This was a first

I went to Corroboree on Tuesday with one of the group lenny and I guided last week, we were down in Saratoga Alley when a loud bang on my electric happened, I immediately stopped and another loud bang and my 5,5 m Black Arrow was lifted maybe 2 to 3 feet up violently, I saw the tell tale bubbles move away about 5 metres and was dismayed to suddenly see them returning.

What concerned me was had the person fishing in question been older or not agile he would certainly have gone in the drink, a Crocodile attacking my electric has never happened before in all the years guiding on Corroboree and was the first encounter that put me in the middle of the boat.

Location 300 metres upstream of the Palm Lagoon run out, I have seen this big black leviathon before  in this area he had a pig once and followed Dotty and i very close till we got up and left.

And no,this isn't an attempt to keep anyone out of there during the Corroboree Cup its for real.

VIEW FROM BELOW

Courtesy of Steve Starling....

View From Below:

Does Lure Color Matter Underwater?

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Most keen anglers have a favorite lure or fly color, and swear that their choice will out-perform all other offerings. But just how important is color when it comes to lure and fly selection? Well, according to science, not very important at all!

It's an irrefutable fact that water progressively absorbs or blocks light of different wavelengths, meaning that colors effectively “vanish” one after another as “white” sunlight travels through the water column. The overall intensity or brightness of visible light also diminishes rapidly underwater.

Because this absorption is greater for longer wavelengths (the red end of the spectrum) than for shorter wavelengths (the blue end of the spectrum), perceived colours are rapidly altered with increasing depth or distance through the water.

The precise rate at which this loss of color occurs varies depending on the intensity of the sunlight (whether the sun is directly overhead or low on the horizon, the amount of cloud cover, and so on), as well as the clarity and color of the water itself, and the presence of any suspended matter such as weed or plankton. Even in very clear ocean currents far from shore, less than 25 percent of available sunlight hitting the sea's surface will penetrate much beyond 30 feet or so (10 meters). By the time we reach a depth of 300 feet (90 meters), the remaining light may be as little as 0.5 percent of that available on the surface. In other words, it's a pretty gloomy place down there! In freshwater lakes and rivers, this loss of light with depth is even more dramatic.

As already mentioned, red is the first color visible to our eyes to disappear, and is typically gone within 15 or 20 feet (5 - 6 meters) of the surface (much less in turbid water). Orange disappears next, then yellow, green, and purple. Blues (both the tones of blue visible to our human eyes and also the shorter, ultra-violet wavelength many fish can see) penetrate deepest of all.

This phenomenon has a profound impact on the way things look to us (and presumably also to fish) underwater. White objects will appear bluish or gray underwater, and the darkness of that blue/gray appearance increases rapidly with depth. Red objects will begin to look dark brown or even black within a few meters of the surface. Down at 40 or 50 feet (15 meters), even in very clear water, the world appears to be composed entirely of shades of gray, blue, and black.

It's worth stressing that this loss or alteration of visible colors occurs in both the vertical and the horizontal or diagonal planes. So, 40 feet of vertical depth has roughly the same impact on light waves and color perception as 40 feet of horizontal or diagonal separation between object and observer. In other words, a red lure may look black when viewed at a depth of 40 feet, but it will also appear black, or at the least brown or very dark grey, when viewed from the side at a distance of 40 feet, even if it's traveling right up in the surface layer.

At face value, this phenomenon of light and color loss underwater makes a complete mockery of the importance of color in lures anywhere beyond shallow, ultra-clear scenarios, yet anglers the world over will continue to argue that one color is better than another, even in deep-water jigging. The funny thing is, if you ask half a dozen fishers for their opinion on the most effective lure color, you're likely to receive six different answers. Perhaps it's time we moved color to the bottom of the list of criteria when choosing a lure or fly, and placed far greater emphasis on the size, action, profile, and speed of our offerings.

