A trolley may not be the most shocking thing to be dumped in an urban duck pond, but what I found next was a little more interesting.
There were two more trolleys and a tyre that looked like it belonged on a monster truck sitting in the lake. To be honest, I was a little embarrassed to have pulled out the rod and reel in front of all the dog-walkers and joggers, but I had driven half an hour to get there, so I wasn't going to call it a day so quickly.
I started with worms under a float, which I quickly got very bored of. Self-conscious, I changed tactics and tied a jighead to my line, fishing with a black and gold squidgy. Walking the along the shoreline, I aimed to cover as much water as possible, but found the lure almost impossible to see in the murk. With more than an hour to kill before my girlfriend clocked off, I opted for a bright pink 3" power minnow by Berkley Gulp. Casting and retrieving from beside the trolley, I had almost reeled the SP back to my feet when I had a hit, the rod tip shaking violently. Stunned that I had hooked something other than another empty bread bag, I reeled faster, but missed landing the fish. I immediately cast again and just a few metres from the bank, almost at my feet, I got another strike, this time with a successful hook-up. The fight was short-lived due to how close to the bank the lure already was, but I was stoked to pull out a reddie.
At 21cm, it certainly isn't the most impressive redfin, but I've been catching them at the 12cm mark lately (in a different spot) so a model measuring 20+ was exciting for me. Nothing else of note occurred after that other than the local hoon doing burnouts on his dirt bike across the road in front of his mates.
