Of Toga and "things".

After a warm, butter soaked slice of sour dough bread fresh from the camp oven, dipped in a cup of pumpkin soup and chased with a red hot satay, I finally decided I needed to seriously wet a fly again.  I chatted breifly with Dr Churchley at the Mob gathering on Saturday, courtesy of the Broken Flagons and considered an afternoon on Corroboree.  Kate and I left the gathering early, she desperately needed to put the finishing touches on her oral defence for her PhD and needed to be sharp on Sunday to finalise the presentation,which incidently, went down a treat.  She didn't have much defending to do and will no doubt be finalised as a PhD candidate.  You have proud moments over your lifetime, and that one goes down as one of my greatest.  I couldn't be prouder. 

Anyway she opted for the laptop over the flyrod, so I headed off into the smoke haze a loner.  I pulled into Humpty Doo for some fuel and decided not to add the oil there and then, in favour of getting on the water quicker. So off I charged.

I arrived keen and eager at 12:30, dropped the tinny in and went searching for a car park (yes I had to search).  I finally found one and walked back to the ramp thinking about the oil.  Right, fuel, add oil, go.  I lifted the lid of the hatch and a fleeting thought crossed my mind about the last time I added fuel to the boat..... in the bloody shed, where I left the oil! Damn!  Have you ever noticed the lack of 2 strokes on the water these days, well I hadn't until then and trust me there isn't many.  Luckily the lovely people at Mary River Houseboat Hire had some to spare.  If you read the blog, a big thanks.  The folks there also confirmed the rumour of a 117cm barra from Corroboree and a 107 from Hardies.  Big fish for a billabong!

Ok, fuel-check, oil-check, everything else good to go, yep!  I turn left at the boat ramp most times at Corroboree and this time was no different and the gods appeared to be smiling again.  Of the 6782 boats on the billabong, none were down at Marrakai. 

The wind was still pushing 15-20 out of the SE, so I tucked into a lee and rigged up the 10wt and tied on a WW STS fly on an intermediate line.  I fished it with all the confidence I could muster,considering past posts from Cathy and Graeme, but after 2 hours without a sniff, I sacked the bloody thing.  Speaking of things, my next choice was an orange and yellow one with dumbell eyes to get the fly down reasonably quick.  Within 5 minutes I had a 60+ toga in the net.

Saratoga have to be my favourite tropical freshwater fish.  I prefer them to barra, mainly because of their sheer beauty.  They don't pull as well, but to me they are far more fun to catch and I often preferentially target them. 

I recalled an article by Starlo regarding Saratoga taking a fly down deep and Jim's recent posting from Muirella Park about Toga picking flies up off the bottom.  My next cast was made tight up against a pandanus clump in reasonably deep water.  I let the fly sink, gave a couple of slight twitches to get the bird fur moving, paused, then bang, I was hit hard, I struck and was connected for about 4 seconds then the leader gave way.  Bugger.  I repeated this tactic for several minutes and hooked up again and, after a short blue, had another Toga of similar size resting in the net.

This continued until it was nearly dark.  Although slow, the fishing was consistant.  I finished up with 4 Saratoga and a catfish all on the orange thing, fished deep and very slow.  It was interesting because in my experience, Saratoga normally take a fly close to the surface, sometimes fielding it before it hits the water, but not this time.  The water temperature was cool, around 24 degrees and I didn't see a barra all afternoon and I reckon I only heard one boof just before dark.  All of the Saratoga were over 60cm which again I found interesting because there is normally a smattering of younger fish more willing to take a fly.  My suspicion is that the poor wet has resulted in a lot of hungry animals in the billabong, so anything small is getting nailed.  Speaking of hungry animals, the last Toga I hooked attracked the attention of a hungry reptile that approached the boat or more likely the hooked fish, without hesitation.  There was nothing I could do.  He grabbed the lot, and happily swam off.  Poor bloody Toga.

This shot shows the fly nicely.  It was orange and yellow bird fur with a chenille body and orange hackle with nickle eyes on a 2/0 Tarpon hook. 

An afternoon on Corroboree is always time well spent.

Saratoga are an extremely ancient group of fish, commonly known as bony tongued fishes.  We have 2 species in Australia, one that occurs right across the Top from Adelaide River, east across to cape york, they other is on the east coast of Queensland.

Schleropages jardini (NT model)

Schleropages leichartii (Qld model)

They also occur right across tropical Asia and into South America.  In fact the largest true freshwater fish in the world belongs to this group.  The Arapaima or Pira Acu is a wopper of fish that lives in the Amazon.  Others like Schleropages formosa are highly regarded as an aquarium fish in Asia and fetch are for sale for over $40,000.

Schleropages formosa

Arapaima

Anyhow enough of that.  Get out there and enjoy the scenery, and enjoy chasing a great species of fish that goes back a long way.

Dion