April fishing report from Brokenflagens

Hey Guys,

Sorry this is a bit late, been flat out busy unfortunately. We did however, both book Friday 26th off, so we went fishing both Thursday & Friday.

We headed out to Hardy's on Anzac day. Up at 4am, we arrived at Hardy's just as first light was breaking. With only 2 other boat trailers in the car park, we were excited. The mozzies weren't bad and the fish were feeding all around the boat ramp. Oh the signs, the anticipation …..the joy…….. the total tease……. the total lack of any d#@*$ decent fish feeding. 

            Turns out only tarpon inhabit Hardlies Lagoon.

 I did get a beautiful strike on my fabulous Gold Bomber (made at the recent Fly tying morning - thanks to Wayne) but after a spectacular Triple Salchow followed by a double forward roll, the (extremely) large Tarpon spat my fly. and that was pretty much it for me for the day, I got a couple of little bites but there was very little happening. Marty got a few bites but couldn't land anything either.

We eventually decided to give trolling on the dark side a go. I put my favourite purple B52 on and lost it to a Croc within 10 minutes! We watched her (yes it was a her, lovely black and yellow markings on her tail & about 3m long) swam brazenly at us, coming in at right angles to our track and diving under as she got close. Took my lure straight down to the bottom and refused to budge. She toyed with me for a few minutes, then a quick shake of her head and she severed the line. 

At the end of the day, there were about 6 or 8 boats in Hardlies that day, and no-one seemed to catch anything (not that they admitted/boasted to us). So we left there empty handed.

  

Not disheartened, we got up at 4am again on Friday and headed out to Corroborree,  arrived just as the light was breaking. The sunrise was breath taking, especially as the full moon was setting at the same time. Just off the boat ramp looking east was the deep reds and purples of the sunrise and looking west was the dark of the retreating night with the full moon receding through faint mist. (see photos1 & 2). 

We turned left off the boat ramp and were very disappointed to see a large fuel slick all the way round the bend. We stopped around by the lilies aiming to target the Saratoga. But after only a few tasks we started to notice a pretty foul odour. It was faint and it took a little while to realise it was actually the water - and the faint whiffs we had had been having trouble placing was actually coming from our hands - off the water that had transferred from stripping in the line. As the light improved we realised that there was also the fuel slick around here too.

 The lilies were all just dead sticks poking out of the water. With the smell and the dead lilies it was totally unappetising. We sat and looked around and realised that there was hardly even Tarpon stirring. We decided to head to Rock Hole.

There were Tarpon on the feed everywhere all the way there but we wanted more, so we ignored them and continued on to Rock Hole. Again, dead lily  stalks everywhere but the water seemed fresher as we moved towards Rock hole. We fly fished along Rock Hole all morning. Normally, along there you just about get run down by all the guide boats trolling up and down but there were only a couple of other boats fly fishing. We got a couple of good bites, Marty lost a big barra but we really couldn't raise anything.  We did see numbers of cat fish swimming up to the surface in small groups. They appear to be gulping air or feeding….? They were moving very lethargically and often in close groups of 4 - 5 fish.

However, the Tarpon were bouncing around everywhere, so we gave up on the bigger fish. I reluctantly took my Gold Bomber off and put on little white flashy things and played with the tarpon for the next few hours. We caught loads - got lazy and tried to lose them when we got them close to the boat so that we didn't have to bring them into the boat.  Turned out to be a fun day, although very disappointing on a number of other levels.

Was very disappointed to see the fuel slick and the stinky water. Again, no-one at the boat ramp or any of the boats we talked to seem to be getting anything.

PS.Hey, we just got a new baby - her name is Minn Kota and we need to give her a test this weekend. (Marty has done an amazing job mounting her to the boat.) Do you have any suggestions as to where might be good fishing for the Brokenflagens to break their drought. The Billabongs seem to be out…………unless it was just the moons last week affecting the fish…?

Jus and Marty