THERE WASN'T THAT MUCH IN IT!

What a great weekend.  The Inaugural Bynoe Harbour Sheep Station Stakes was a huge success and a fun time was had by all who competed/attended, because after all it wasn't really a comp was it.




Kate's biggest Queenfish to date

 

Kate and I fished together as the Fly Wired team in our 12 foot punt and we did pretty well.  If not catching the target species, we caught just about everything else.  Over the weekend Kate and I caught the following in multiples-  Barra, Jacks, Goldies, Ock Ock, Pikey Bream, Russels Snapper, Goldspot Cod, Barracuda, Silver Batfish, Queenfish, Trevally and Tarpon.

We were extremely happy with the Tarpon finishing up with 3 for the comp.  Now I know where I can find good Tarpon.



And Mangrove Jack





Kate pretty happy with her first saltwater tarpon



And Barracuda





Just to put this into perspective, Kate has had about 5 serious attempts at flyfishing, so to pull off runner up in a field of well seasoned fly anglers, seriously highlights the nature of this event, but it also highlights to the peanut gallery, the importance of a good captain and guide, right Rog, Graeme and Steve,  back me up on this one!!  One Sunday, Kate managed 19 fish from 9 species, 3 of which were the target species for the day effectively mutiplying her cm count by 3.  I on the otherhand landed 28 fish from 10 species but only 2 were target species. 

We both dropped good barra in the mid 70's to high 80's and we sighted a cracker well over 90.  Kate hooked and fought a Mangrove Jack in the mid to high 40's for a good couple of minutes, but lossed it close to the boat.  I think if she had of held her barra and that jack, it would have been tight with Pete. 

The weather was great on both days which was an advantage to us because if it blew up we would have been buggered in the tinny.  A tinny does have its advantages though.  We were able to sneak into some pretty skinny water and see a lot of fish.  The Barra were there in good numbers, but were flighty.  The only one we were able to land was sighted a good 100 ft cast away feeding.  I landed the fly on his nose and there was no hestitation.  Other fish we came across, were already spooked before we saw them and the fly only frightened them more.  

Queenfish seemed to be everywhere and doble hookups were common. They were on the points, headlands, creeks and snags.  They were a pain on the second day because they weren't a target species but great fun just the same.

The fly that did the most damage was, wait for it.......a small white clouser.  No surprises there.  Variations to the theme included pink, chartruse, yellow and green underwings. Waynes's STS fly did the trick on a barra for me.



Nearly legal at 53cm



For Kate and I, Mackeral and Golden Trevally were elusive, but that's nothing new, macks always seem to elude me at Bynoe.  One day I'll break that nemesis.

There seemed to be some confusion over stripies that were a target species on the first day and it seemed that some folks were calling Russel's Snapper, Stripies.



This is a Russel's snapper



Kate has suggested that we make up an ID chart with all species in the draw and laminate it for the next salt water outing.  We had a few queries about what fish was what, so we'll probably organise that over the next couple of weeks.  The Ock Ock or Javelin Fish was another species that seemed to raise some questions relating to it's identity so here it is.


This is an Ock Ock.

 All in all, the fishing was great, the company was fantastic, the hospitality from Julie and Tommy was excellent as usual and meeting Steve Huff was a highlight.  A great man and gentleman to boot.  I personally hope to fish with him sometime soon.  To Cathy, Roger and Jim, awesome effort and definitely a highlight on our fishing calendar.  Congratulations again to Pete O, great fishing and look after those sheep.

Dion