Turtle Hatch

Another old one from www.sexyloops.com written in Early 2020

 My 2 fishing trips since the rules were clarified haven't been great, partly because I was too excited to get back on the water and partly because of other factors. 

First day out I decided to go to a river that holds nice smallmouth with Hiromiki - who I'm starting to think might be my Jonah.  It's a tough river, but has regularly produced fish in the 22-23 inch range for me over the last few seasons. Conditions were great and I was feeling pretty good about things. Unfortunately, after covering a couple of hundred metres of river we rounded a bend to see a coffer dam and an excavator working away, and turning the water the colour of chocolate milk. Bugger.

Out of the river and a quick walk down stream in search of some clearer water. All we found were more work sites, including a new bridge that's probably going to take more than the rest of the year to finish. Some of the new stuff might actually turn out to make good pools, but that's a long way away. 

My next trip was closer to home, a nice little stream through some farm land. I like the paddy fields to look at, but in the spring they flood and drain them into the river. Once again chocolate milk, but I wasn't so put out as before. I did manage a couple of fish in the margins and watched a couple of big fish taking advantage of some small river turtles that I assume were hatching or had hatched during the night. It's only the third time I've seen this behaviour and it's amazing to see.

Next week the rice planting should be done and sight fishing will be back on the cards.