NT TO NZ

 I'm afraid I took the Fly Fishers out of NT Flyfishers social mob and just went as the NT social mob to NZ.

Next time I'll take a fly rod and oh! maybe Roggie too!

I'm an 'All Black'

It really is the "Land of the Long White Cloud'

The water is crystal clear, I could see the fish from the window?

Who needs bottles, when you have barrels

Trout climbing the wall at the Hermitage Hotel, Mt.Cook

FISHING UPDATE FOR MAY

Just a bit of information where the fish are locally. If you are after Tuna, Trevally and Big Queenies, have a look around Lee Point reefs.  If this wind drops and the water clears, there will be some reports coming from the harbours, and Jim is off to Kakadu again to try some 'secret' places.

Will be starting to organise our next gathering for the shortest day of the year, yeah, the year is nearly half over.  So more information to come on that.  Welcome to all those new people on the blog, can't believe the numbers.  See below;

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WHILE WE ARE TALKING ABOUT RODS AND LEARNING THE ART.

We have had a few inquires on what rods, reels and lines to get to start fly fishing.  There are a heap of inexpensive and very reasonable kits around.  Phil was using a couple of them with lines that don't cost a fortune and they all worked like a charm.  In fact he had a ball with them.

Got this about the 'old fashioned rods' from the old art of fly fishing. 

Hi guys

Hope you are well and catching a few fish.

I have recently acquired a lovely split cane 5wt. It is great fun to use and casts very well.

I have attached a couple of pics of Marty hooking into some tarpon. At only 7'6" it's perfect for kids - and big kids!

I haven't gone as far as using a silk line yet. Instead I'm running a teeny T130 sink tip which seems to balance nicely.

Speaking of kids and fly fishing, I will send you a few pics of Marty and Pearl using a practice rod in the backyard too. I got a redington form rod and it is great for backyard training and the kids love it. I just leave it set up so they can grab it whenever they want.

And I can use it in the living room - highly recommended

Cheers 

Dave Krantz 

This gadget looks great for starters (and maybe some of us that think we are doing it right) plus with a starter kit you could be into fishing in no time.    I believe some one important? said, "The problem is not the rod being used, its the person using the rod!" 

HARD GOING ON BYNOE.

Just got back from Bynoe and the cold wind that blew up with the rain Thursday night.  We were entertaining some interstaters, and may have overdone the bragging a bit because of the fish out there earlier in the month when we we pulling in heaps.  The fish were still there I'm sure, but it was hard to find them in the dirty water and keep you feet in the wind on Friday.  Lenny and Cliff (NSW) found some clear water and got into barra.  But Jim, unlike earlier in the month, with Adrian (Vic) like us, had trouble finding a fish.  Some other interstaters went well out and got fish on reefs and big queenies were seen around Bare Sand and Quail. Graeme and a couple of other interstaters did well before the bloody wind too.  But compared to other times, for flats fishing, we found it very hard in the dirty water.

Phil Foster was out honing his skills.  He probably got the most fish for our little group over two days.  At one stage up behind a secret island location, we came across schools of barra which you could even make out in the cloudy water because there were so many of them, and in amongst them was the lone Huge threadie.

Phil is just learning to fly fish, and was using an inexpensive rod and one of those lines that come with the kits which usually cost about $30.  Well the whole kit performed to perfection, and while we were around one of the barra schools, Phil put a very accurate cast right on the nose of a metre plus threadie that seemed to be rounding up the barra.  The threadie drove at the fly (one of Phil's) but just as it was about to hit the fly, a little barra boofed at it and turned the threadie away. We kept trying to find them in the dirty water, but the tide went out and we had to get off the flat.

Adrian managed to get a threadie out from the barra, after hooking up three or four of them, but any barra that hit the fly took it right down.

Left the flats at low tide and tried Hut Point reefs.  Usually heaps of small queenies and trevours busting up there.  Yes, they were there, but they weren't busting up, they were jumping clear out of the water all over the place, because metre spaniards were chasing through them and chopping them up.  Phil managed to get bitten off by the big ones and a four inch  (100mm) wire trace didn't seem long enough for them because the spaniards were cutting 40cm queenies in half with one bite.

