Time and tide

I haven't been fishing as much as I'd like this year, and haven't had much luck the few times I have cast a line in the water.

Some days, though, make up for all the fruitless efforts.

Earlier in the week I had been pruning some trees in the yard and trying to start the lawnmower, when I noticed my watch showed four fish.

My Casio 3768 showing a 'good fishing' rating
of 2 out of 4 fish at the time of writing.

You know your lure is realistic when...

Overcast and still - it felt like perfect conditions at the river mouth, but nobody was catching any fish.

I was about to pack up when a guy hooked a decent-sized kahawai that leapt out of the water a few times. He had it on the line for a minute or so (I find 'time' takes on a different quality when a fish is hooked and have trouble judging how long playing a fish takes - more so when I'm the one playing the fish), but he ended up losing it.

It renewed my urge to fish, so I started casting again.

I've had this lure for a while now, but seldom use it. I love the paddle-tail action of these types of lure, but this one always feels a bit big for some reason (it's only just over 8 cm long, so it's not really that big).

Soon there was a tug on the lure, and before long a shag instead of a fish broke the surface.

I pulled the lure out of his beak and was able to wind it in quickly before he got hooked (shag grabbing it once more and chasing it underwater to the shore).

One more cast in case the shag had learnt his lesson; he hadn't. I was able to wind in again and change lures.

I've never had a bird grab my lure before - they normally seem quite aware that they're imitations. Must be a good indication of future success (with fish!), surely...

Serenity (or the lack of it)

Despite the road to the south of the Wairau Diversion being open during the whitebaiting season, I only went down there once. There's just too many people around during that time for it to be enjoyable for me now. Possibly getting grumpier with age.

I popped down to the mouth a couple of times about a week ago to see how things were looking. The whitebaiting season was over, so I figured it should be reasonably quiet during the day while most people would still be at work.

The first day I caught (and released) four young kahawai. Nothing great, but a bit of fun - better than hooking nothing. I saw someone had a decent-sized kahawai, so they must've been around.

Next ride down there, there were only a few older guys around. A couple of them were leaving not long after I got there. I asked whether they'd had any luck. One of them called back, he'd caught four medium-sized kahawai, destined for his 'jars'. Preserving them, I assume.

I overheard them discussing arthritis pills and home-brew whisky while I started to fish.

~ The Irish whisky is a nice change, easy to drink. Too easy to drink! It sneaks up on you!

Eventually everyone left and I had the mouth to fish on my own. It's a good feeling to have a nice spot like that to yourself. Normally the fact that nobody else is around means there's also probably not many fish to be caught, but there's always the chance.

There wasn't much happening, but I cast lures and changed them a couple of times in case it made a difference (I pretty much always use the Blue Fox jigging lure in such situations these days).

Before too long a car pulled up on the other side of the mouth. A couple got out with their young child. They cranked up the car stereo and started fishing.

I left.

Grand Cayman Tarpon

My first go at snorkelling on my own on Grand Cayman was the first time I saw a tarpon. I was standing on the beach, about to put my mask on, when I saw two long fishy shapes show in a swell before the wave broke.

They looked rather shark-like to me, but I hopped in the water anyway, feeling wary. After swimming around for a while, I saw them again, looming towards me, and decided it was time to exit the water. I hadn't seen anything like it. They were big fish (the adults will often grow to over two metres long.)

Afterwards, I was informed that they were probably tarpon.

I was only visiting the Cayman Islands at the time, and ended up coming back about a year later after landing a job there.

Some of my favourite memories from my time on Grand Cayman are of fishing for young tarpon in the mangrove canals (man-made canals and roads through mangrove swamps.)

I assume the adult tarpon must come inland into these areas to spawn, and the young slowly move out to the sea as they mature, although Wikipedia says otherwise: "Tarpons breed offshore in warm, isolated areas," so I'm not really sure whether it's something specific to Cayman or there's an in-between inland stage that's not very well documented. Wikipedia also states, "Since tarpons are not commercially valuable as a food fish, very little has been documented concerning their geographical distribution and migrations."