WRITTEN BY

STEVE STARLING

Steve 'Starlo' is Australia's most well-known fishing writer. His enthusiasm for the sport extends from tackle design to travelling the world to fish new waters. His philosophy for fishing is all about finesse!

BIT MORE ON ANZAC ESTUARY

Courtesy of Amanda

Bynoe Harbour - ANZAC Long Weekend
Only fish of the day on our boat!! — at Bynoe Harbour.

Lost the first fish when knot came undone! but got this one

Fish a cast? and they are that big?

Hydration! 

Cheers!

Following up to rocks where Roger said there was a "fish a cast"....didn't happen, they must have seen us coming!

 Roggie, "..a fish a cast!.."

Anzac at Muirella

With yet another long weekend it was pack up the car, hook on the boat and drive out to Kakadu to give one of my favourite waterholes a go. Arriving at Muirella Park a bit before 11.00pm to find only one other camp there. Cold beer or 2 roll out the swag in readiness for the next day after a good nights sleep.

Home for the weekend

Friday morning presented a great sunrise and a magnificent day before me. Launched the boat into crystal clear water and as smooth as it possibly could get and think the first Toga hit the second cast. This set the scene for the day with Togas giving plenty of action and I quickly came to the conclusion that TFO Professional 8 weights do not have the grunt in the butt section to turn descent size fish away from the snags. Over the day I think the fish won more times than me.

Lots of these took a liking to a "Roggie Dodgie"

Barra were hard to find or hear but did find schools of them up the creeks running into the billabong. With the height of the water I was able to get a fair way up in the boat before having to get out and give the banks a go, tough with a fly rod in this country but that was where the Barra were in the running water.

Up one of the flowing creeks

Friday night saw a few more campers at the ground but for a long weekend not busy at all.

Friday night was nice and cool, great sleeping weather under the stars. The next morning saw me having to wade through water to get to my boat as the water level had risen 4 to 6 inches overnight with not a drop falling at Muirella, must have been a good dump on the escarpment! With the level rising the water temperature crashed overnight along with fish action. Saturday was a long hard day chasing fish with limited results so decided to call it a day and come back to Darwin.

For those that have not been to Muirella it is a great spot, fishing can be tough at times but it can also be very rewarding. Where else can you have a whole billabong to yourself for a day over a long week end!! Saw one other boat on Saturday. What lucky people we are!!

Back to Darwin then fished West Arm Sunday in perfect conditions with clear flat water with fish being very cooperative. Do not tell anyone about that magic place we call the NT.

See you at the "Cup".

Remember “if you never never go, you’ll never never know”, get out there and fish.

Tight lines

Jim Churchley

DARWIN ESTUARIES FIRING AS WELL.

Courtesy of Mario(Fadge) and Dave (Mad Professor)

Enjoyed the moment I travel 2km by car and 350m by boat to catch this ~ long.live.Darwin.Harbour with Dave Krantz.



Gotta love the harbour



All harbours seem to be firing on the tides around the new moon.  What a place we live in!

ANZAC WEEKEND IN THE ESTUARY

Just back from fishing, weather was fabulous, fishing was even better, though there were a few hiccups, like wrapping a line around the prop, and a bit of trailer maintenance.   I won't talk about wrapping the line around the prop, (I just lost concentration talking to Amanda), but the trailer repairs were interesting, thank goodness Crusty was there because I think Roger was about to roll the trailer back into the water and leave it there with me out in the boat.   He was trying to change the rollers, but they were a swollen with rust and the pins could not be driven out, so luckily Crusty forced them to slip out of the pin holes on one side and get them out, thank goodness and thanks again Crusty.

Should not have that trouble again because the new pins are all stainless steel and the boat goes on nice and easy now.

On Saturday we ran around everywhere to try and find the good fishing spots, found some and then headed back to locate Amanda, Darren, Mick and Kiera. They were enjoying themselves on Knife Island, and the fish were starting to come up around them, but Roggie had seen heaps of fish on one of the reefs and told them to follow us, because it was a 'fish a cast'   He really shouldn't say that, because when we got back up there, there were no fish.  Oh well that's fishing!

