about us

A social group of dedicated fly fishers who are passionate about fly fishing in the tropical north of Australia and equally as passionate about the close camaraderie this sport brings. This passion and dedication led to the creation of the NT Flyfishers Social Mob blog site; an interactive and creative outlet where everyone can share our wonderful fly fishing adventures and link into the “after fishing” social events we enjoy in this incredible part of the world.

Monday 30 December 2013

Tough Day at Weed Reef with a silver lining!

Finally got my deckie back, after his visit home to Canada for 7 weeks, then a few more weeks of him being a good husband winning brownie points with his wife. So with Peter on the boat, I was confident that if I hooked up to a big queenie like a few weeks before that this outing I would have someone to help out and net it – like I couldn’t in 3 attempts previously only to lose it!
We were going to head out prior to dawn but we sat in the car for a half hour while it poured down with rained, all the time using our phones repeatedly to check weather web sites for rain pattern radar and weather forecasts to help in deciding whether to go at all.

But the insanity that fly fisherman seem to always have as a prerequisite prevailed and we headed to east arm boat ramp while it was still raining and blowing a gale. It was not going to be the best conditions for fly fishing around a reef sort of in the middle of Darwin Harbour based on a rainy, gale prone morning so far.

With rain ponchos on for the rain, a direct trip to weed reef was postponed due to the overly rough water while we hugged the city cliffs in calmer waters. We went right round to Cullen bay and meet the wind coming from the opposite direction before turning back towards the city.


So far we had seen no fish action and given the very rough and sloppy waters to get over to Weed Reef, I almost decided to head back to east arm ramp. However, proceeding carefully we bounced towards Woods inlet and eventually Weed Reef.

Once there - not much happening to begin with but within an hour we had mackerel, trevally, queenfish and a couple of nice golden trevally off the eastern point of Weed Reef, so the day was looking up and the wind started to taper off and the rain had stopped. We could have gone home at this point happy with our day. But as always the proverbial one more cast, one more location kept us at Weed Reef a little longer.


We tried various spots all around the reef but the best spots were always the pressure points of current from the incoming tide pushing past the rocky outcrops. We were catching most fish on sinking lines and bushy synthetic clousers, and seeing the fish were starting to feed more actively in conditions that were getting slightly calmer we switched to surface flies.
Peter was having a blast with fish slashing at his big yellow gurgler (a fly he pinched off my console!) and we both agreed although less fish were being caught, surface caught fish are so much more rewarding with the visual bonuses of fish repeatedly surface slashing at our flies. Peter commented that the day could hardly get better such was the constant tight lines and aggressive fish on fly, particularly on surface flies (I am sure that I specifically heard him say he was content! One of his best days on the water since coming to Darwin.)
In a hope for something different, we moved to the middle rocky out crop on the northern side of Weed Reef and instantly the action on the surface flies was hot, hot, hot! One fish even slashed at my surface fly with only the leader out the rod tip as it trailed behind the boat as we were positioning ourselves next to the rocky point. I then caught three fish in quick succession on a yellow bodied, black backed crease fly with a chartreuse tail - before it seemed Peter had got set to cast.
For once the boat was positioned perfectly for wind and tide, the blob anchor held us just perfectly to cast a fly into and across the face of the rough pressure wave area of the water streaming against and past the rocky outcrop but given the quickly rising tide the action would not last long maybe a half hour before the water went over the top and the fish left the area.
We caught plenty of fish here and conditions were vastly improving as the wind dropped. The stiller conditions allowed us to see the baitfish dimpling the surface behind us. Seems the predators knew this too, shown by the occasional large slash and splash behind us.
By this time the surface flies had been changed back to clousers, and after too many splashes behind us Peter puts a speculator cast in the opposite area of where we had been casting and catching plenty of fish.
It resulted in an instant hook up to a good queenie, that after a short fight let go of the fly – Peter was excited about the fish taking a bit of line through his fingers a couple of times even as  I untangle a knot in his runner line of his shooting head type sinking line – a regular occurrence with this line. Almost next cast into the same area Peter is on again, this one is brought to hand – a feisty 45cm queenie that gives heaps of acrobatic jumps -  pretty much standard size for the day. I begin to think I should change casting direction too. Neither of us has seen the backing today even though the fish have fought strongly.
Peter even though worried about a wind knot or two and his regular running line issues - puts out a cast and hooks up to something big. Instantly line is streaming extremely rapidly through his hands and from his feet and very quickly he is fighting this fish off the reel. As his backing starts to disappear Peter’s strong, constant and vocal encouragement of me to pull the anchor in and give chase is not left in any doubt. Even at full electric motor speed - line is still pouring off Peter’s steelhead reel (a reel more used to soft Canadian salmonoids – will it handle the tough SW species of Northern Australia?). Then off in the distance we see it jump – its massive. Broad through its shoulders and long! Its colossal mouth, flexing to dislodge what now seems to be a very small fly in the corner of its mouth.
At one time the line was shooting through the water in one direction and the monster queenie was jumping in another complete adverse direction. The first explosive run was finally done and we manage to get all the backing onto the reel before the second run began. This fish was strong and dictating terms to Peter on his medium weight fly rod. Peter commented on his fears about wind knots and the possible placement of the fly in such a cavernous mouth and the light leader strength he was using. (Maybe psychologically preparing himself for the highly probable outcome of a lost big fish – happened to Peter a few times already on previous trips).
Then we see a huge dangerous brown shape near Peter’s fish with the full fly line outside of the rod tip. Two, maybe three, times longer and very wide across its head. As the shark circles and chases the queenie, I suggest letting the fish run with minimal drag and the queenie speeds away from danger. We follow on the electric and get most of the flyline back onto the reel. No more shark thankfully. I think sometimes putting extra strain on fish to get it away from sharks will pop your leader, so letting it run is a better option for me.
Once we get all that line back again, the queenie then starts hanging deep and circling so we know we got it beat but it is still several minutes before I get a shot at lip gaffing Peter’s fish (lip gaff as it is too big for my net). 

