Every Summer after a fresh when there is more colour in the water we always see big browns quietly sneaking up the Tongariro hugging close to the banks out of the main current.  Scott decided to target these last night and hooked his about 7 pm last night behind other anglers lined up at the Bridge Pool in about 2 feet (50cm) of quiet water.  Very smart.

(This was the only one returned for the smoker – apart from the other 12 he landed during the day.)

You can see in the other image on right he has done it before.  It must be the lucky hat…

But that wasn’t today’s fishy story…

This is the absolutely true story about how he became known as “Blondie”… ?

A couple of weeks ago, Scott arrived at TRM only to discover to our horror we were booked out?  (SWMBO had him booked in for the following day.)

SWMBO anxiously examined the guest list to try to find a spare bed for the night with another more ‘compatible’ angler who She hoped wouldn’t mind the intrusion?

The obvious solution was the lucky inmate – Trev – in a big two-bedroom family unit on his own.  Trev – image on left returning on TRM bike – had booked it on his own for two days re-orientation on the Tongariro River pools while waiting for his family to join him.

So we phoned him on his mobile – he was over in Napier visiting other friends – explaining the dilemma.

To make it more interesting, SWMBO explained the new guest needing to share his unit was a lovely, friendly 40-year-old Scandinavian blonde lady.  Trev enthusiastically agreed and drove back from Napier in less than 2 hours only to discover Scott camping in the spare bedroom.

He was asleep on the sofa with a beer carton opened beside him.  The next morning they went fishing and left the empty beer carton outside with the trash, so we knew they must have enjoyed a good bonding session.  We were delighted to find a solution and they became good fishing buddies.

Ever since then, Scott was known to other TRM inmates as “Blondie”.