Slipped out for a sniff on the Meander River yesterday – I could think of no better way to celebrate being Orstrayan (Australian).

My companion Nick and I sussed out the river at its lower reaches and noticed it a little high and murky – From all accounts there had been a land-slip up towards the dam somewhere. We committed to the mission anyhow and slid into the drink at around lunch time. We spent some time flicking away with a dry and dropper underneath, hoping that a fish might see our flies! It wasn’t until we found some shallower pocket-water that we raised some interest – a small, silvery brown took a liking to my Stick Caddis.

Further up we found another brown and a school of little rainbows slashing away in the fast water. All on the dropper again. Things became quiet here so we buggered off to another stretch looking for that same sort of pocket water. It wasn’t long before we found some fish tucked right up in the shallows – We couldn’t see them in the dirty water, but persistent blind casting in likely spots bought a few undone on the dry-fly. This was nice because if it wasn’t for the dirty water we would have been polaroiding these fish, and no doubt they would have been feeding hard on the plethora of red and black spinners that were present!

We hit a fast water section and had trouble keeping our dries afloat. Nick put on some hideous big black foam thing purely for buoyancy, but found that a feisty brownie found it very appetising! A few more fish later with the best maybe a tad over a pound, and it was time for us to vacate – Anyhow, I had a date with the BBQ.

We tipped in a Tassie ale on the way back, and I kept up the trend upon arriving home. We fired up the barbie, slapped on a few snags and lamb chops, sucked on a stubbie and had a good yarn. After our tucker, we kicked back with a brew and watched the cricket. I personally thought it was very un-Australian for the poms to give us a touch up. No wonder I fish.