I had some work duties to attend to in the South of our state. Meetings and travel took up most of my time, but I thought it would be rude not to have a quick  lunch-time fish while down there. In any case, I always carry a rod to satisfy such temptations.

With a warm Spring day in all its glory – The cracking 24deg was more than a welcome surprise. Only a week or so back it was snowing in the suburbs! I found a nice little shore not too far from the Bridgewater bridge and set up shop. On recent outings fishing for sea runners I had been using whitebait imitations, but those fish have been sight cast to – I was after more of a searching fly. Muz Wilson’s Fuzzle Bugger screamed out at me from the box so I strapped it on.

There was a few bait fish hugging the edges, and a nice little gutter following the shoreline with a massive weed-bed not too far out. The tide was low but had just turned. Soon into it I quickly spooked two bream in the extreme shallows. I’m wide awake now and ready to tango. I flicked my fly in amongst some rocks where the tide was starting to push across, the wind had started to pick up a bit and suddenly I had a tangle around my foot. I reached down, sorted that shit out and the first strip had some resistance. I skull-dragged a small resident fish in, barely weighing quarter of a pound. That’s cool, I’m down with it… A fish is a fish right?

About five minutes later, I polarioded a solid trout of 3-4lb crusing the edge away from me. He was quite shallow and I found myself wishing I had a bulky dry fly on! Not wanting to miss the opportunity, I cast a metre or so in front of the fish and out to the side. Nup, spooked him. Fark.

By now the wind was coming in pretty hard. I decided to pack it in. Headed back toward the car and checked the water out again. The stretch near the car, which I had already fished, was looking ultra-fishy with a little more water on it so thought… “Yeah, I’m not here for a haircut”. I hooked two rocks in quick succession – Bloody hell they pull hard. The take feels awesome, but they fight like a…. well, like a rock. Another few flicks about and I hook another rock, but this one had headshakes, hell yes, that’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout Marcia Hines. It launched out of the water three times and I first called it for an atlantic salmon with its silver flashes. With no net I eased it up onto a rock shelf for a quick photo. The fish was really healthy and would have been around 3lb or so. I was stoked with such a healthy true sea-run trout. I pull the little point and shoot out of the pouch – No Battery. Nevermind, I was fully charged.