HAS THE WIND GONE - AND A BIT OF AN UPDATE ON EVERYTHING?

From all reports the wind should be dropping off and hopefully the build up is coming, our household needs a fishing fix, but the old girl has been having treatment for the last couple of months on her casting shoulder and my back has me bent over like Groucho Marx (for those who may remember him) so if we went out it would be the one armed deckie with the crippled crab captain.  

But all is looking great weather wise for the BYNOE SHEEP STATION STAKES on the 20th and 21st September at Sand Palms.  (More to come on that soon)

...and just for a bit of FUN at the Stakes...

Recently I had a in depth discussion with Graeme Williams who most know is a flyfishing guide working out of Crab Claw for the last 20 yrs, he was at Barra base from the late 80's and has certainly seen some different flies thrown at Barramundi and to a lesser degree King Threadfin, somehow after a few wines, the topic turned to the little contest he has going  between Wayne Williams and me with the Sunrise to Sunset Fly STS and my Barra a cast fly BAC.

Graeme has  always provided the basic advice to people that in our pursuit of  fishing fiscality (his words) fly's need to be generic, by that he meant its no good throwing half a guinea fowl at barra on the flats  when 10kg of Queenfish cruises by you want something everything eats (like pizza).

After further bullshit we were going nowhere and Graeme said lets include this in the Sheep Station Stakes, a successful No Barra fly ( NBF).  He reckons  it doesn't  exist so we agreed to see who can send or outline a fly that barra wont eat. 


Before it gets ridiculous, better make some basic rules

The Rules (within reason)

1. One hook only no bigger than 4.0 and no smaller than size 2.
2. must have at least a combination of color out of any material.
3. No longer than 10cms.
4. No hidden impregnation of foreign material such as Rid or Bushmans.
5. Has to be a witness to it catching bugger all .

UPDATE:  Views on this blog have reached 42,888 and we have over 1000 likes on the facebook site, and reaches on it varies between subjects.  On one post we put up photos of whales ( I like whales) but we only got about 40 people reached on that, so not everyone likes pictures of whales maybe?  but when we shared a link on the netting controversy in the East it went feral...in two days we have nearly 20,000 (not kidding) reached and a heap of shares, it led to attempt at bullying with threats from another site, and a lot of information from international fishers (both fly and darkside) in relation to similar things that are happening in other parts of the world.   Here is the original post if you are still interested, it is a hot topic in the East with meetings being held over the next few weeks to try and fix things I believe... ... http://www.fishingworld.com.au/news/permit-massacre

So the fishing should be hotting up and hopefully we will see you out on the water, ours will be the cripples boat...and remember with it warming up the crocs will be getting frisky so

 

My top five Saltwater Fly Fishing videos

Aside from Graeme's awesome full length video (Northern Estuary by Insight Fly Fishing) that I watch repeatedly again and again and again......
So much so even my students at my school, know exactly whats coming up next. It is always playing on the big screen projector in the science lab.

But here is a link to a profile and subsequent links to my top five saltwater video likes - hope you find some inspiration to get out there on the water and cast to some fish a bit of fur and feather and or plastic tied on a hook.

My top five Saltwater Fly Fishing videos likes

enjoy
Richard

A VERY RARE REVIEW - SAGE - ONE, METHOD AND SALT.

Early this year and now recently I had the opportunity to cast a new Sage" One". A Sage" Method"and the new Sage"Salt"

Craig Wilson a friend from Sydney brow beat me on the merits of the Sage" One" and how it made him a better caster (although he forgot to mention a few subtle hints might have made a difference) nonetheless it was and still is a great rod.

Craig had a scientific Wet/tip of 10wgt loaded over the 9wgt rod,whilst I can go with that I didn't get or take the chance to downsize the line due to too many fish about, in my mind it was on a par with the TCR series.

                     Sage' One' 9wgt S/A  Wet tip 10wgt cast 50ft accounted for this Barra.

The strong winds over the last month were handy for another reason, for me anyhow.This week I spent 2 days casting a new" Method" 8wgt and a" Salt" 9wgt, without a lot of lengthy comment the "Method" was a great rod easy to cast responsive but essentially no paradigm shift for me there.

 The "Method" nailed plenty of these which whilst legal looks bigger here than it actually was

.The Salt however was an entirely different story.

A recent discussion with Steve huff in Florida where he told me his friend and Chief designer at Sage Jerry Siems explained over the last two years while developing the "Salt "he had discovered when wrapping all graphite rods an inherent error of aligning the fibers can be rectified and was applied to this model. Sage has produced a very crisp workable rod for what I like doing that is picking up and casting off the water, tight loops under trees and punching in the wind and above all the important, accuracy.

Funnily enough Abel Reels show pony Colors and offset seat didn't bother the balance at all.

