Police have found few signs of what happened to an elderly man, missing near Balclutha.

Ian Mathieson has been missing since Wednesday, after attending a Lions Club meeting.

The 79-year-old's car was found abandoned off Carterhope Road on Friday.

Nine search teams, police divers and Lions Club members have been searching all day.

Senior Sergeant Alastair Dickie says there's little more they can do at this point.

"From tonight we will be scaling the numbers down and performing more of a monitoring role along the river, and around some other key points around the area concerned."