Hello all, just like to let you know that here in New Zealand we are having a great summer and the fly fishing is fine, the Cicada dry fly fishing in the Waikato area has been fantastic and should last a while yet.
Please if you are visiting N.Z. any time soon don’t forget to clean all your gear in a light solution of bleach to help stop the spread of Didymo. The North Island is currently free of this invasive pest and we would love to keep it that way.
All the best.
Mike.
This is a topic I feel needs to be keep in front of us from time to time. Like the NZ mud snail in the rockies, if someone where to visit S.N.Z, say the Waitaki and bring this pest back into the states, the consequences would be enormous. The Didymo is a type of algae that lies on the gravel floor of a river,stream or lake and kills off the Trouts food supply IE: critters that have to get from the gravel to the surface to thrive. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Cleanliness is next to saving a Trout. Jonezee
Hello, thanks for that Jonezee, you are quite right, Didymo is a very invasive pest that has only been found in the South Island in the last year or so. It compleatly smothers the bed of the river in a brown - snot like - thick coating that nothing else can live on.It has very quickly spread all over the South Island at last count I think there were at least 8 rivers with didymo outbreaks including the fly fishing mecca of the Buller River.
Didymo is native to the northern hemisphere and no one knows how it got to N.Z but it can be spread in a single drop of water so great care is needed when moving between rivers to clean all gear in a solution of bleach.
Remember this has the potential to totaly destroy the entire ecosystem in a river so if you intend to come to the Beautifull land of the long white cloud please take care not to spread this menace.
Cheers.
Mike.
Mike: This out in “MidCurrent Fly Fishing News”
January 19, 2006
Didymo in Missouri?
According to this article by Eric Adler in the Kansas City Star, Didymo (see our recent coverage of New Zealand’s Didymo problem) has been found in Missouri’s White River. “Missouri officials said it most recently has been found in the White River system, near Bull Shoals Dam and around Table Rock in Arkansas just south of the Missouri border.”
It appears no one or place is immune.
I think I’ll buy stock in the Clorex Bleach company.
Cleanliness is next to saving a Trout.
Well said Mike T. Like you I live in the North Island. Tauranga,and Poach your streams over in the Waikato quite a bit in Summer.
Have not seen Didymo other than Photos at this time and hope I never see it here in the Noeth Island.However the invasive nature of the thing makes it spreading to the North Island almost a foregone conclusion.
We can only trust that as stated Cleanliness will protect our Trout Fisheries. If all fishers were to get behind cleaning their gear after each sortie to the trout waters. We may just keep the Beast at bay. Jax