I AM A FLY FISHER

I hope we can all get some inspiration from this

• Courtesy of Jen Ripple

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• Editor in Chief at Dun Magazine and Executive Editor at aTightLoop.com

Having the opportunity to speak to Pudge Kleinkauf and having the honor of having her Alaskan stories in Dun Magazine, I can't tell you how much this woman has inspired me....This is a MUST SEE for anglers, men and women alike . Enjoy! And thank you, Cynthia for sending me this .




I Am A Fly Fisher | INDIE ALASKA from Alaska Public Media on Vimeo.

DOES THE TEMPERATURE OF THE WATER AFFECT YOUR MOJO?

We have been talking Graeme the Grey about not being able to get the fish to take our flies on good tides while he and Craig were killing a pig with them.  He was saying that he had struck the same problem as us in some spots and he thinks it may be because of colder water.  It had been bloody cold down in the Bynoe area last week, needed two bunny rugs and a jumper of a night, so the fish may have had the same problem.

We found a flat on the eastern side of the harbour, that was still in the shade of a morning and before the low tide, the water was just under 26 C and there were barra, threadies and blues there.  But they would not take our fly, one school, probably six or seven threadies with three of four barra leading them was circling around but not matter how many flies we dropped on them, they would not take them.  I think we spent too much time on the flat because when we went to the main flats, they were too low and I ran the battery flat on the electric driving through the mud, where we could see fish over in the shallows but you needed a 100ft cast to get to them.  I forgot that Dave was a bit heavier than Cathie on the front of the boat, and the motor was digging trenches.

Graeme mentioned that when he found fish in the 26C mark they would not take, so he looked for water 28C or more and in that water the fish took the fly.

I know a heap of you are out fishing over the next few days, so I hope that this may help, if the fish are too lazy and not interested, try water that is out in the sun and low enough to warm up quicker.  That might make a difference.

Although they say the El Nino is coming in August, which apparently warms everything up, so the fish might be waiting for that?

That could be good for the Bynoe Sheep Station Stakes  on the 21st and 22nd September!!

We have some great tides this year, and the info is that Corroboree is about to fire, so with a long weekend coming up the fishing should be great.  I know some are off to Kakadu while others will be fishing other spots.  So a lot more stories coming in.

RAISON D'ETRE (THE REASON I AM HERE)

If you're like me, the reason I'm here is to hunt and see the fish I wish to catch. In July 2013 I penned a post called the "Game Plan" (Click on for link), as far as I am concerned there are 12 days in any given month that are optimum in Bynoe Harbour, the waxing of the moons or for the layman neap making to spring, last week was one.

In search of the" lost tide"

I recently heard someone say the tide was out too far and the run in tide had got back under the trees all dirty and looking like coffee.

Yesterday Dotty joined long time visitor and friend Craig Wilson from Sydney to fish "Anniversary Flat" ( DON'T ASK) long accurate casts were needed here to be in any contention, Craig with his new 9 wt Sage One showed his own unique accuracy and nailed quite a number of  Barra with one spot on 70cms.

I suddenly realised I needed to vacate with 30cms of water under the transducer and avoid the staring at each other for hours so pulled up my electric, Craig wound up when Dotty spotted a Barra a long way out. By the time she popped a quick cast in at 50ft, gained a  load and placed her fly 75ft out.  Two feet to the right of its head, one strip and she had it, going 74cms.

Probably one of the best open water casts I have seen in years and the reason Dotty in my eyes is one of the most accurate casters to have ever stood on my boat, Craig just said his classic "old Jewish comment" and shook his head!

We moved on to another likely area a bit less heart stopping and caught numerous smaller fish up to 60cms when Dotty again tied into another Barra.This time rapping her knuckles and putting her into the backing, she fought it all the way to the boat and unfortunately fly and fish parted as I went for the net. No photo but believe me it was up in the high 80's.

Because the tide is way out a lot of Barra and Threadfin will sit in skinny drains or open water till it returns, you need to make fast, long and accurate casts to get them. Simple! You only need to learn how to do that and that is certainly possible.

The second comment being that the tide on the run up is dirty and back under the trees is correct, it doesn't mean they're not there. Barramundi in there natural pedantic or as some say lazy state will access the tidal margins as a matter of course, dirty water or not they are there, trick is how do I find them, well you can cast under every bush and tree and probably turn up the odd fish, but that's not seeing them and a bit like firing bullets all over the paddock and walking around to see what you got, look at it from there point of view.  Feeding is over, relaxing and sleeping is part of their life so what do they do, they hang motionless next to trees in bushes or open areas head down, arse up making like a small bunch of leaves.

