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Friday 18 November 2011

Northern Cloudy Bay


The early evening after returning from my trout mission, I decided I should pop across the road to try my luck with a new saltwater soft plastic lure I'd recently purchased - the colouring is white/grey/black, more realistic than the 'Nuclear Chicken' type I had tried previously, which is garish pink and green. I like trying to keep things looking realistic these days; makes more sense to me.

The conditions felt perfect - only a light breeze and nice calm sea. I normally like to fish the last half of an incoming tide if possible, and this was not long after low tide, but it still seemed ideal.

After walking the few minutes across the road to Monkey Bay, I noticed someone already fishing in my spot, so waited at the lookout and set up my rod. What I assumed was his girlfriend looked to be getting a bit cold behind him, popping the hood up on her jacket and and hugging her arms closer to her body, so I figured they'd move on before too long.

I was still finishing setting up my tackle when they reached the lookout where I was. I asked if they'd had any luck - they hadn't, but wished me luck with my new lure that I showed them.

After about ten minutes of casting, something took my lure - I could see my line moving throught the water and feel the pull on the line. I tightened the tension on my reel, as it was quite loose; I probably should have had it tighter. He was on there for maybe ten seconds when I saw him come to the surface and roll over and my lure come out of the water. Possibly a dogfish - he didn't fight like a snapper or kahawai, and had a serpentine movement to his body.

That was the only excitement of the night, but it has renewed my enthusiasm for fishing somewhere so close to home that I had pretty much given up on, due to lack of luck in the past.