When I saw it for the first time it immediately reminded me of the Elephant Graveyard in The Lion King, but my fear was very different to Simbas.  How the hell was I going to present to a fish in this?  Ive never seen anything like it (and the Gopro stills won’t do it justice).  These individual sharp rocks are shin high, some knee high.

Murphys law, the first time the tide pushed I walked in and immediately there were fish.  Right in the thick of it.  I tried to take a few shots but I couldn’t retrieve 5 feet without hooking a rock and potentially spooking the Permit.

Back to the vise I went. First I tried stronger weed guards, and rolling beads, and combinations of both.  Things that have worked great in the tropics for bouncing over a rock or two.  The pressure mounted the next day when I still could not retrieve properly in this mess.  It made it worse that there weren’t fish anywhere else, and we knew the bad water was coming.  I didn’t have time for this shit.  the ground was shifting.  I needed to take advantage now.

So I sat on my ass in a puddle of water and simulated a few retrieves.  I fly was always falling head first.  It would also sit eye-down, perfect to wedge itself in on the retrieve.  The centre of gravity needed to change.  So I tied some dumbbells right under the point of the hook at around the half way mark and covered it in epoxy to make the drag across the rocks easier.

I eventually could even omit the weed guard.  It turns out rock crabbin is all about the centre of gravity…