While at this stage most people rightly go off looking for pelagics, if you want Barra like me you will go in after them regardless of the dirty water, the same way Crocodiles look like logs, Barra look like bushes and submerged branches as these photos below show.

Barra is dead centre 1.5 metres from the tree

                                            

Craig nailed the fish in the above photo which went 67cms

                                  

Nose up against a tree is a classic resting position for sleeping barramundi

  

This was the above fish when I got a quick cast in.

Sleepers habitat, good eyes and good weed guards look for tails wafting slowly and drop it right on their nose

As I said I'm a sight fisher my inner instincts have been centred around that for nearly 3 decades to me I need to see them its a choice made years ago. I can respect and understand there are other ways more speculative that also produce results but nothing beats the aggression and explosive strike of a visible fish.

Dotty pulled this fish sitting down on the back of the boat as Craig zoomed in for a shot

   

 Look who else feel safe eating crabs of bushes

                                    

That's it with every rise of a metre of tide the there are thousands of areas of endless possibilities, what this means is the Barramundi sightfishing isn't over because of traditional dirty water or too high scenarios.

How did Bynoe fish last week, everyday was close to double figures on sighted fish, we avoided the pelagic fishing by choice, obviously we lost plenty some very reasonable fish from breakoff and general structure obstacles but they are there and in good numbers.

Cheers Graeme

ORDINARY FISHING IN AN EXTRAORDINARY PLACE

Hard days at beautiful Bynoe...
Just back from four days out at Bynoe.   The tides and weather indicated should be great fishing, but from Saturday on the fishing seemed to get a bit harder for us.  I shouldn't whinge, we normally kill a pig out there and get onto spots that are a fish a cast.  Didn't happen this time, unless you count two fish in two casts and forget the other fifty casts after that which didn't catch any. The last day was a OFD (One Fish Day).

But we did catch fish, just not in the numbers we have been spoilt with in the past.  I think it may have been Cathies new orange top that scared them off.  We were dredging with 300grn and 250 grn lines in a couple of holes where there were heaps of steelback and blue salmon rolling, but we only managed half a dozen or so of them.  They were great fun because they put up such a fight, and it would be fun to get onto some really big blues, because it they have the same fight as the smaller ones they would have to be awesome.

Go the Blues!!!!(Couldn't help it)

One of the Steel backs that was hit by a bigger fish!

Graeme and Craig were getting into Barra in some of the creeks, Lenny had on board a Victorian crew,  Mick, Colin, Brian and Hughie   ( From The Council of Victorian Fly Fishing Clubs ) who got fish, don't know how they all went on Thursday, but hope they killed the pig that we missed. I think Dottie was going to be out there too.  It was great to have a chat with the Victorians and spoke to them about a Saltwater section in the Australian Fly Fishing Museum in Tassie. When we last saw them they were trying to finish a table of mud crabs.

Les and Irene got into fish, Les got a 120 Jewie and a couple of other good ones, Irene however had the same mojo problem as us I think.  Noel even got a keeper barra right at the boat ramp, but we could not hook at Barra.  Dave Friebel fished with us for one day and only got his barra when he was out of our boat fishing alone in his. (Might have some meaning there), Captain Watty, his Dad, Uncle and mate 'Nama' were out there too, although I think they fished Dundee.  

Dave...managed a barra without us, but it was hard going.

We fished with Dave along heaps of flats, saw schools of fish, in one there were four or five threadies being led by some barra, but we could not get them on a hook.   Very frustrating.  We did however manage a few pelagics later in the day or it looked like no fish on the boat.  Must have lost our mojo out there somewhere.  Dave will probably put a bit of a story together about his fish, but it sounds like the fish finally bit out of sheer frustration at the fly being cast near it all the time.  Did I mention it was hard out there.

Now I know its a small world, but Dave is from a small town (well railway siding anyway) called Rainbow in Victoria and that night at Sand Palms (The Shelter for the homeless Mob) we were talking to some blokes who actually were catching fish, and a couple were mates of Dean Cummins (the other Rainbow Warrior) dad from Rainbow.   

Word of warning, if you are at Sand Palms...don't mention telstra.

Just on Sand Palms, here they are!!!! delivering hospitality on the High seas. Marcus in in the front looking a bit unhappy because it was his last day, he's heading back to Newcastle then over the Canada. Nina too was leaving on Thursday so we wish them both well.

It's a BLUE boat too!!!

Now we can speculate what was wrong for us, but these cloud formations may have the answers

Is this a 'black hole' that sucked up all the fish?

Is this an  'Alien' fishing craft???

Truth is, there were fish there, we saw some huge trevally and what looked like a black and orange queenie, strange colour but definitely more like a queenie than a trevor, but we just never had the mojo to catch them....