Later, on Knife Island, Phil hooked into a 50 plus golden trevally and while he was playing it a huge trevally started to swim with it before seemly trying to bite it.  I think those big trevally are resident around that Island at times because in the past we have have seen them belt into good size fish that we had on.

Oh, and did I mention the great red wine at Sand Palms?

IGFA AND STEVE HUFF ON RULES

 Deep Thoughts, fly fishing, IGFA rules

Playing by the Rules

by Jason Schratwieser IGFA

Enlarge Photo

Steve Huff (Courtesy IGFA)

Looks like my old friend and boss, Rob Kramer, is passing the blogger’s torch to yours truly. Truth is, I’m pleased to be able to contribute my thoughts, from time to time, to what I consider to be one of the finest fishing publications in the world. Unfortunately, like my predecessor, I don’t have a background in blogging per se. Fortunately, those that know me know that I do happen to have opinions on a fair number of things. So here goes.

I have been a lifelong fisherman starting as a kid growing up in Virginia Beach all the way through landing a dream job here at IGFA. Along the way I’ve had the great fortune to fish in some amazing places with some fantastic people for a variety of species. I’m generally a happy guy whenever I’m fishing, no matter what I’m fishing for; be it bluegill or blue marlin. But given my druthers, I’d say I’m most content chasing fish in shallow water with a fly rod. The combination of stalking fish, making the cast and watching the eat just does it for me like nothing else.

Several weeks ago, I had the honor of fishing with one of the true greats in the fly-fishing world, Capt. Steve Huff. Steve is considered by most to be the best flats guide of all time, and no matter whether you consider his innovations to skiff designs, tarpon and permit world records, or his IGFA Hall of Fame status, his peers will tell you he’s the man.

When Steve told me at an IGFA event that he wanted to fish with me, I was beyond elated. He also told me: “Don’t worry about the weather. Even if it blows like hell we’re still going.” A week later, I found myself mumbling these exact words as I drove across Alligator Alley on my way to Everglades City while listening to the day’s forecast for winds 20 to 30 mph with a 70-percent chance of rain.

As we had discussed, I met Steve at a little diner at 6:30am. We ate a hot breakfast, groused about the weather some but unanimously considered it better to give it a go than sit around the house all day. In short order, we hitched up Steve’s little skiff, made the quick ride to Chokoloskee and launched into the tempest. We did end up catching some snook and redfish on fly, but that’s not the point of my diatribe.

While we were eating lunch on the boat, Steve brought up the subject of IGFA Angling Rules and frankly stated that even though he didn’t chase records anymore, he still adhered to the rules religiously. While on the topic, we both contended that fishing is a sport, that every sport needs rules and that IGFA has served in that capacity since 1939. All that said, we were both amazed at the number people we knew that did not fish by IGFA rules. We talked about things like anglers passing the rod during a hot sailfish bite, using an electric reel to deep-drop for swords or using a two-foot shock tippet when fly-fishing for tarpon. It was equally obvious and sad to us both that some people just don’t think that rules are important to fishing.

Steve summed up our entire discussion best when he said: “When I hear a guy tell me that he caught a tarpon on fly but was not following IGFA rules, I immediately tell him he wasn’t fly-fishing. He might have been doing something else, but unless you’re following the rules you are not fishing.”

Regardless of my position at IGFA, I happen to agree with Steve’s statement. In reality, IGFA rules are not that onerous to the angler so playing by them isn’t too difficult. If you’re unfamiliar with IGFA rules you can download a copy by visiting www.igfa.org.

Next time you go fishing, think about whether or not you’re playing by the rules. If you’re not, consider if you’d think it would be OK if you were playing a round of golf with your buddies and one of them used a spud gun to tee off instead of a golf club. Every sport needs rules.

Steve Huff will be visiting the Top End from the 3rd to the 14th July with Insight.

FROM KAKADU

Fly Rodder Jim Churchley has spent the last two days fishing Djarradjin Billabong and camping at Muirella Park. It was a joy to watch Jim in action, as he hooked up a Saratoga and a Barra while I was casting Gold Bombers......and caught nothing. He has got six species so far, including Sleepy Cod, Sooty Grunter, and Archer Fish!  He can't wait until Sandy Billabong opens......should only be a few days now!