Sage have produced some great rods and mind you a few notable turkeys over the years, the Salt is a definitive and measurable improvement from their famous and my still favorite the TCR series.

I have used and been sponsored by Sage for 28 yrs but having said that a" dog of a rod" is a "dog of a rod" regardless of who makes it, this one is not in that category and will set a new standard so much so I just ordered 2 hopefully discounted after giving this rare review.

One Fly line line we tried was the" Rio Tropical Short", supposedly a quick casting flats line at short distances, one hour using this and excusing the french WTF, I have no idea why this line exists other than to solve somebody's casting problem in throwing to Tuna or other Pelagic schools, it did nothing for me encountering Barra on the flats, if you intend to fish both on one day you are far better using a weight forward Floating or wet/tip line, anyway it went back in the bag and got another loud WTF from both of us.

          Thats 66cms (lousy photo) the" Salt" sent my fly on one pickup out 80ft (on the Bible) on Anniversary flat yesterday


Cheers Graeme

REPORT FROM THE STIGS HALL PASS TRIP.

See The Stigs blog at http://swoffingntwaters.blogspot.com.au/
Monday, August 25, 2014

Lee Point-Darwin Harbour report 24th Aug

I almost went back to bed Sunday morning! mostly from frustration.
Because.....
On Saturday there was so little wind in the morning that even a light mist was clinging to the ground on the oval near my house
The trees were as still as I had seen them for a month
I actually dared to raise my hopes of a glassed off morning on the harbour on the next day!

However........on Sunday morning at 5:30am the trees were basically bending over to the wind! Palm fronds flaying about in the strong wind - BUGGER!!!!

But with the usual optimism (studpidity?) SWOFFERS seem to posses overpowered the logic of strong winds and I drove to my mate's place near Nightcliff boat ramp - at the time I was thinking Option 2 and Saratoga at Corroboree that I discussed in a previous blog would have been a far better choice

On launching the boat - I still had issues because if the wind was this strong now, it would only get stronger through the day as with almost every other day this month of August! So what was the point, "go home now", my logical mind was saying but my casting arm won the argument and we ventured forth.

In the positive, it was much better launching at Nightcliff, it saves 35 minutes run time to Lee Point than if we had launched at East Arm. In the negative, the ramp is not a steep ramp, quite shallow and with my large tyres that I have on my trailer it means the back tyres of my ute are three-quarters underwater - not good for any metal on my truck! (even though I spray everything at back of ute with lanolin spray)

After a short 5-8minute run to Lee Point at 27knots average, there was 20-30cm of wave chop but the smoke in the air created an awesome pink globe type sunrise gradually, changing to orange then to yellow that was spectacular to watch and was enough to keep us fishing

Then miraculously the wind started to dissipate, the chop died down and it turned in a great morning

Very large schools of big garfish were breaking the surface and large slashes by predators were inducing them to jump about. Smaller bait were also around too, mostly hugging the rock bars at Lee Point that were being exposed by the dropping tide. The predators were herding these food sources against these reef/rock bars

The deckie was racking up the species scoreboard points by catching a variety of reef species - snapper, stripies and parrots on clousers but thought he would go to a large fly and had instant success on the grey mackerel about - but in the crystal clear water watching them follow the fly, slash at the fly, come steaming in from the side and swipe at the fly, or follow the fly right to the boat and then turn away or drop into the depths out of sight - all this kept us casting and casting for a couple of hours.

I went the opposite way  to my deckie and was using a small surface candy size 1, that I would normally use for freshwater tarpon in the billabongs and hooked a few mackerel myself. One took my fly as I paused my stripping to look at something and I just came up tight, only a few metres from the boat. Happened a second time  too but I got cut cutoff so easily on my 20lb fluorocarbon leader. At other times a fast strip of the fly got the macks excited and worked well hookup wise.

Almost every cast and retrieve brought some interest from the large number of grey mackerel about
I did have one quite large Spanish mackerel show show interest in the fly I was casting, so easily different to identify from the grey mackerel in size, markings and colour - it followed the fly right to the boat and its rapid turn caused a swirl of water that was as large as my 4.7m boat - so awesome to watch in the clear water of this neap tide - of course it would have been much better had it hooked up!

We only lost a few flies, so didn't bother with wire traces - the fish were not exactly leaping onto our flies, almost like they had full stomachs and were window shopping with out buying anything

A sporadic pod of longtail tuna starting busting up three hundred metres away but before we got there some lure tossers (and I do mean 'tossers') drove them away, or down?, by driving their boat through them a few times. A kayaker nearby was just as frustrated by their lack of skill in maneuvering their boat upwind and drifting into casting distance from the pod - especially given all the paddling he had done to get there amongst the longtail pod about 1.5 km from shore.