I was informed of a pool where the young tarpon should be found, and started fishing there with a 10 cm. paddle-tail lure. I hadn't used anything similar before, and was impressed with the realistic action of the lure, and the success I had with it.

The youngest tarpon were quite easy to land, but once they started getting bigger - around the 40 cm. mark - they were very strong and would leap high in the air and consistently throw the lure.

I found that I had more success just winding them in as fast as possible when they got to this size - you couldn't play them, as they'd always jump and seldom stay on the hook.

I used that one lure for a long time. It lost the tail quite early on, and eventually was just a weighted hook with no 'body', which seemed to work even better than the proper lure did.

As they tarpon grew, they slowly moved out from the pool to the sea. I was fishing the pool a few times without hooking anything before I realised they must be on the move. It was then a matter of hunting around 'downstream' until I started getting hits on the lure again.

A Facebook 'memory' (where you're shown some old post from the past by Facebook and offered to share it again) reminded me of my time fishing for tarpon on Grand Cayman. It was from seven years ago to the day. I tried to locate the spot on Google Earth, but it appears a highway now runs through my old fishing pool.

Don't forget what you know

There were kahawai around, and they were curious, but I couldn't get one to grab my lure.

I was using the lure I normally use when targeting kahawai these days - a Blue Fox jigging lure. I like the look of them, the way the move in the water, and the fact that most people seem to use the tried-and-true hex lures for kahawai, so I assume that using something different will often give me the edge (one can always live in hope).

After fishing in the river mouth for a while, I shifted slightly more up-river, inside the mouth where it's a bit deeper, and was almost ready to call it a day when I remembered how I usually fish these lures (I tend to hibernate over winter and haven't been fishing much at all).

Back when I first discovered the lures, I found a jerky retrieve of three or so turns of the reel handle followed by a brief pause to let the lure drop seemed to yield the best results, with the kahawai often grabbing it during that pause.

Soon after changing my technique I hooked and landed a nice kahawai that ended up smoked and in a fish pie the next day.

Jigging lure with bait

I've recently found that if you're bait fishing in water no deeper than 12 metres (about 40 feet), using a jigging lure with the bait can be more productive than a sinker/hook setup. The weight of your lure and the speed that it sinks down in the water will decide how much deeper you can fish.

Due to the fact that you don't have the weight of a sinker to disguise a nibble, I found the extra sensitivity of the setup let me pull in a blue cod that kept getting away when I was using a hook and sinker.

Tackle box

Last year I created some archive posts to fill in my quiet winter days. Recently, over a glass of red by the fire, I went through and cleaned out my tackle box. These items now make up my current setup.

My new favourite lures

Blue Fox 18 gram 'Trophy' jigging lures.

Fished with small swivel/clip combos as shown above seems to work well. They didn't yield results at first, but I was quite sure they would, so continued using them. I also tried bigger swivel/clips, but they seemed to change the action of the lure too much.

The green and yellow lure was my first purchase, which eventually brought in a nice medium/small kahawai.

Today the other lure landed four kahawai, and I managed to lose at least the same amount after having them hooked for maybe 20 seconds. I have a hard time remembering accurately the length of time a fish takes to bring in.

The fish were lost mainly due to my fault, rather than any fault with the lure - I let one get into the kelp nearby (which I'd learnt when I first started fishing near the kelp to make sure I kept the fish away from), and another I tried to pull up onto the rocks with a flick of the rod, but put a bit much effort into it, and essentially threw him behind me into the water on the other side of the rocks I was standing on, the lure coming free in the process.

I'm always annoyed with myself when I let a fish get away after being hooked. I fish this lure (and most other lures) with the tension on the reel just tight enough to bring in the lure without slipping. That way, when a fish hits it, I don't accidentally pull the lure out of its mouth. Once hooked, I'll tighten the tension a few clicks to allow me to bring it in.

The smaller kahawai would also have a go at the lure. The fish below was landed and released.

The first fish was brought in using a jerky retrieve method, and I continued using that technique until today. After noticing the lure was often taken by fish as soon as it hit the water, or while it was sinking, I started using it in more of a jigging style, with the jerky retrieves in between pauses allowing it to sink.