Luckily everyone had a chance on the flats and there were heaps of smaller barra around there.  On one flat, Crusty and Wayne found not only barra, but a school of big golden trevally tailing on the edges.  What a sight that would've been !

There were a heap of smaller barra around, all just under legal, but they were a bit flighty on the outgoing tide.  On the incoming tide however the salmon were going crazy for about ten minutes then it all went quite.

Wolf Herring

There were also schools of these small wolf herring breaking up around Indian Island.  Very messy.

Sunday was the day though and poor Crusty, Amanda and Darren missed out.  Wayne fished by himself and killed a pig. Big barra, but also got into a group of big tarpon and managed to land a 72cm on the 8wt.  Now that would of been fun!

Wayne cruising the flats

Alex was fishing with Lenny and he too lost his fly line, only his wasn't to the prop, he hooked a metre plus GT that went so fast and shot off through the mangroves.  The line went around one of the trees and broke.

Alex and Lenny waiting for the tide to get a bit lower for the flats.

The tides on Sunday went from around 7m down to 2.4m so on the outgoing, the fish were even flightier than Saturday, we managed a couple of barra though then fished the creeks that we don't often fish.  We found some big barra, just laying on the sand at smaller creek mouths, most were flightier because the tide was streaming out, but one, around 80cm was crazy, it came out to the boat which was still moving from the electric and  followed right beside us, Roger tried to get it but it was too close and would just nudge the fly, it stayed with us a for a few goes then got bored and swam off.

On low tide we went up to Hutt Point for the start of the run it and it was amazing, queenies to 60cm, trevally to 48cm and a couple of golden snapper the same size.  Then the big macs came in and started to cut them in half before they got to the boat.  Tried for the macs but they just cut us off.  No wire.

Typical golden snapper from Hutt Point

About half way into the filling tide, we decided to re rig all our gear after being mauled by the macs, and pulled in on a small flat that usually only fishes on the outgoing tide.  We got a few barra there initially but it was so low, we had beached the boat, just before a mud/sand bar that cut the flat in two.

The tide eventually covered the bar and we floated over it, but because the tide was so strong the water was all muddy, thinking we would wait a bit longer and leave, we noticed what appeared to be a heap of seaweed along the edges of the mangroves.  No seaweed, barra tailing.  They were all small, but there were hundreds of them and they hit anything that you put near them.  They would reform into a group as you pulled one out and we just kept on fishing.  It must have been over half and hour or even more, the time just went so quick, but we got 36 barra along the edges before the tide got too high and they just disappeared.   Normally for us it would be in the fresh (Corroboree Billabong) where you got these numbers so this was a great session even if they were all rats.

Typical of the barra that were tailing 

CORROBOREE CUP UPDATE

RETURN OF THE WET?

They are predicting a wet week to come with a return of the monsoon trough, time will tell of course, but if this chart below is right, we are going to get the heaviest rain next Tuesday.   Will be interesting to see if they are right.  With luck it may stir up the billabongs a bit.

IMAGES A NORTHERN ESTUARY TWO.

From Insight Fly Fishing

Many of you will recall the Images In a Northern Estuary DVD from a few years back, the good news is I'm finally heading down the road of the second one .

The new DVD will have lots more visual footage encompassing both fresh and saltwater a lot of the high definition Saltwater species, Tarpon and Saratoga, Sooty Grunters. Definitely getting the camera ready for some visuals on the Permit at Bynoe, don't know if I can catch one for the camera or some one does, I haven't yet.  

New innovations in editing will hopefully produce a great DVD.

The same as before there will be no "about me” or anyone else for that matter, sponsorships, and no personality going fishing storyline, down the rod visual shots  probably a little more over narrations and lots of one off nature and wildlife shots.