Andy Ralph Kakadu

FlyLife News - Issue 72

Tocs is published, good on you mate, keep your head down too;

FlyLife News - Issue 72

Saltwater
Piero Bertocchi takes on the Seven Species Challenge on Bynoe Harbour

PARKS AND WILDLIFE

The people at Parks and Wildlife are interested in anything that may look strange or out of place with regard to our flora and fauna, like the dead turtles in the harbour.   The have supplied a phone number that can be contacted should you have any concerns about any of those issues and feel that they may be able to assist.  The number is 1800 453 941 and it has been placed permanently in the side column of the blog for your information.

BYNOE VS DARWIN

Bit of an update on the harbour fishing,

Bynoe:  Pete O hit Bynoe on Saturday and went to the secret location above Jennifer, think its called the 'Rubber Flat'.  They got Barra but could not hook up on the salmon that were around in schools.  Flats were clear out of the wind.

Darwin: Its been a while since I fished the main part of the harbour, and its a bit of an eye opener if you haven't been there for a while, should you launch from the Elizabeth or East Arm you will feel like a ball in a pin ball machine.  You have to bounce or zig zag from side to side, to avoid all the buoys and bits and pieces as well as boats and barges being used for the Inpex developement.  We also saw some dead turtles in the area,( interesting, never seen that before). Once you managed to get through the obstacle course and panther crawl under the barge hoses the harbour, away from all that, was its usual self.  Except for the bloody wind.  If you opened your mouth it blew the bum out of your pants.

There were plenty of pelagics  around on the lower part of the tide, if you could get out of the wind, and threadies in the clear water, but they were hard to hook up with the boat rocking around in the swell.

Edon Bell has been hitting the outer harbour, around Lee Point recently and got some beauties, "catching 8 GT's 85-90cm, 2 Goldies in the 55-60cm range, a Queenie in the 90cm range and a bunch of Ox Eye Herring. I was exhausted at the end but had a smile ear to ear".

,

 Nice fish.

Hitting Bynoe again at the end of the week.

Muirella Park again.

2 Mile Hole in Kakadu still not open so decided to camp for three nights at Muirella

Park and try my luck again there.

Arrived in the dark and set camp. First thing that was noticeable was the increase in Mossie activity over that of two weeks prior. A few more green leaves on the fire soon fixed the little buggers.

Weather for fishing was great with minimal wind, although the humidity was sky high with thunder and lightning each night, my calendar tells me it’s May but the weather says it’s October!!

As with the last trip the first fish into the boat was a solid Sootie Grunter. The more I catch these fish the more I am impressed with their fighting ability, they pull so hard for their size, will pack a 4 weight for the next trip! As per last time Saratoga were the fish that was most plentiful but they had to be sought at a deeper depth than last time. This time I was able to catch quite a few Barra compared to last time when I did not even sight one. All the Barra caught were that lovely bronze colour so were obviously fish that had been in the system for sometime rather than replacement stock from the salt. The last hour of darkness just before the sun rose the water seemed to come alive with activity from all species, so did the mossies!

 

For the three days I had on the water to myself, mine was the only boat. I would recommend the place to anyone to hone their casting skills getting into the tree line with the opportunity of catching fish. Over the time there I picked up eight different species. How good is that?

One evening the Parks put on one of their slide shows. Over the years I have seen many of these and in the main have been disappointed with their content and presentation. They have often been presented by university graduates with only a theoretical knowledge of the subject and Kakadu. Not this time. The subject was “Buffalo History of Kakadu” and was presented by Jenny Ralph (maiden name Hunter) as a 25 year veteran ranger and born under a tree in Kakadu, her husband Andy and their 10 year old daughter. They gave a fully interactive presentation with show and tell items over and above the slide show giving all an insight into the local culture, history, bush tucker, medicine, flora and fauna. Their presentation, knowledge and passion were impressive. If you have the opportunity ever to attend one of their presentations you will not be disappointed. Speaking with the tourists in attendance this is what they were after from their visit to Kakadu, all made the comment that they found it hard to find aboriginal involvement in Kakadu.

