I made a quick dash to the coast this past Sunday hoping to get into some sea run trout. The weather was perfect and the ocean was calm other than the odd small clean wave that rolled onto the beach. I arrived to the river mouth to find an older couple over from Queenstown who'd been fishing the river mouths between Fox Glacer and Jackson Bay for the previous week. They had had bugger all luck on the trout front but had landed dozens of good sized Kahawai in the 4-7lb range and had kept a few and smoked them to eat.

I decided to line up my Epic 7130c Spey rod for a go and third cast found myself attached to a cracking 7lb Kahawai ! Which put up an awesome aerial display before I manged to beach it.

I continued to move up and down the beach on the turning tide with the Spey rod and managed another dozen or so Kahawai in the 2-4lb size range and finally nailed a small sea run right back down at the mouth where the fresh water meets the salt ! The Manic olive surf candy again was my choice of fly and works well on the coast when chasing sea run-esturine fish or Kahawai.

The white bait season is under way now so I'm hoping to get over again next week end to hopefully find a few more sea run trout than my previous trip ! The white baiter's now occupy many of the best spots to fish with their netted stands or as they walk the mouths with their scoop nets so you have to mind where you fish, but I love chatting with the many folk who make the pilgrimage from all over the country to try their luck for the white gold ! You get too meet some absolute characters and get to hear some very fishy stories too !