Recent fishing forays, Darwin is a waders paradise, get into it.

I have had the pleasure of doing some wading recently and with all the hype about needing a boat to access good fisheries is about to be debunked.
Andy and I had a great day a week or so ago wading around Darwin's beaches on the incoming tide, we didnt catch a lot, but the idea has great potential, partcularly for crab eaters like Blue Bone.  These things really go.  I was fishing with a 9wt Sage and was down to the backing in a couple of seconds.  Great fun and all sight fishing too.


3kg blue bone from Darwin Beach

The fun continued the following Sunday when I took a run out to Mandorah to try wading the beaches there too.  I fished the beach side of a rocky reef on the start of the incoming and caught 6 or 8 good queenfish and a nice pikey bream.  Several meter plus queenies sauntered passed by showed only fleeting interest in the small white and pink clouser.  I reckon a big crease fly (does anyone know how to tie these?) would have been more to the big guy'guys liking.  I watched a 4m+ mamta ray swim up to the reef edge and patrol the bay for a 1/2 and hour or so, really amazing stuff. 
Anyway the tide was filling so I thought I'd go for a look on the beach it self.  My first cast was rewarded with a 60cm barra.

The fish was lying tight against a mangrove tree.  I released this little guy and waded a little further along the beach and noticed large brown patches patrolling the surf line and then heading out and balling up in the slightly deeper water. 
The white clouser on the light (6kg) tippet didnt last long.  A heavier (10kg) tippet added and the brown smudges turned out to be blue salmon.  I managed 8 or 10 before the tide peaked and the feeding activity diminished.

There's 4 salmon in that shot, but you can't see it too well in the photo.  There were some good sized fish in this group, but man they are hard to hook.  I reckon I had over 30 takes and only 8 or so stayed connected.  The schools were patrolling along the surf line in about 30cm of water.

Blue salmon are a great fly fishing target on the beaches and can obviously be accessed right off our beaches.  The best fly I found on the day was a black and orange birdfur creation. 
So for 3 hours fishing I ended up with a swag of good queenies, a bream, a barra and some great blue salmon.  Get out there and give it a go.  The incoming neaps seem the best so far, but I havent tried any other tides.  I am certain of the potential of this type of fishing and will be exploring it further if we are not out chasing tagged sawfish.
Good luck and happy fishing.

Dion

STORY OF 'O'

Not to be confused with the 'R' rated movie/novel.   Its Often said that when you get Older or Over the hill as some say, you Overreact, Overcompensate, get Overanxious  and Overstate things.

 All probably true.

Now the Orange boat has had its problems in the past.  Ran Over a rail and put a big hole in the bottom.   Bent props hitting rocks etc. that were covered Over with water, and a few Other niggling  minor things caused by Overdoing things .  But all in all a great boat.

However, Over the past few weeks we have noticed that there is an Overflow of water from the bung holes On returning from fishing.  Other fishers have given heaps of advice on the problem.  Over-stressed bottom resulting in Opening cracks.   Running Over rocks resulting in holes etc.  But it was only after Peter O'sullivan said to me, " You silly Old Oaf, its your O rings."

So sure enough after the boat was put on stands, and I dried the bottom of it with towel, I Overfilled it with water.  Overfilled because I forgot the bloody hose was On and the water was Over the floor.

After I went Over the bottom of the boat, I could not find a drip, (Cathie says she found One laying under a boat filled with water) except a constant drip in the bungs (as Pete O had said).  When I really tightened up the bungs the drip stopped.

The O rings were cracked and apparently on some bungs, don't run Onto a flat surface but to a beveled One and if they are not new or really tight they leak.

So make sure you have good O rings and the bungs are tight.

PS  Going to check Corroboree tomorrow and will give you a report, also we have some interstaters on the way up in a few weeks so will be arranging some fishing days. 

Will let you know what is happening as far as those fishing days go just in case you can make it out.

NT Social Mob is truly worldwide !

Recent views of the blog over the last week have gone worldwide.......

A BIT MORE ON BYNOE

It was good to see the numbers of barra in spots where they had been pretty sparse in the past.  We fished with Pete O'Sullivan and his daughter Peta for a few days.   Also ran into Graeme Williams and Dave (His client) who had had a good time on the barra and threadies.

 The water was a bit cloudy from the rain and you could only see the barra right up on the edge or when you disturbed a big one on the flats and it took off. Dave even hooked one at the back of Knife on the mid tide while we were into a group of big queenies feeding on bait balls.