Yes we have had a disappointing wet but there are still lots of fish to catch and areas to visit that are hard to be beaten anywhere in the country, if not the world. Get out there and do it!

Tight lines

Jim

BYNOE SHEEP STATION STAKES - BULLETIN NO.2

Just a bit of an update on the BSSS on 6th-7th July, 2013, we have some wonderful suggestions, some of which I can't put on the blog, but I have tried to incorporate them into the possible 'rules';

First off.  The Bynoe Sheep Station Stakes is a great name thanks to Dion, and Andy has added another gem in calling it, the 'non-comp comp' and with that in mind, the new definition of a non comp comp is  "Fishing Trip". So on that basis here are some of the important rules for the BSSS Fishing Trip, and all trippers....whoops, that might not be a politically correct word, so I'll use fishers, are welcome to put in any ideas of modifications or new rules.  There is, however, one stipulation from Cathie, the rules must all be 'nice'.

Rule One:                       Go fishing and have fun

Rule Two:                       If you're not having fun, revert to rule one.

Rule Three:                    Casting and retrieving must be carried out in accordance with the 
                                        normal customs and generally accepted practices of the Art of fly 
                                        fishing.

This 'Fishing Trip' is just that, it is not a Prize trip, and although there will be some little awards, the trippers (whoops sorry).... fishers are out there looking for the 'Glory' of the art of fly fishing.

Cost:   That has yet to be worked out, and another gathering is being organised, prior to the trip, to work some of that out.  There is the view that we can do it all for under $50 pp and be able to include some meals, awards and a donation to something that the mob decides on.  (At this stage assisting the work into the effort to prevent the extinction of our sawfish is proposed)

The Gathering:  This is proposed for the Southern Winter Solstice on the 22nd and 23rd of June.  Yeah I know that's a pagan festival in the North and they base Christmas Day on it, but we can have a southern Christmas in June. However, we might resort to some paganism and have that ritual burning of a number of rods that has been talked about.  The ashes can then be sealed in some type of urn and used as a team award for the trip.  So we could be playing for the 'Ashes' and a 'sheep station'!

Because the Bassett's place is a bit small for all of us, as we found on the last occasion, the Brokenflagens, Justine and Marty, have kindly offered the use of their property, and Marty is apparently cutting up wood so we can light up natures TV.  (There will be more on address times etc. via email)

We have also had some inquires about the trip and here are a couple of them...

          Anon......from Tassie
Leave the sheep down here, stick to cattle, and ignore the goats.

          Name withheld from Victoria
 I'm happy with Glory as a prize, as long as she is Jennifer's identical twin and the missus doesn't find out.

More to follow in next bulletin
                          

INSIGHT ON MANINGRIDA

Maningrida is a total disaster thats a big statement, the week I just spent there managing ABNL, made me feel empty. There are so many people doing nothing because there is nothing to do. It seems the greatest casualty is incentive, the school bus drives around in circles playing music and nobody gets on everybody seems to sit idle and gaze vacantly.

"Did I mention the Dogs". The biggest non fishing highlight was when I ran over a dog, 10 chased me one went under the trailer, you could hear the yelping from anywhere in Maningrida and the looks I got were real bone pointers.

Why am I bothering to say this, its because there is a workers camp finished last year and doing nothing. Why cant we  go there, pay to rent a room and use the boat ramp, buy stuff at the shop etc.?
It seems the answer is that the walls of apartheid do not allow exactly what they need, integration and assimilation, the place is slowly becoming a time warp.

I'm bringing this up because like every time I go there (on good tides) I'm amazed at the quality of fishing. The Liverpool, Rolling Bay Junction Bay and the Goomadeer are so good. I managed and guided, with 4 boats on the water we  achieved over 6 days 1100 barra, lots in the 80's and  90's. This was exactly the same time and tide as the barra Classic compare that result!

The biggest fishing Highlight for me was when 2 old Trouties 84  and 81 found out I was a Flyfishing Guide.  I took them out for the day and this 84 year old after 65 years caught his first Barra the more sprightly 81 got 10 as well. Offshore there are huge GTs, Queenfish, Coral Trout, Tuna, Snapper and some great Giant herring, even pulled a few Cobia of a big Manta Ray.