Once in the boat and many photos and yahoos, we compared it to what we thought were the good queenies we had caught first thing in the morning of 45-50cm and this awesome fish was almost twice that at 93cm. To say Peter was excited, satisfied, content, and exhausted all at once is an understatement.

We fished for an hour more but everything else was just not up to the previous experience. The water had calmed right off and we were surrounded by very big milkies. However we kept casting our clousers due to the occasional queenie type surface slash amongst the milkies in the hope of hooking another brute of a queenfish - this one maybe bigger than 93cm. Isn’t amazing we can catch a great fish but always have just one more cast - just in case something better might come along.
Congrats Peter on catching your PB Queenie – a monster PB 93cm queenfish at that! and all in sight of Darwin City Centre.

TYING THERAPY?

This time of the year, during the wet that is, when its difficult to get out between storms etc. some of us get a bit bored if we cant get out to fish as often as we might.  Darwin Harbour is great for the short trips and I will do a bit more on that later.  But the only therapy I have when you cant go fishing, other than a good red, is tying flies.    But even that can get a bit depressing when its pouring, so I download all those great old audio books and listen to them while I tie. But a bit more on flies...

Now a lot has been said about "The Best Flies" and there is some playful sledging going on between some of us.

I will try and get the instructions for tying all of these and send them out whenever possible..


There are the  "STIG" flies, Wayne Williams Sunday to Saturday flies (STS), the innovative KK (Krazy Krantz flies) and even my Dodgy flies that all work.  But which is the "best"?  Truth I think is, if it catches a fish, its the best fly, but some do really work well in slow or conditions when the most consistent "clouser" and its variations are not working. Liam Hatcher ties some great flies too and you can have a look at his site on http://www.hdflies.com/


 From the 'Stig'





The STS

Some  KK flies




I like to tie the 'special' dodgy' flies in bird fur or something similar like marabou etc.  The black with red metalic is one of Cathies Favourites, Lord Jim favours the yellow and white while I think the 'wild thing' in pink and green is the shot....



 Here is a bit of information on tying the "Wild Thing" (please excuse the spelling)








Sunday 29 December 2013

"Hugg Inlet"



A 5.30am launch found an overcast sky, drizzle rain, not a breath of wind and glass out conditions – perfect. With a 2.5m low at 8.00am no time for the flats so it would have to be the margins as the water was already out of the trees – not a problem – fish were everywhere in "Hugg Inlet" with the added bonus of patches of good clear water to sight fish along the edges.