Being able to use it in a traditional spinning manner or more of a jigging style adds to the appeal for me. The classic hexagonal 'ticer' lures that are so popular with kahawai fishing don't really work so well as jigs in my mind. Although, that may just be because I haven't really tried it.

I have a 13 gram version of the lure that I'm now eager to try.

Easter Fishing Part 4 – Tuesday 10th April

The weather forecast was good, and our boat was long overdue for some time away from her mooring in Waikawa.

We motored over to Kumutoto and anchored after retrieving my cap that got blown into the water by an unexpected gust.

The aim was to let my son Henry catch his first fish, and troll a lure on the way back to see what might hit it.

Some pleasant time was spent bringing some spotties onboard, with Henry pulling his first fish aboard with some help; and flicking out softbaits with no more luck than a few tentative pulls at one point.

Towing a lure around the bay before heading back towards Allports Island yielded a barracouta near Kumutoto Point - a fun end to a good day.

All fish were released.

Easter Fishing Part 3 – Monday 9th April; Monday Fish #11, Wairau Diversion

 

I assumed the Wairau Bar would have been busy over Easter, so avoided it. I rode the motorbike down to below the Diversion Bridge to have a quick fish.

The water level was very low so I walked out onto the stones in the middle of the river.

I saw a lot of small fish, and used a rubbery lure that looked similar to an inanga that I thought might get taken by something. It didn’t.

The highlight of my time there was a fantail landing on my rod.

Easter Fishing Part 1 – Saturday 7th April

It was hard to turn down an offer of a boat trip to spearfish for butterfish despite my childhood fear of getting into cold water, so Saturday morning saw me heading out to the outer Queen Charlotte Sound with my usual fishing setup plus my mate @Spear-It’s wetsuit and spear gun that he’d left me when he shifted to Australia.

You couldn’t have asked for a better day weather-wise, and the trip to our first stop – Ngaturuturu Rocks, off Koamaru – was most pleasant.

I wasn’t overly keen to get into the water, but my two companions were into it. I stayed onboard and fished with my rod, catching a nice smallish kahawai (typical – I come all the way out here, and still catch kahawai). The current was quite strong, as it can be in this spot, apparently; the visibility wasn’t the best for being underwater, so we moved on before too long.

Rounding Cape Koamaru, we turned south and commenced the same fishing attempts – me onboard with the rod whilst my companions jumped in the water with their spear-guns. They had more luck than me, bringing back some butterfish, moki and paua - I didn’t have much action at all. The small fish on the bait-catcher rig were about as interesting as it got for me.

We stopped at another spot on the way back, where they again brought some more butterfish onboard. I switched from my soft plastic to a hex lure that’s commonly used for kahawai, and soon hooked a feisty fish that I assume was a kahawai – it fought briefly like one, and I saw the white flashes of it underwater, but it got away. Soon after I hooked a darker-skinned fish with the same lure, but it also got away.

They allowed me to take some paua, butterfish and moki home for my meagre efforts, which has made me more resolute to get similar fish, if nothing else - lovely eating! My kahawai diet of late has perhaps made me appreciate the ‘better’ fish more…

Monday Fish 10, Wairau Bar

Caught a kahawai on Monday. They really are fun to catch, so I have been trying to make the most of them before they disappear until next summer, which will surely happen before too long.

I think the smaller lures hook them better, so I've been trying to use as small a lure as I can. They aren't very good for casting into the wind, though, so I've been experimenting the last couple of times with putting a sinker above the lure to add weight.

Last time the weight was too heavy, and tangled more times than preferable. This time I had a bigger lure due to the stronger wind, and it cast better. Thinking about it, it does make sense that a sinker that's too heavy above a lure will sink quicker than the lure and more than likely make the hook tangle with the line.

I love the spear-head shape of the sinkers I've been using, and plan on trying more options.

Monday Fish 9, Wairau Bar

Jim rang me on Sunday and said one of the fish he had hooked earlier in the day at the Wairau Bar was apparently a salmon. There were people on the bank above him that mentioned it to him. The fish got away. We made a plan to have a fish the next day.