I'm toying with the idea of organising something there. Personally I rate this place as the best Barra Fishery I know with access, its doesn't have as much visuals as Bynoe flats but every snag or drain seems to turn them up.

Dotty never got there, I got kicked of the plane Friday night because Air North haven't figured out you cannot fit 30 people on a 29 seater, "dipshits", had to wait another day to get home.

Back to Bynoe 19th for the best tides in May
Cheers Graeme

Kate's sawfish research and PhD

Hello NTFFSM,

Since the Sheep Station Stakes may be contributing to Kate's research, I thought it timely to let you know what she is up to.  She may comment on this, so hopefully I am right with the content.
Freshwater sawfish are critically endangered world wide and northern Australia is probably one of the remaining areas that has a reasonable ecologically sustained population, although still declining.  Anyone who has fished the Daly for more that 20 years would have seen a dramatic reduction in the number of juvenile sawfish stacked up at the crossing after the wet.
Kate's main aim is to determine if there is any conservation benefit to keeping and displaying threatened species such as sawfish in public aquariums.  In doing this she is attempting to quantify what a conservation benefit actually is.  The display of threatened species is allowed if there is a known conservation benefit, but that hasn't been quantified yet.
We have kept sawfish at the park since the early 90s.  They grow up to 7m long and soon outgrow our 25m long aquarium.  It takes them about 4 years to get to 3m long.  What then, do you do with a 3m long sawfish that has outgrown your fish tank.  Our solution was to release them back from whence they came.  The question is do they survive?  We have released a lot of sawfish over the years and have only tracked 4 using technology that allows us to keep pretty close tabs on them for about a month.  Of the 4 we have tracked we can only say that we are fairly certain that 1 has survived up to 23 days, the battery in the tag went flat after this period, so although it is an assumption, we are pretty confident that it did survive long term.
What Kate is proposing is to keep sawfish in captivity for a set period, then tag and release them at the site of their capture and track them for as long as possible (up to 25 days).  She will compare this to sawfish that have been caught, tagged and immediately released so she can compare the two treatments and see if the captive sawfish, a) survive and b) see if they use the habitat differently to the wild fish.  If they don't, it is fair to say that keeping sawfish in captivity is sustainable.  If they don't survive or indeed behave different to the wild sawfish, it might be prudent to stop the aquarium harvest.
So, there are 20 accoustic recievers being deployed along the entire length of the Adelaide River.  These recievers pick up the signal from a tag that is surgically implanted in the sawfish's body cavity. The internal tags last upwards of 2 years.  Another tag is stitched onto the dorsal fin that is emits a continuous ultrasonic beep that is picked up with a hydrophone.  The continuous beep lasts 25 days, and the tags are attached with dissolvable sutures so the fish only carries the tag until the stitches dissolve (theretically after a month).  This continuous tag is used for short term tracking.  We track the sawfish after it has been tagged for 48 hrs straight and then periodically after that until the battery dies or the tag is lost.
The second component to the research is to actually quantify what constitutes a conservation benefit.  She aims to do this by visiting public aquariums that keep these species and, by questioning visitors in a targeted survey, find out if their behaviour towards threatened species and indeed protecting their environment is actually enhanced because they were able to see these animals alive in a zoo or aquarium. 
This is expensive work, a set of 2 tags is around $600 and she needs at least 12 sets to make the project viable.  She is getting a lot of support and her project is being watched eagerly at the Federal level.  National Geographic has helped out, Fisheries, the Widlife Park and CSIRO are all involved and she has been accepted to present a paper at an International Shark Husbandry Symposium in Monterey in November.  Hopefully we can swing funds to go over to that. 
To date we have released a large female that was in the Aquarium here at TWP.  That was well covered in the national media a couple of weeks ago and we have caught tagged and released on wild juvenile.  This little female was caught in Marrakai creek and within 4 days had swum over 40km downstream.  We tracked her again over the weekend and we found the tag that had come off the dorsal fine 20km upstream from where she was last found.  That's about 60km in a week.  Far more movement than anyone had expected.