  Best of the barra was in the 70's, and Pete made the best of one of them, cooking it up for his daughter for lunch one day then a jack freshly caught the next day.  Something he picked up from fishing with Lenny, don't take lunch,  catch it (or starve?).  We dined on gourmet cheese and crackers !!

Pete the BBQ Man cooking up fresh barra.

Guess what's for lunch

This one got released, I had to have cheese and crackers

It was really hot out there on Wednesday, that's why the bimini's are up.  Some really good fishing out there with what appears to be a lot more bigger fish, so the year ahead is looking pretty good.

Cathie managed to tag a heap of snapper too, so if you catch a snapper with a tag in it, let the Fisheries know for their surveys.

PS.  The Anzac Day service at Sand Palms was very moving and wonderful to see so many ex and serving members of the ADF there. A huge thanks to Julie and Tommy for putting on such a magnificent day for everyone.

       The Bassetts

Heaps of fish around in Bynoe Harbour

Just had a couple of days exploring the backwaters of Bynoe and got blown away with numbers of Barra on offer. Crystal clear water with mobs of fish for hours in the 50 – 70 cms range. Largest boated 78 cms. Bigger the fly the better the “Barra Attack”, small flies were ignored.

Up in the mangroves were mobs of “Black Barra” hiding out and would hit anything that came within striking range. Problem was that being in the thick scrub getting them to the boat proved a challenge

Tight lines

Jim

Hervey Bay last weekend

Hi everyone,

Muz & I took a trip to Hervey Bay last weekend, Saturday was good (other than me getting seasick), Sunday however was amazing!! Link to a video of some of the action.

  

http://youtu.be/ckNNOAckdfk

  

Regards

Mark Hosking 

An afternoon on the Finnis Fresh

Hi all,

I snuck out to the fresh side of the Finnis last night after work.  The first time I have wet a flyrod since last year's Salt comp.  The river is flowing well, but as normal after such a crappy wet, it is that off brown colour instead of the normal nice green colour. 
The usual run off creeks are still pushing colour into the main stream, but the water is black and smelly, not fish killl smelly, but certainly low in oxygen smelly.  I fished around a couple and the results were the same.  A lot of tarpon smashing tiny rainbows right on the surface.  No barra or anything else for that matter in the black water.  It stands to reason that the black water is low on oxygen.  Tarpon use their swimbaldder as an ancillary oxygen absorbing mechanism and can gulp air to supplement the transfer of O2 over their gills, so arent as badly affected by low O2 levels as the standard gill breathers. 
I hooked a couple of barra out of the flow coming from the creeks, but alas, the hooks pulled.  I managed 4 nice sooties to 45cm all caught upstream of the creek outflows.
What was interesting was the lack of munchies coming out of the creeks.  There is usually heaps of rainbows of all sizes, followed up by schools of long tom and obviously tarpon, but not this year.
I did find quite a few fish on snags in the main channel, the usual culprits, primative archers, normal archers, sooties and tarpon, but the barra were conspicuous in their absence.
The few that I did actually see where sitting in that surface layer where most of the O2 is.
I think the freshwater might me a bit tough this year.  It'll be interesting to see what happens when the water temps drop a bit and the dissolved O2 increases.  Things might pick up a bit.
I remember years ago on the Adelaide after a similarly crappy wet, the barra were really concentrated on the rock bars.  Might be worth a shot.
I think the black fish Jim is referring to in Bynoe might be like everyone has stated, they are from the fresh and are just sorting out their physiology to cope with the salt again.  They could be stressed too from the lack of food in the fresh this year, considering the lack of rain on the floodplains.  It will be interesting to see if they are still there on the next set of decent tides.  Are they lean? 

Just for the sweet water folk, I would be inclined to suss out the Kakadu Billabongs this year rather than the Mary.  They seemed to have had a bit of flow and flood this year.  But I think it'll be tough where ever you go in the fresh, but I'd love to be proved wrong though.

Cheers

Dion

UPDATE ON HARBOUR FISHING

We have been getting a lot of information on both Darwin and Bynoe harbours.  Plenty of small pelagics around, with some big ones hunting them up.   On the flats heaps of smaller barra, up to the 60cm size.  The barra seem to be on the little bit higher tides in the creek mouths around small bushes.  Jim came across mobs of barra in groups of a dozen or so that were all tailing.  The fish were black, not the normal silver with yellow tails.

  We were wondering if they were newly arrived in the saltwater from the fresh upstream and acclimatising to the salt?  Who knows.

Some have been out and into the sailfish, they had a ball, but I will leave that for another story.

Tides this weekend are very slow and rising slowly  from around 3m early morning to just under 5m in some places.  So nice easy flow for those of you who want to explore without getting stuck.   Maybe not the best for fishing, but who knows.  