I dreamt about fishing that night – we were fishing at the Bar, and I hooked a fish which I thought was a salmon at the time, but when it jumped, it turned out to be a marlin. I woke up soon after.

The fishing was fairly slow on Monday, but I managed to take a kahawai home, while Jim landed two kahawai. No salmon, but I kept thinking we might have one hooked whenever there was a fish on the end of our lines. There had been a trawler operating in Cloudy Bay, and that probably had something to do with the lack of action.

I have heard of salmon being landed in the Wairau Diversion and the Wairau Bar lately, but I’m yet to see one myself this year. Tony Orman reports in the April NZ Fishing News magazine that there have been quite a few caught in various parts of the Wairau River.

Jim and I fished at the Bar again on Thursday and took a kahawai home each. Many of the strikes didn’t hook the fish as easily as they seemed to in the past. I changed to a smaller lure like I normally use before I landed my fish. I had been using a slightly heavier lure to help cast into the wind.

Jim told me he caught a couple of kahawai on Friday, and then four on Saturday. I think the trawler has vacated the bay, which must always be better for the recreational fisher.

Monday Fish 8, Wairau Bar

Took home fairly nice kahawai on Monday. They seemed hard to catch, though - quite a few strikes, but they got off more times than they stayed hooked.

The Friday before was better, with a couple of nice fat kahawai. Also a small one that I returned, and a little guy that got foul-hooked by Jim using a lure bigger than the fish.

Monday Fish 3, The Wairau Diversion, Spring Creek and Wairau River

The Tuesday after our last Monday fish, Jim turned up at my house on his way back from a swim, holding up a kahawai. He said his first attempt to grab the fish as it was lingering around some kelp made it get some life into it, but then he grabbed it near the tail and held on, and managed to get into onto dry land.

After getting it home and filleting it, he said he noticed it looked a bit damaged near its lower spine, possibly from the trawler that had been operating in Cloudy Bay recently. A good explanation for why it was probably a bit more docile than expected.

We decided to have another fish the next Monday.

Monday morning came, and I drove down to Jim’s house around 5am. He was waiting at his gate with his fishing gear.

The plan was to try the Diversion again at first light, and then either go up the river or try the Bar, depending on our mood. Jim had bought himself a trout fishing license during the week.

It was even colder than the previous Monday. I had to take a break from fishing every now and then to warm my casting hand in my pocket. I was glad I had come prepared in thermals. The weather had turned rather frigid for mid-summer.

The tide was fairly high, compared to it being around low tide last Monday, and I was optimistic we would have better luck this time.

We didn’t.

 I had an irate seagull diving and squawking at me at one stage. If it was guarding a nest, it must get irate fairly often, as the Diversion river-mouth must be the busiest part of the Wairau River.

Jim was barefoot in the waves while I was dreaming of hot mugs of tea again.

Another car turned up with some young guys. They didn’t seem to have any more luck than us.

Eventually we gave up and returned to the vehicle. Jim offered me a cup of tea from his thermos. Magic.

We pondered our next move while packing away the gear, eventually deciding on trying for a trout where Spring Creek flows into the Wairau – about 5 minutes drive away.

After parking and getting our gear sorted, we walked the short track to the river. Walking along the riverside, we started casting lures into the Wairau as we neared where it turns and also meets Spring Creek.

We split up for a while, and I had a few casts into the lower Spring Creek after trying unsuccessfully to spot a trout in the Wairau.

I changed from the black-with-yellow-spots black fury spinner that I had been using, to my favourite style of rubbery-little-yellow-and-black-fish lure.

~ Jim, I just had a fairly small fish follow my lure – I guess a rainbow, but it looked like a kahawai. Would they come up this high from the rivermouth?

~ I don’t see why not.

Then Jim fished the lower part of Spring Creek where I had been, while I stayed casting into the Wairau. I heard him say something about a snag, and turned around to see him with water up to his neck, freeing his lure. Dedicated lure retrieval, right there.

There wasn’t much action, so we started walking back.

Jim brought up the subject of felt-soled boots, pointing out that they’re now not allowed according to the regulations, to try to prevent the spread of didymo.