The only fish on a 'One Fish Day'

Wednesday may have been a one fish day, but did I mention................its the day that the........

Blues Won!!!

Aitutaki Bones

Dear all,

Craig (some of you met him at the now infamous 2012 salt challenge) has just returned from the Cook Is where he spent a couple of days on Aitutaki Is fishing with Itu Davey of Itu's Bones fame.  Please make sure you have a bib with you when you view these photos.  I reckon some of you will be drooling!!

Craig caught 5 fish up to 5lbs and his work colleagues caught fish up to 8lb.  The technique was interesting.  A couple were caught site casting on the flats or drifting in the flats boat, but he said the majority of the big fish were caught in the MILK.  This is deep water, 3-5m deep with schools of Bones up to 15-20lb often encountered.  The schools of fish are large, sometimes upwards of a couple of hundered fish. Its termed the Milk because the fish feeding on the bottom stir up the sediment and from a distance it gives the water a milky appearance. The technique is to cast out a fly on a heavy sinking line and then drift over the feeding fish.  I guess that's called trolling, but for those in the party that had difficulty casting into a 20 knot breeze, it seemed to work a treat.

Happy drooling.

 

That's Itu holding the net!!

Below is from Craig-
Guide
Guide was a local named Itu Davey, http://www.e2sway.com/e2sway/Bonefish_E2s_way.html 
Itu's knowledge of the fishery and skill as a guide was exceptional. He could spot fish that I struggled to locate even when he pointed them out to me. It was a pleasure to spend 3 days on the water with him.

Flies
Flies used with mostly around size 2 and we had a size 2 Gama -SL12S straightened by a Bone so smaller hooks tend not to be used. Average fish size according to Itu is 4-5lb and average of my trip was 5lb. Double figure fish are apparently not uncommon and he is not surprised by 15lb plus fish! We had a couple of fish bust us off which I'd love to have known how big the were!
The main fly used was their local Pink/Orange/Tan/Legs version.. (Top Right) It usually has 4 legs but this one caught a few fish including my first Bone. Used that probably 70% of the time. There was also a brighter variant with legs replaced by fluro orange/green rubber but I lost that one so no pic.
Tried crab patterns for a while but Itu bought me back to his confidence fly and it worked so why change!
Next most common Go To fly was a Gotcha Shrimp Pattern with Orange/White legs. In shallow water the legs were clipped back to body length.
Also used some white Crazies and Clousers with a bit of flash.... all these caught fish at different times but their local pattern dominated time at the end of the leader.

 I had 15lb leaders to start but upgraded to 20lb after a few bust offs and Itu said 30lb in the Milk is not uncommon...



Cheers,

Dion

The "Glory" that is The Corroboree Cup!

After winning such a prestigeous event as the Mob's Corroboree Cup (the ASADA tests came back clear, just in case you were wondering), I am often asked what the secret is to cracking such a finicky fishery?  My response is usual candid and short, "mind your own business"!

Because the Mob is such a great bunch of sharing and caring people, honestly, we are, I will now divulge my secret!

Hook-Mustad Tarpon 3/0
Thread-red silk
Eyes-Nickle dumbell eyes with red pupils (3mm)
Tail-Yellow bucktail with three ogange saddle hackles either side of the bucktail firmly secured, followed by one yellow and one red saddle hackle secured to each side, followed by one slim but long natural grizzly hackle secured down each side.
Body-Pink/Orange chennile, overwrapped with red palmer chenille
Collar-palmered yellow and orange schlappen hackle.
Weed Guard-multi strand trace wire.



This is the actual fly I was using both days so it is a little ragged

The other information that I credit to my success during the Cup was other people's information!  Really folks if you want it, the information is free for all.  Firstly Glenn Watt's brief summary of how and where to catch Togas.  He mentioned fishing slow and deep, and strip strike hard.  No more information needed.  All of my Togas came from down deep and a very slow, short and erratic retrieve, no more than a couple of inches at a time.  Second was the location.  I have always found that when the lillies are recovering after the wet, the best bet is to fish the fringes of the lily beds.  I normally drive the boat up against the bank and cast back into the channel perpendicular to the bank.  I then slowly work the fly along the edge but close to the bottom.  Third, after a discussion with Graeme about the breeding habits of Togas, he shared with me the reason he likes to fish yellow for Togas.  Saratoga are mouth brooders, that is the males carry the eggs around in their mouth before they hatch, and the young use the male's mouth as protection until they are independent of the yolk sac, which is usually about a week or two after hatching.  The key here is that the eggs are large, spherical and a nice yellowy orange in colour.  The theory is that the fish has an inate need to pick up the eggs and protect them.  Does this translate into them eating a yellow or orange fly?  Interesting question, I am sure you'll agree.  It would be interesting to sex the fish that are caught this way and see if they are males?