At least you are on the water.  There are no fish in the lounge room.

PROJECT HEALING WATERS

There is a new initiative that we may be able to assist with;

Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing Australia is dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active duty military personnel and veterans through fly fishing, casting, fly tying and fishing outings. These fly fishing outings, casting instruction, fly tying workshops and rod building workshops are tremendous opportunities to help our military personnel who are recovering physically and emotionally. Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing Australia depends upon the contributions of people interested in making a difference in the lives of those who have sacrificed for us.

I have passed this onto the DFR as well, click onto the link below for more information

http://projecthealingwaters.org.au/

HARDIES IS OPEN

Dry is almost here – Hardies is open.

Hardies Billabong opened Monday afternoon so took a trip out to give it a go. Arrived at the ramp at 6.30am and was the only vehicle there. The road in was like a highway and had obviously been graded a day or two earlier. There is plenty of water around in the low lying areas with a good flow coming from the creek right of the boat ramp.

Made my way down the billabong fishing the edges without much success on the Barra stakes but was kept busy with Tarpon and heaps of Catfish. Currently the water is still dirty, to find clear water you need to find some drains coming out of the floodplains through the floating grass which lines the edges. Wherever you find this clearer water you can hear and see the grass moving as the Barra boof deep in the grass. Could not entice any out, just too deep in there.

From the grass tussocks in the trees it looks like there was a good flush after Easter with the level through Hardies being 7 – 8 foot higher than current level.

On the way back to the ramp I pushed my way into Jim’s secret billabong through a lot of dead timber left from the high water. The area looks very fishy, although I could not get through Tarpon and Catfish. Should anyone venture into this area just beware a HUGE croc has taken up residence and was a little bit too curious for my liking. My boat was not big enough to be in the same area!

From the lower end of the billabong I could hear heavy equipment working on the road into Coroborree so this should not be long opening. Spoke with John from Mary River Houseboats and he told me that the water had got as high as halfway up the toilet block walls, lilies had been thinned out leaving dead leaves and stalks (as per photo), road inspection expected today. The other news was that a 92 cms Barra was caught in Hardies yesterday.

Same old story, “should have been here yesterday”.

Jim

Thanks and some scoring thoughts for the July Event

Hi all,

Thanks Cath and Rog for the generous hospitality yesterday.  It was a fantastic afternoon and the food was sensational.  It was really great to see some familair faces again and just chat about stuff related to fly fishing.  I ran into Jo Starling at the supermarket on Saturday and she sends hers and Steve's regards and would have dropped in if they had the time, so the support network is working well.

Regarding the Bynoe Sheep Station Stakes in July.  I like the concept of the scoring, I think that would open the field a bit which would be good and create a challenge for all competitors.

I also think legal size limits should apply to managed species such as barra and snapper.

Regards,

Dion

UPDATE

Love the name Bynoe Sheep Station Stakes we forgot to put in a photo of the sheep from the Station so here they are.

TYING FLIES AND TELLING LIES?

Didn't think we could get as many as we did into the little yard, Cathie's count was thirty something, but after the sangria I counted hundreds, but apparently I was seeing double!

  I mean thirty (30) litres of sangria!!!!!

Some outstanding flies,  I think people have been practicing in the 'off season' now all we have to do is catch a fish on them. Justine now has some great gold bombers to try thanks to Wayne's expert instructions.   I suppose Marty will have to let her out fish him again?

Rebecca came back from Kosciusko after hiking all over the mountain.  I reckon it was for the good weather back here, not really the sangria.

Julie, Tommy and the family came up from Sand Palms for a special visit.

The gurus were at it too, all the special secret flies in the secret corner.  Not really, no secrets, and everyone has been into the fish.

There are a few more stories (yarns) about to be published.  Jim has an interesting view on why all the 'black' barra have been tailing in Bynoe.

There are a lot of interstaters visiting in the next few months so we will have to get the fishing even more organised.

Our next social mob gathering will either be out fishing or at the Brokenflagens having a camp out and telling even more lies !!  Watch this space !!

Brokenflagen fishing report from Bynoe Harbour (Last Saturday)

Hi all,

Justine and I went fishing at Bynoe (Milne inlet) last Saturday and what a great day it was. Launched as the sun was just lighting the sky, slowly planed out to the creek across from Knife island with that first hint of coolness in the air.

I have to admit we were fishing on the dark side (Justine set up her fly rod) and after a couple of casts at the bank I was on! Nice Barra, But it seems I have forgotten how to tie a lure on as the lure just slipped off the end of my line. (Not happy).

