourite pools were no longer in existence though! I hope that the same happens to our rivers and that they recover to produce sport as good as usual.On to the reservoirs! At the fishing club the other night there was a great deal of discussion regarding the high levels on our major waters. All last year and through the close season levels were high and it lead to the best early season fishing on the Bristol waters that most of us can remember! There was so much daphnia around early on that the fish packed on weight – and especially got themselves into great condition early on. It would be excellent if the same happens again this year. Many of the anglers were of the opinion that high levels also make it harder for the cormorants to cause so much damage to the over-wintering fish. I hope that is the case, but I fear it is more complex than that. Certainly the dirty floodwater in the rivers mean that more birds end up on the lakes, but birds – and fish can see much better in coloured water than we imagine and I certainly don’t hold with the notion that cormorants don’t kill so many fish in muddy lakes!All in all I believe that we have to look forward with optimism. There are many positive aspects to high levels – especially for the stillwater angler. To the river anglers, it may be more necessary to cross our fingers!1 The river is just dropping after the recent flood2 A typical West Coast river – prone to floods

3 The condition of the brown trout after the floods