With the low and freshwater bringing jelly prawns out of the mangroves the fish were feasting big time on them. Barra, Salmon (mainly Blues), Tarpon, Catfish plus everything else with fins. As always jellies = frustration but with patience rewards came, 9 Barra for the day smallest being 50cms and the largest 65cms. Blue Salmon by the sackful but were on the smallish side but were a handful of fun when hooked.



A ton of fun was had and no better way to round off 2013 than with 3 Barra for the table.

Wishing all you Mobsters a Happy New Year for 2014 and look forward to seeing you all on the water with bent rods and tight lines early in the New Year.

Remember, “You’ll never never know if you never never go!” get out there and fish.

Tight lines,
Jim Churchley.

Friday 27 December 2013

Darwin Harbour fishing 20131227

Find hereabouts an image of one of the 23 fish caught for an early morning session on Friday (27 Dec) at Weed Reef, Darwin Harbour. All fish were about the same size 50-55cm.

They were taking sparse 2/0 white clousers 5-6cm long with a little gold tinsel on a full sinking line today.

Tried a few casts with a gurgler for no follows or slashes. The small packs of queenfish and trevally were working the edges of flats and along the gravel bars. The sprays of fleeing baitfish and jelly prawns were the main indication of where to cast. A few bigger ones were mixed in but unfortunately no hook ups on the big ones today. Most packs showed not much consistency in the way they appeared.


I was fishing a rising tide with a peak at 10:30am of a little over 5m high - the conditions were very overcast skies and sticky hot when no wind
The water was rough with wind from north so moved to leeward side of the reef so less rocking about. Though wind still shifted boat about a lot.
Gradually moved up onto weed reef as the tide rose by grounding boat and moving as boat lifted off reef.
A tougher day than previous trips as i had to move around a lot to get within casting distance of actively feeding fish.
Still lots of fun but I do have to start fishing middle and west arm creeks for other species now my confidence is up (at least on queenies and trevally!).

On way back to ramp I did some casting in under the cliffs of the esplanade between aquascene fishing feeding and stokes wharf – here I managed a few more queenies but very spread out and a lot of boring blind casting in very still conditions - at least the rain held off while I was on the water.
The Stig

Wednesday 18 December 2013

2014

We have been asked a lot about the calendar for next year, which will be sent out in a better format via email, but I have also attached it below again.

There probably wont be too much going on over the Christmas New Year period, but if you have any stories that you would like on the blog, send them trough to the email address on the blog and we will endeavor to get them out, because they are for everyone and everyone likes a fishing story or an idea where the fish are biting.

As far as the calendar below goes, it is only a guide to give us something to build on.  During the year, some of us will be going to different locations in the NT so we will keep you informed should you wish to tag along.

 We have tried to indicate the good tides for those of you who only have weekends off, and next year is a lot better that 2013 was, as far as flats fishing tides go.

Here is the legend and a bit of an explanation with each..




Tuesday 17 December 2013

CHRISTMAS PARTY and FISHING

1st The Fishing

On the Morning before the Party, a couple of boats went out in the Harour to get some fresh fish for extra's at the Party. The weather was HOT, with glassy seas and in most spots clear water.

 Lord Jim fished around Indian Island, though when we asked him the location, he supplied coordinates for somewhere in the Sahara Desert. (Must have been a secret spot??)  But he was spied around the flats on Indian, and was almost stuck a few time by the looks of the mud on bottom of his boat and motors.   His Lordship, forgot his camera so there is no shots of his fish, but he brought back some beauties, Barra, Threadies and Queenies.  He said that the water was crystal clear on the flats and would have seen over three hundred barra, in schools around the island.  But they were flighty and skittish.

The White Boat (Jon and Jack White) did extra well too.  Both of them got their PB's on Barra. They were fishing around Vigilant and Knife Island.   In Vigilant, there were salmon everywhere on the jellies, but hooking them up was another matter.  While they were trying to hook the salmon they got their barra from out of the same water.  I'm not sure of the sizes,  but they were beauties, and Jack had his cut up and served to the mob, rather than take it home.  Thanks mate!.

Jack with his Barra.

Jon (Dad) with another great barra
Now you may have read in this blog, that there appears to be a bit of sledging between the WW flies and the Rodgy Doggie flies.  So Rodgy (trying to outdo WW) gave young Jack some of his special, bird fur flies to try the next day.  I'm not sure if they were used on these two fish, but he got into more great fish on Sunday on the 1.5m lows.