Justine did have a go at flying a line but no luck, after she picked her overhead combo up she managed to add 3 new species to her list of catches. Thread-fin Salmon, Barracuda and a catfish. She was happy with this but I have to say getting the Barracuda off the lure was a bit of a challenge.

 One small fingermark for me so I had to listen to Justine skiting all the way home, good on her.

All in all a very nice day out.

Cheers to all

Marty and Jus. (The Brokenflagens)

Saltwater Gathering for the Mob ??

A few of us have been trying to put together a saltwater ‘gathering’ rather than a competition, but it would have some competitive aspects.

The whole idea is to allow everyone a reasonable level playing field by having five (5) species drawn out of a group of fifteen (at this stage) that is made up as much as possible of five of the most usual fish from the three different areas, that is, flats, rock bars and pelagics.  Some will overlap but it’s a start.

The five species drawn out would be the main target species for that particular day. Another five would be drawn that evening for the next day.

The scores for all fish would be per centimetre but the difference would be that the target species total would be multiplied by the number of species caught.

Species to be chosen from are, at this stage, golden trevally, all other trevally, queenfish, golden snapper (fingermark), Mangrove Jack, black bream, catfish, cod, mackerel (all), blue salmon, threadfin salmon, ock ock or javelin fish, Spanish flag,  barramundi and Tarpon

Here is a draft of the score sheet

Looking at dates for this, we thought the 20^th and 21^st July 2013 looks good, it is at the end of the school holidays. Weather of course is unknown the tides look great (have attached them on the next page.   Could have boats with one or more competitors?.

 Must have photo’s of target species, don’t need size just the species.

Here are the tides we were looking at, times probable 6.30am to 5pm first day and 6.30am to 2pm next day, we were also looking at a factor that might allow some to fish only one day if they wanted.  Remember it’s all for fun.

BUT WE MUST WARN YOU    IT IS FOR A SHEEP STATION!!!!

                The Bassetts

NZ WITH THE ORRS

We had a great time in NZ but found that most of the bigger south island browns had multiple line-burns across the top of their heads from the amount of angling attention all Summer.

The weather was a challenge anywhere near the Southern Alps. If the sun was out, it was blowing forty knots straight in your face. If the sun wasn't out, it was raining. And bloody cold either way!

Two days fishing the Mataura was a bust. Saw several hundred good fish but could only fool the pan-sized examples. The upper Oreti was very low with bugger-all flow so we left it alone.

Landed a Chinook salmon in Lake Wakitipu, my first on the fly. Dropped another after a fair fight with lots of jumps. Little EP-synthetic smelt fly I tied myself, nice!

Sadly the wild sea-run salmon were not running in the lower Rakaia but I was still happy to spend (waste) the first two days trying for one.

It has been a dry summer apparently. They were getting a few in the Waiau but we wanted to head south from Christchurch, not north.

Next trip will revert back to December, hopefully there will still be a few uneducated (or forgetful!) trout kicking around early in the season.

Meanwhile, back to the Barra...Ho-hum.....

Cheers
Tony

PS. Rebecca may still be away next weekend, she is trekking in the Kosciusko National Park with her sister this week.

GRAEME AND DOTTY

Dotty and I just spent a couple of hours in East Arm , very windy, tried Hudson Creek, to no avail and then decided to check turbidity in Lightning Creek. Dotty hooked 4 nice Barra landed a couple one 62cms.  I got one 56cms.

Then we came home.

I would post a photo haven't quite figured that out yet.

Graeme and Dotty

Shady Camp Update

Following Graeme’s update of the water levels along the Arnhem Hwy I decided that a trip to Shady was a good excuse to not mow the lawn.

Went out late Thursday afternoon and can confirm Graeme’s observations, Scotts Creek still just under the road with a couple of people flicking lures off the roadway. No Barra caught but good numbers of Tarpon giving them a work over. Mary River about a metre under the bridge and well and truly in the car park with just the lids of the garbage bins showing, river colour that of double shot Pauls Iced Coffee!

Made my way to Point Stuart Lodge for a cold one and a natter to see what had been going on. A lot of fishing groups staying there all with a similar story of a lot of time between fish and that the only place that seemed to be producing was the mouth of Sampan, all the other creeks (Tommycut, Marsh, Love etc) have no water flow. Talked with a ringer from Melaleuca Station that told be the water was rising fast on the plains below the station as the fence posts were disappearing from sight quickly.

The road down to Shady was dry but had obviously been subjected to a lot of water and was cutup and rough in places. Arrived at the car park in the dark to find at least a dozen or so boats still out on the water for the night. Bedded down for the night at the campsite and can confirm that the dry season is not too far away, sky full of stars and cool, good sleeping weather.