As a precursor this  little gem I filmed one day in East Arnhem Land , just great timing as I came over the hill the crossing on the creek had wall to wall Barra on one side and Herons on the other. The Rainbow fish had no where to run, I sat and filmed for over an hour the life and death struggle that they were faced with, the footage is rendered for the blog and nothing like the high definition of the original shot from every angle which when edited I think will be stunning.

Did I catch any?, obviously, caught some but got way boring because as soon as you landed a fly in there they ate, the bigger ones were there up to 70 cms but hung back like teachers at a school lesson.

Hope you enjoy  

Cheers Graeme

CORROBOREE CUP TEASER

A bit of a teaser from the past courtesy of Graeme and Dottie (Insight fly fishing), and just a reminder, the cup is on over the weekend of the 17th and 18th May, 2014.  We will be based at Corroboree  Park Tavern.  

Will be sending out more information via emails or you can contact us on the blog email

ntflyfisherssocialmob@gmail.com

THIS ONE'S FOR ANDY

Andy is on his way back home to Geelong and we will miss him, but here is what he has to look forward to, courtesy of Harfin Fly Reels Australia and Kaos Cod Flies, looks good!!

"Kitted out with the very best fly fishing equipment on the ozzy market.... Ashleigh Dunsmore from Harfin Fly Reels Australia supplied 7/8wt ree with a super smooth drag. A 10wt HardCoreElement rod 8.6ft and the new Kaos - 5/0 Hoodlum fly!"

HAPPY EASTER

AMANDA AND DARREN'S BIG DAY OUT

Courtesy of

Darren Minchin

CORROBOREE SECRETS???

There have been a lot of reports on Corroboree lately without many fish, only a few tarpon.  It may be the flies?.  The old trout term 'match the hatch' comes to mind and years ago, in the good old days, I was lucky enough to fish with Wayne Hinton and Dave Bowring out there.  Wayne loved corroboree and was the freshwater guru, Dave like me, liked the salt better, but if you fished with Wayne you caught fish.

The secret?  not really a secret, Wayne would go out with a variety of flies, mainly clousers, but all different sizes and if we were getting nothing on the bigger flies, he would change to a smaller one, in fact we fished maily with the smaller ones out there.  They were sparse 'crazy charlies' on No. 2 hooks. We did use smaller hooks but the No.2 was the favourite and we ended up buying hundreds of them for out there.  The white and salmon colours worked the best followed by the pink.

Ours may have been a little more sparse than these, because we used DNA or EP fibres, but if you use bucktail, it wont take long for the fish to thin them down.

We did go down to No. 4 hooks on some too, but because we started fishing for everything, barra and toga included, with the flies, we stayed mainly with the No.2 hooks. Another point to make with these; use a smaller leader, go down to at least 10 lb.   Wayne would tie a bimini in his light leaders for the fish as well, but being lazy I just used a lighter leader in a good stretch mono like Platypus pre test.

The success of fishing with these smaller flies really got us going, so we moved down to smaller rods,

Dave, Ross Marriner and I fished out there one day with 3, 4 and 6 wt rods, intermediate or floating lines for the edges and sinking lines for in the deep.   There were a lot of boats around that day and when we got the reports from them, they had not caught a barra, whereas, between us we had landed over forty along the edges in the shallows.  Dave landed a 68cm on the 3wt.

I won't guarantee that this will be the secret to end the drought of barra out there, but I hope it may help.

but I remember Wayne and Dave telling me, sometimes the flies that are tied are for for the fly tier or the fisherman more than the fish.

I hope this may help everybody that will be fishing out there.

DUNDEE WITH WATTY

From Watty

Barefoot Fishing Safaris 

Here comes the dry season!
Queenies, goldies and jews by the boat load and with tuna, macs and sailfish to go life is good at the beach!
No big barra today but they are still around.
Had an hour at my top queenie spot this arvo only to find mackies and long tail tuna had scared them away, oh well not a bad swap.

Barefoot Fishing Safaris