If I Had Not Seen It With My Own Eyes.
Neil Goodings
It was during my second visit but first with rod in hand to the splendid sporting retreat of Twin Lakes just out of Hobart.
The first afternoon was spent casting to the murky depths of Niffty,s lake for a shot at one of the huge browns that live there. As the afternoon turned to the evening shades that only Tasmania can offer the fishing just got better and better until I could double haul no longer and besides I found that the pungent odor that punched me in the nose every few minutes was in fact Me!
So after a long shower that found me staring at the wall for long periods thinking of the great weights of fish that I had tempted with my amateurish attempt at fly tying, and of getting some great shots of fine, superb conditioned fish, it was off down the track for dinner with our fine hosts the Cooks, Rosie and Ian.
After more than one or two reds Ian told of great trout that were so big they ate ducklings, yes ducklings. It was about this time I felt that someone had pinned a note to my shirt with the word “sucker” written in bold red letters. I am not sure of the quantity of alcohol consumed but then it was the next day…..
We decided to rest the water of the top lake and headed off at first light to the bottom and larger lake. As we sneaked past the Cook,s home I am sure I could still hear them laughing about the gullible Welshman and the duck story.
Then it happened.
As we neared the shoreline we startled up a mother duck and her five ducklings no more that a few days old. As we watched them paddle away looking a little like the wall hangings at my mother house when I was a child a sixth duckling started out after the now perfectly formed front group. The comment was made, how he or she had better be careful that the “giant trout “did not pick him or her out for breakfast. Then with hardly a swirl the hapless duckling was no more, not a splash, no feathers, in fact nothing like we saw in Jaws at all, just no duckling.
This is not a Loch Ness story but would not have believed it if in deed I had not seen it with my own two eyes and with another witness to verify my story as fact.
Already working on the ducking fly.
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