Launched the boat at 5.00am. No problems being high tide with the water level with the rock and water pipe, for those that know the launch area. Launch approaches starting to get a bit cut up with a couple of soft spots to be careful off. Another boat launched at the same time as me and was equipped with spot lights capable of giving third degree burns from 50 metres, being the gentleman that I am let them go first and I would follow in their wake.

Made my way to the mouth after negotiating about a kilometre of rafting weed being flushed downstream from the floodplain with the extra water. At the “S bends” the river was blocked from bank to bank with the weeds but was easy to push through the gaps. Arrived at the mouth just on daylight, 4 boats were already trolling about a kilometre out from the mouth.

Being the last hour of the run out drifted the drop off from the flats on the right looking out to sea. Sea was flat as glass, water was a good colour, no wind, all the right ingredients. For the next hour there was a constant stream of boats arriving to join the trolling throng, ended up being 30 – 40 boats there. Even with this amount of boats around all seemed ordered with the exception of one guide boat that seemed intent on trying to capsize all with his wash and trying to cut in on people. If anyone has a need to drill holes in the hull of a big blue guide boat, he has three of them, drill a couple for me.

Fished the change of the tide and first couple of hours of the incoming and ended up with, 1 Barra a touch over 70, 1 Threadfin just under 70, 1 catfish which was huge but was not invited into the boat and was busted/bitted off my two other Threadies. It was fun.

Made my way back to the ramp, via the barrages, with no further additions to the fish scores. Water level at the main barrage was just at the top of the table on the barrage and had probably risen about 300mm since launching in the morning.

The road out of Shady had two graders working on it to smooth things out and was like a highway. At the Mary River the water had dropped overnight and was half way down the garbage bins.

With some water still to arrive at Shady there is an opportunity for it to go off soon. Speaking to one of the guides as he was coming off the fresh after going for a look the flush to come may bring some of the bait downstream. At the moment there is no visible bait (tarpon) around the barrages but according to the guide, up the lagoon it is awash with them. Let’s hope this is the case.

If anyone hears of any reports from Shady over the next week please let us know.

Jim

A couple of shots of the barrage

  

   

Reply to Sangria and Roggie's dodgy flys

Hi Cath,

Disregard the last email, I think I have figured it out.

We'd love to be there and will be unless we are chasing sawfish around the Adelaide River.  Kate has finally caught 2 babies, so the fun begins. 
Speaking of the Adelaide, there is finally run off, but it won't be for long.  Kate has been up there over the last couple of days and the river is finally fresh with a fair bit of run off.  But be quick.  This morning there were 18 boats at the ramp.  The Adelaide is a tricky river, when it's hot it is very hot, but when it's not it can be hard.  If the creeks lower down have stopped flowing, head up past Goat Is and fish the run offs up there.  If they are no good Scotts is normally a winner on the top and the turn at the mouth or on the turn of the low as soon as there is enough water to get in, ride the tide up and fish the eddies.  It's tight and would be hard with a fly rod, but it is a challenge.

Best

Dion

PS I reckon Jim's Little Howard would be a cracker at the moment!! I have had some blinders up there on the moon phases in the past.  Barra normally feed on the prawns coming off the floodplain....all night, non stop boofing, until the morning spring tide slows the flow.  It's a mozzie infested night but something any keen barra fisherman should expereince once in a life time!

Inaugural NTFFSM fly tying/lying session

Hello to all,

It would appear that the weather is changing - for the better we hope - tides over the 6th/7th April look good for flats fishing however the wind could muck it up.

So, the following weekend, 13th/14th tides are not as good??  I have tentatively booked Roger's fly tying area for a social session of tying/lying, eating something from Cathie's kitchen (Ola! Mexican) with gallons of sangria!!!

There could be a degree of difficulty added to the fly tying, depending on the strength of my sangria !!

Let me know if you are game !!

Good tides for next weekend at Bynoe

For those of you looking for good tides on a weekend, next weekend, the 6th and the 7th April look great for flats and rock bars in Bynoe. New Moon too.

  I'm not too sure how the weather will be though.  At this stage it may be windy in the mornings, but that could change.  Will keep you up dated.

Here is Sunday tide....

UPDATE

wind does not look  real good for the week.

MORE FROM INSIGHT.

I went to the Sth Alligator today, didn't fish but the water is right to the
bridge at the Mary,all heading to Shady,Scotts crk is over the road and so
is the Wildman River crossing

Posted by Graeme Williams to NT Flyfishers Social Mob at 3 April 2013 20:26