Kate's first ever Toga on fly (That'd be one of Rog's)

Why did I catch a lot of barra and others found them hard to find?  This information was well advertised too before the running of the Cup.  Barra are lazy, they'll hang out where food comes to them, find that spot and you are in for some fun.  I found them in a patch where they congregate regularly at this time of year, in fact they are normally at this one spot.  The reason is because there is a small run off that flows in from behind.  For all intents and purposes, the spot looks identical to the other 50 or so kilometres of bank at Corroboree, except for that little bit of run off.



They weren't big but they were plentiful

  

Tarpon were thick as usual, but the trick was getting the bigger fish out from amongst the youngsters.  Again the fly discussed above worked well for me here and the larger fish were targetted from the grassy edges.  These fish were actively preying on the rainbows up in the grass.  You'd see them periodically smash through the surface taking out a mouthful of young rainbows.  Again fishing slow and deep made a difference.



There were a lot of this size class around this year, possibly why the bigger barra were a little elusive

So Mobsters, there you have it. My secret is out, moreso than on Saturday night when the grog was flowing a little freer that it probably should and socially lubricating fellow punters into divulging their spots.  Kate and I fished almost exclusively, well I am not going to divulge that, but most of you who fished the Cup know where that was. Hang in there, keep your ear to the ground and your reading glasses on the blog and take note of the hidden and not so hidden messages that fly around in cyber space and perhaps next year you will be able to proudly display a Cup for of "Glory" on your mantle piece.

Here are some more fish photos for you all to enjoy,  Cheers.

Queensland Mobster's First on Fly

A first on fly for Chris....





He might be in Queensland but he's in BLUE

FROM THE WEST

Exmouth Fly Fishing

A warm welcome to the 2300 the follower of this page. Thank you for your support and welcome to Western Australia's premium saltwater fly fishing page.

Kind regards, Jono Shales

Take a good look at this photo. What you're seeing here is the crap job that some fishing shops do when selling lines and reels to customers, in particular the inadequate knot to attach the fly line to the backing.

See the orange backing in Grant's hand, this was what popped when the queenfish jumped, luckily we were able to grab the fly line as it was being pulled across the flat and handline the fish and land it.

Have you ever lost a fly line to a fish or had the knot pull ?

THE CUP NUMBERS

From Lord Jim  

A breakdown of the numbers for the weekend;

Barra:                   75 (largest 62cms)

Toga:                    62 (largest 62cms)

Tarpon:                160 (largest 47cms)

Catfish:                13 (largest 48cms, had a bigger head on it than Rogers!)

Long tom:           3 (largest 45cms)

Barra and Toga catches were spread out amongst the field with no one Mobster catching a huge number. Sunday recorded catch numbers (half day only) showed either the fishing dropping off or was an indication as to the fun that was had Saturday night. I think that the wearing of Sunnies before the sun by some of the Mob was a good indication which had the greater influence on catches!!

There were quite a few Barra that were caught and not recorded because they were less than the minimum size of 20cms. Some of the younger Mobsters reported that they had great fun watching groups of small Barra chasing and fighting over the fly right to the boat.

Great weekend, 

 

FUTURE CUP WINNERS

Briana with a giant Tarpon ...first for the cup!

Another first ...Hayden with his barra.

Jack making up the photo finish with a toga

....and..... they're talking about winning the stakes.....already!!!!!

THE SECOND EDITION

The mob rewards

Now for the fun.....

Don't tip it over, its full of 'glory'!!

I did all the guiding so I'm in this too.

The top six runners in the field

Just engaged

That's my wonderful girl

No! this is the wonderful girl

Beauty

Now for the sledging..

The beast

The boys, Jack and Hayden outfished most of the guns!!

What's in these bags

Lord Jim finally scoring, a brilliant performance!!!!

Cathie! do something about him or we'll be in strife again!  

There's those "Show Ponies" again

You young blokes behave yourselves, hewes boat is that anyway?

Is that show pony following me again!

Hewes boat is it, it's my boat

He said he'd take me out if he wins it!

Now I've got to take her out somewhere! Is McDonalds expensive???

I've got blue 13!!!!!

Can't win a bloody thing and had to fish with the old man!

Oh!  there were fish too...

Bugger, you bite a couple of bloody boats and then they descend on the place! and then they advertise this......

A final word

Our wonderful sponsor Watty, who could not be at the Cup because he was helping take out the Reel Womens

Thanks to all our wonderful sponsors