He told me about a time back in the 80s, when he had hooked a fish, and was following it upstream, and slipped on wet slippery rocks and fell onto his face, knocking himself out.

~ When I came to, there was all this blood around me, and the fish was still on the line.

After landing the fish and eventually making his way back to civilization, he found out his nose was broken.

Anyway, back to our fishing – we stopped for a look at a spot where Spring Creek splits into two briefly before joining back up again.

There was a nice pool to cast into, with surrounding trees, but more than enough room to be comfortable casting.

A trout was rising right in front of us.

He turned around and followed my lure, taking a good look, but he didn’t take it. Maybe I should have given it a quick little getaway-twitch to spur the feeding fish into action.

We attempted a few more casts from the same spot, and also on the opposite side of the stream. He continued feeding, but ignored our lures.

Jim asked if I thought he should try his new fishing technique that he used to catch his kahawai the week before.

I’m pretty sure that’s against the regulations, too, Jim.

Spring Creek after a look at Taylor Dam

On Sunday the Wairau and the Wairau Diversion were high and murky, so I figured I should do some exploration with the motorbike.

First I went down to the end of Dillons Point Road and surrounding roads, trying to see if I could get to the Opawa river from there. Mark and I saw a few people fishing on the riverbank on our exploratory mission up the river a couple of weeks earlier in my dinghy with his motor on the back, and we were curious about road access at the time.

There was a spot at the end of Dillons Point Road that was near the edge of the river, but was all obviously private property, and no other end-of-the-road destination nearby put out a welcome mat or noted any public river access. (Fair enough, too. It must all be private property along the lower Opawa that you can access by road - I doubt I'd be putting up a sign to allow anyone to fish my part of the river if I didn't have to... I guess I'm just used to Fish & Game access points along most rivers)

I then proceeded to ride up to the Taylor River and look at the dam, which I'd never seen before.

In my mind it was all somewhat different. The river seemed not much more than a creek, and the dam was a broad shallow swampy area. The swampy area did hold some nice birdlife - I saw a couple of swans with their brood of cygnets and a duck swim out to feed with her ducklings while a native harrier hawk flew above.

It looked like some fish were feeding in the dam, but apparently there's no trout.

I stopped at the Farmer's Market on the way back through town - I've been meaning to check it out for a while now, but I think I'm becoming quite reclusive, and it's often hard to convince myself to go anywhere near 'town' unless I have to. It seemed nice enough though, and I'll probably pop back some time soon to buy something...

The main highway that takes you out the other side of Blenheim towards Picton passes over Spring Creek. I slowed down going over it, and noticed it was slightly higher than usual, but not dirty like the other rivers seemed to be - even the Opawa was a bit murky from what I'd seen near town. Spring Creek is consistently very clear, but I think the trout are consistently hard to catch.

I pulled over on the bike and started to set up my rod in a spot where I could see the first pool between the two bridges - the highway and the train bridges.

I could see a trout feeding, and moved to a point slightly upstream, near the highway bridge, so I could cast down towards it - I think casting from downstream normally has more potential due to casting past the trout and pulling the lure back into the fish's feeding view, but this didn't seem easy due to the train bridge below the pool.

I figured I should start with a hair and copper with some split-shot - I haven't fished much with flies and nymphs on my threadline setup, but this seemed like an ideal situation. I probably should've put only one instead of two of the splitshot on, as it kept sinking too fast and getting hooked on the weed - eventually getting snagged and I had to snap my line.

So it was back to my favourite lure, which I'd replenished after losing my last one in my 'mission 2' up the Wairau.

I didn't see that trout again, so must have scared it off with my clumsy attempts.

After continuing upstream and passing under the highway bridge, the path comes to a plank across a small ditch. The area had been recently mowed, and I misjudged the firmness of the ground to the side of the start of the plank - my right leg went into the dirty water up to the knee. I was wearing gumboots that went about three quarters of the way up my shin, so, needless to say, I got a bootfull of muddy water.