According to Rodgy all these were caught on his flies (probably not, but it keeps the feud going)

Pete O and Rodgy went out in the Orange Marauder.  They were surrounded by threadies in Vigilant but couldn't get one to hook up. (Should have used one of Waynes WW flies?)  They did get heaps of  small trevors and queenies, like all the other boats when they were around Knife Island, apparently there were schools breaking up everywhere.  DNA flies seemed to be the secret there.  After that they went down into the Charlotte  just as the tide turned.  There were salmon chasing jellies down there, a heap of small barra, that did not seem interested, but the best fishing they had was on tarpon.  The tarpon were just off the edge of the dirty water rolling on bait.  Apparently there were some really big fish amongst them.   They came in early because it was so hot, they said they both lost about 20 kg in the sun as the heat melted them.

Pete O with one of the Tarpon.
2nd The Party

Well, one thing for sure, no one went hungry, with all the food that Sand Palms put on, plus cooking up the fish that the boys caught, at the end of the day, there were still, prawns, oysters, ham, meatballs, fish pieces and salad left overs.  Then to top that off, Justine brought out trays of her rum balls for desert.  I heard Rodgy and Martin complaining that they couldn't drink anymore because they were too full.  (I think they got over that though).   It was fantastic and again we cannot thank everyone enough.

We ran a raffle with prizes donated by Barb & Pete O, Crusty, Lord Jim, and Rodgy, plus a nights accomodation from Sandpalms.   All the proceeds of that raffle was donated to Careflight.

Our wonderful hostess, Julie.
We also had a lucky door prize, won by Crusty...
Crusty with his 'Lucky door' including a 'redback'.
THE MOB







Glassed out conditions in Darwin harbour


I am setting up a salt water aquarium next year in the school science lab and after my visit to weed reef in Darwin Harbour on Sunday 15th I wish it was already ready set up because of the good and varied fishing I experienced.



To begin with, I caught a plethora of 30-45cm giant trevally as the tide dropped, and due to the consistency of a trevally on nearly every cast, I decided to test a heap of flies.


I tried an articulated squid fly I have been playing with. I used an intermediate sink tip line in 10 feet of water. Love the fly's action in the water - it has an awesome pulse. While the fish respond well to it, I feel colours need to be a little more softer and subtle in clearer water situations like this day had - so am looking for a paler orange craft fur, might also do some tan versions as well.

Then I changed to a scampi fly. A prawn type pattern but lots of movement from orange plastic legs and a white rabbit fur strip. I cast to edge of dirty water at the western tip of weed reef on a 1.5m low tide and let sink - here I caught in successive casts: a stripey, a Moses perch, several quite small snapper, a very large butter bream that went quite hard for a while, a 45cm golden snapper, a wrasse and then a small coral trout.


All of which would have looked great in the soon to be school saltwater aquarium (except the snapper which was definitely destined for frying pan).

Around 11am, the water glassed off for as far as I could see. An eerie experience. But now I could see the small pods of largish queenfish sporadically subtle rolling on surface on the deep water edge out from weed reef.

I targeted the queenies for a while for not much success other than a few passive follows before heading back to weed reef to work the flats as the tide rose.

As the tide continued to rise higher I targeted a pod of bastards on back of the flats but all I did was hit them on the head with the fly I was using and spook them all. More casting practice is needed that's for sure!

Weed Reef for me is an awesome location. It is within sight of a major city, a short travel to ramp and home. Catching fishing the whole time, plus an amazing range of fish. Hot day - yes, but what a great day fly fishing!!

Seriously I had to check myself several times during the day to see that I wasn't dreaming such was the enjoyment of the day, the sights, and the fish.

Wind speed started to rise round 1pm, so I was home by 1:45pm.


   

Monday 16 December 2013

CHRISTMAS PARTY No 1.