That's a baby sawfish at the TWP 

DON'T HIT THE PANIC BUTTON

Petey O was out in 'Barbless' the other weekend when he saw what appeared to be a reasonable barra tail displayed in the dirty water.   The fish was laying on the flats, just out from the trees, so Pete used the trusty Minn Kota to get in position to get this fish which by the part of its tail that was exposed, looked like a possible keeper.

Now as often happens in these situations, the fish hit the hooks, but when it launched itself out of the water it was a bloody monster. A bloody metery! and what do you do when you have one of them hooked, you hit the buttons on the remote for the MK.  Pete hit the panic button to try and turn the boat out from the trees to fight the fish , but forgot to take his finger off the button.

The result, the MK rotates around and around until it can go no further and is locked into a position that is driving you into the trees.   So Pete tried to hit the other button to unwind the locked motor but hit the one with the 'rabbit' on it.   The rabbit of course put the motor into top speed straight into the trees and with his rod, boat and anything loose being picked up by branches, Pete tried to fight this fish which at this stage had apparently stopped to enjoy watching Pete filling his boat with mangrove leaves and branches, while he left lures, flies and rods stuck on the branches of the trees.

The fish finally had enough and went into the trees, probably to give poor Pete a hand, but it snapped the line around one of the branches then swam off into the sunset.

A lot of us have done exactly the same thing, so remember, your electric can be a good friend, but a bad enemy if you hit that bloody panic button.

I'M EXCITED

Just got this from Graeme

Im Guiding Steve Huff from Florida,3rd to 14th July.

Steve is the only Guide ever inducted into the IGFA Hall of Fame,he is an exceptional Tarpon Guide also guided Dell Brown to over 300 Permit.

He is someone you would enjoy meeting.I will probably organise something for the mob,let you know

Cheers Graeme

OMG !!! What an amazing opportunity to meet such a respected and honored fly fisho!!  
Here is a bit of info on Mr Huff........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7FXwXDGf6Q  and
http://www.sportfishingmag.com/blogs/deep-thoughts/playing-rules

Cheers and very very EXCITED

BYNOE SHEEP STATION STAKES - BULLETIN NO.1

Just a bit more on the BSSS for July, forgot to mention that when we work out a modest fee, we are considering that any profit will go to the Sawfish programe to help their survial.  All participants will get a certificate and most of the prizes will be glory only.  We have six boats at this stage so will start putting together some simple rules etc.  Nothing complicated.  If you have any suggestions let us know because more heads are better than one, but the hit and miss system can be a lot of fun too.

Jennifer reveals her secrets.

Just got back from Bynoe visiting “Jennifer” while Graeme is away in Arnhem Land. Building tides after the neaps set the scene for some sight fishing on the flats and for once the fish came to the party. First day ended up with 10 Barra, all sight cast to on the building tide as the water pushed up the drains and started to cover the flats. As soon as the water started to cover the flats Barra would appear from the drains swimming onto the shallows on their sides chasing small fish and were happy to take whatever was presented close to them. Had the opportunity to pick and choose which fish I would target! Fly fishing at its best!

 Drains on "Jennifer"

First three fish of the day for the Esky, top is 76 cms

Second day proved to be a bit tougher with fish harder to find and put this down to an increase in wind roughing up the water and down grading the visibility. Up the creeks out of the wind provided an assortment of fish varieties with schools of large Tarpon feeding in the dirty water at creek mouths. Great fun as Tarpon are made for the fly rod and provide a visual fight with them being out of the water as much as they are in it.

Third day saw a decrease in the wind and the flats in the Indian Island channel provided non-stop sight fishing for Barra, Threadfin, Queenfish and the odd large Trevally to get the heart rate up.

Typical fish for the trip

"Roggie Dodgie" Fly does it again

Was able to come home with my bag limit of Barra plus Threadfin to satisfy my neighbours and get them off my back, the two mid 40’s Golden Snapper are mine!

Speaking to a number of guests staying at Sand Palms you soon come to the realisation as to how lucky we are to have what we have available to us in the fishing stakes. Some of these people have towed their boats 4,000 kms to have a fish in waters that we have available to us on our doorstep.

Good to see a number of “The Mob” on the water, The Bassett’s, Wayne Williams and Pete Davies with his “Cane Toad” brother, Brian.   Fly Rods do not make good ornaments, get out and use them!

Tight lines

Jim