After emptying my boot as much as possible, I continued up the creek, having the odd cast in likely spots. The boot didn't feel very comfortable and made a bit of a splodgy noise when I walked, but the chance to catch a trout overrides such things.

At the top of the first main stretch - maybe a hundred metres, I stopped at the corner where the creek turns slightly. It felt like the perfect spot for a trout, and I peered intently for a few minutes. I didn't see any trout.

A fly fisher came downstream while I was standing there. I called over to him as he got close.

~ Any luck?
~ No, you?

He had an accent that was hard to place, possibly German. I shook my head, and he came to stand beside me and point to a spot near where I was looking.

~ There were two trout over there earlier... there, there's one, see?
~ Umm...

I couldn't see the trout. I'm not sure if it was because he was a bit taller than me, or the angle of where we were standing, or his glasses being better than mine, or just his better experience. Whatever the reason, I couldn't see a trout.

I thought he might as well have a go for the trout.

~ You want to try chucking a fly out to him?
~ I've tried - he doesn't seem to want to take anything. There were two trout there - a big and small one. You should try with the lure.

He moved downstream a few metres and pointed to the trout with his rod. I made a few attempts to get my lure near the trout, but nothing happened. He then tried getting his fly out to the trout. I am somewhat ignorant about fly fishing at the moment, and am impressed when I see someone that knows what they are doing with a fly rod.

Spring Creek is a small body of water with trees behind you in most places. A fly fisher needs to be careful of their backcast and length of forward cast to keep themselves out of the foliage.

He got his fly out into good spots consistently, but with no luck either. He had the look of a seasoned professional - even with a face-mask-kind-of-thing that I haven't seen before, I guess to keep the face hidden to the fish. It was essentially a piece of flat beige over the face with a rectangle for the eyes - it had a burka-like effect. Serious fishing.

After we both had a few goes, I wished him a good day and splodged up-stream with my one wet boot.

I didn't see any more trout above that spot, and it started getting quite boggy, so turned back.

Back at the turn in the river where we had been previously, I did notice two trout - I'm not sure why I couldn't see them before, but I definitely could now.

I tried my lure a few times, but no interest from the trout - a distinct disinterest, if anything. The big one made a huge lunge out of the water for something on the surface at one point, as if to say "I know what my food is, and your stupid lure isn't it."

Before I got back to the highway bridge, I noticed a small trout feeding above it. I tried my lure with him as well. No luck.

A lovely stream to fish, but I think due to its crystal clear waters and proximity to Blenheim (10 mins, therefore fished often); it'll always be a tricky one.

Plan on trying downstream of the train bridge next time, though. I can then continue on to where it meets the Wairau if needed, and might have more luck in the bigger body of water.

Kahawai nearby

Lovely calm morning after constant wind lately. Whilst working in my office at home, I decided the conditions were too perfect not to have a fish.

Soon after 7.30am, I grabbed my fishing gear and headed across the road. I had been once since my earlier effort - but there was quite a big swell coming in, and the water was murky, so I didn't even bother having a cast that day.

The conditions felt perfect, and it was the kind of day that you'd return after a fish feeling good no matter what happened on the fishing front.

I gave myself an hour max for my fish, as I did have a lot of work on. It was about 10 minutes into that hour when I started casting, and after forty minutes I planned on packing up and returning to my work.

I was fishing with my new soft plastic lures: "Sapphire Shine", that I was using last time I fished in this spot and hooked something that I couldn't land. They seem like a good lure - realistic colours and movement.

I varied my retrieve often, unsure of the best way to fish with the lure - sometimes fast with the odd jerky movement; sometimes three or so quick winds and then pausing, alternating the amount of quick winds.

Not long before my forty minutes was up, I hooked a fish! The excitement! The line moving through the water... trying to make sure he was hooked properly... not wanting to lose him...

The kelp in the foreground had been a spot where I lost fish the one time I previously had any real luck here - catching five or six kahawai after seeing them jumping when walking the dog and running back for my gear. I kept the tension on the fish and tried to pull him in as quickly as possible, keeping him above the kelp.

Before too long, I landed this nice four pound kahawai. I'm definitely going across the road more often.

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.