Big Muddy

Cock seems to be hooked on catching kingis with flies. Early in the week he suggested a trip to the Manukau to chase down a more sizable fish than the Waitemata rats. We decided to launch an hour after high tide and fish the outgoing. Having checked out a few places, Cornwallis seemed the ideal launch spot, especially as we could retrieve on the low tide. Well, we almost got derailed by a last minute goose hunt, but unfortunately the cockie couldn't be tracked down, added to which he had young stock in the paddock the birds were using. The wind got up and came in against the outgoing tide, leaving us with a horrible chop to deal with. For 6 hours we gave it everything we had. Fish were seen on the sounder but not on top. At one stage a good big fish nipped Cock's fly and gave him a view of a rather broad flank... his adrenaline levels jumped through the roof. I didn't see it.

We tried burley. Poppers. Skull head flies. Fast retrieves & slow. deep & shallow. By low tide we were just off Cornwallis and in the twilight it 'felt' fishy. But no, nothing to show.

I'm missing something here, more research needed....