Just a bit of information from Facebook on the Party.....more to come...and a big thank you to all those who donated prizes for the raffle.
The whole of the proceeds from the raffle have been donated to

Sandpalms Roadhouse Tropical Motel

Sandpalms Roadhouse Tropical Motel

"Thanks to all of the NT Fly Fishers Social Mob from the Sandpalms Staff. We all had a fantastic time. You guys are amazing. Thankyou for including us and making us feel like we are part of you mob! The little town of Bynoe Haven is still buzzing"


  • On behalf of the NT Fly Fishers Social Mob thank you thank you thank you Tommy Julie and staff for our amazing Christmas Party! ! Julie your food was just awesome. You so deserve a very merry Christmas and a safe and happy 2014. Hope to see you soon. xoxo

Tuesday 10 December 2013

CORROBOREE

Just a quick note, I borrowed a boat and car and went to corroboree on the 6th,the water had come up from the rains and from one end to the other the colour was filthy. Obviously the rain from the nearly cyclone hit there too
Spent 3 hrs. catching nothing and came home.

Cheers Graeme

IGFA Offer from Wattie

Hey Australian IGFA fans! IGFA Captain Glenn William Watt is looking suggestions for the top three criterion you look for in a fishing charter - and offering a year-long IGFA membership for some of the best and most constructive responses! Can you help him out?

Ok you mob, in our enduring quest to provide the most stimulating, engaging and memorable fishing experience in the top end we are always after constructive input from our valued punters.

Q.What are the three top criterion you look for in a fishing charter while planning your holiday?

I have four one year membership gift certificates to the IGFA to give away. This is the worlds governing sport fishing body with whom we have one current world record and two pending. For access to all the cool stuff the IGFA can offer you right across the globe this is the present you want!
The best and most constructive responses win!
















Glenn Watt

Darwin Camping Hire
Barefoot Fishing Safaris

Darwin

Monday 9 December 2013

CHRISTMAS PARTY FISHING?

There are a few of us going down early for the Christmas Party who will also be fishing on the morning prior to the party, so, just in case you are contemplating fishing that morning, here are the tides for both the Saturday of the Party and the Friday prior.   Have not put in the Sunday because I assume we may want to sleep in?


REMEMBER!:  Whilst we have launched and retrieved down to 1.7M in Milne, you need to be careful because a lot of rocky areas are just below the surface on those tides and the large sandbar new Gee creek needs to be navigated with caution or you may spend some time there watching crabs until the tide rises again.

With the above tides, a lot of the flats will also be dry for a short time, but the tidal movement is reasonably slow, so you should have plenty of time to get off them.

At this stage, and as always this time of the year, the weather is an unknown, but as it gets closer we will give you the updates.

It all depends on the whether!.....whether there is a storm
                                                    whether it is too rough to go out
                                                    whether the rain is too heavy
                                                    whether we sleep in
                                                    whether we have a hang over from first night madness

UPDATE 2014...we have already sent this calendar out a couple of months ago, but we have put it in just in case some want to discuss outings for next year...




                                                   

Sunday 8 December 2013

Darwin Harbour

Stuff the lawn mowing, washing, vacuuming, dusting and all the other things that have not been done around the house for the last 12 months, 5 knots of wind and an early afternoon low wins. Launched at East Arm Ramp and made my way through the maze of markers, boats, moorings and floating infrastructure across East Arm.

 Although it’s only been 6 weeks since last on the harbour it is changing rapidly. It looks like a new channel has been put into a new wharf under construction at the port in between Shelly Island and the old boat ramp. Channel markers already in position. Be carefully around Shelly Island as there are lots of poles sticking out of the water now!

Made my way across to Wickham Point and while the weather was great could not find any fish so made my way to West Arm via Little West Arm and had a ball with Queenfish. Lost count after 20 but would have landed 40 or 50 of them. No they weren't big, 30 – 55 cms., but it was fun catching and watching them herd up the bait into the shallows then go ballistic into the ball.



Found small Barra in West Arm.

While the environmental reports regarding the development going on in the harbour all give the green light there is some doubt in my mind. Having just travelled through East Arm via the mouth of Middle Arm, Little West Arm and West Arm to my untrained eye the water in East Arm was totally different to that of the other Arms. Water in other arms was much clearer!!! If anyone is flying into or out of Darwin have a look out of the window and see if there is a visible difference!

Remember, “if you never never go, you’ll never never know”.

Tight lines,

Jim Churchley 

Saturday 7 December 2013

WHIPTAIL FLY READY FOR ACTION!


Another radical fly from Dave Krantz, will be interesting to see how they go


Dave Krantz These are for dredging,  but I'm sure a barra would eat one. Might make an 
unweighted version next