After a few hours of these grey mackerel herding bait against the rock bars and following our flies half halfheartedly, it was time for something else, something bigger, somewhere else - and with the wind still very low in intensity, we drove across the front of harbour looking for birds working  but sadly found nothing. We did get chased along by some naval vessels impressive in their size and weaponry. There was about four larger sized frigates or missile cruisers entering the harbour as we cross it - hoping we were identified as masked gunmen racing our 'speed boat' towards them..

Off Mandorah point on other side of harbour and its outer rock bars - we again found nothing, so we travelled along the shore line and rock bars looking for some action
On a rock bar 200 meters south of Mandorah I had a follow from a 50-60cm barra which woke us from our fishing stupor. The shape of the head, the silver side and that obvious yellow tail made it easy to identify- bugger - missed my nemisis again!

Peter got a small hand sized queenie, while I got a small coral trout on the surf candy, its iridescent blue spots brilliant in the bright light. Both fish taken from very tight up against the rock bar.

There was a dark patch of rock in front of the rock bar (95% exposed at this time of the tide) that turned out to be a school of about 20 largish blue bastards handing behind a rock down current of the tide that was starting to come in

Peter (the deckie kicking my butt in the scorecard today!) inquired about what they ate and what fly, so I got him to tie on one of my BFCW (Bynoe Flats Crustacean Wannabees) as a possible crab/prawn food source. On second cast Peter thought he had snagged the fly, only to have the 'rock' start to move about. He had hooked one of the bastards,sadly the fly come lose after a short run - bugger! Peter was impressed by their strength (so looks like we will be targeting them more often now and tying some more crab like patterns - see future blogs for my feeble crab like fly attempts).

So on that action, we cruised the flat around the corner of this rock bar searching for more bastards, but found trevally, well we spooked trevally, some more spooked bastards. Peter did get a small coral trout on the BFCW fly.

The water was crystal clear but I am using the chop and flash of sunlight on it as my excuse for spooking more fish that I got to cast to.

Later we moved our way further into the harbour with the wind hurrying us along and we found some working birds and got some more grey mackerel behind woods inlet. (that's the point at front of Woods Inlet behind the coral trout, in the right of picture)

Without more indication of fish activity we moved over to Weed Reef and again found nothing.
By this time the wind speed and white caps on the waves was increasing rapidly. So headed  for the leeward side of the harbour near the naval base. There we got chased out of the naval area by some seaman in one of their inflatable pursuit boats - first time in five years I have been chased out of there, weird? might have been due to the extra naval presence in harbour.

With wind still increasing and large swell coming straight down the harbour from the north - plus no fish activity showing we headed back to Nightcliff ramp
With the expected strong winds finally arriving - the assaulting waves and wind wash that we pounded through on way to Nightcliff ramp wasn't much fun - it was a slow wet trip back - but hey its better then working on a Sunday!

Now to start planning the next trip!

BARRA FUN ON A PIKE FLY

A bit of fun catching a barra on a pike fly from sweden,  we usually keep the tip in the water or as low as possible to stop them jumping off, but seeing them jump for the camera is great. This really is fun to watch, and we can all relate to dropping fish like this.   Must get the Go Pro going

Andy has some great videos etc. catch him on http://www.andysfishing.com.au/

BUCKTAIL BAITFISH - FROM THE STIG

See The Stigs blog at   http://swoffingntwaters.blogspot.com.au/

life is crazy busy - worse still no fishing happening!

A friend and long time Darwinite tells me, he never goes fishing in the month of August due to the winds
Now I understand him, every morning lately 5-10 knots of wind and rising in intensity through the day
That is except when I can't take a day or even a few hours off and wouldn't you know it - the wind dissipates   
              - uuurrghhhh!    --    Soooooo  frustrating!

Still there is fly tying.......
I have so many flies tied as the wind howls outside, that I may not need to tie anymore till Christmas

I may have to donate a few to local fly club again for door prizes - so I have the excuse to tie some more

These ones are one of the very first saltwater flies
The main ingredient is bucktail

BUCKTAIL BAITFISH - catches most SW predator species
I tie a little flash at bend of hook
Over this I tie some polar fibre - pink or white but mostly white
From hook bend to half way along shank tie some ice chenille - I mainly use pearl ice chenille
Then reverse hook and tie on a bunch of white bucktail with the tips point past the eye of the hook
Put hook right way up then tie on contrasting bucktail colour
wind thread all the way to the eye of the hook being careful not to tie last few wraps of thread too tightly as it may flare the bucktail too much
Ensure all fibres are flat on hook shank, then on front quarter of hook shank apply a few wraps of lead wire up to eye of hook
Apply a few wraps of thread over the lead wire - then apply a little super glue to hold it all in place
Place thread at start of lead wire
Fold bucktail back over the hook shank
Wrap thread at this point to form head of fly - you want the head to bulge a little - the lead wire helps do this
Again be careful not to tie last few wraps of thread too tightly as it may flare the bucktail too muchTie off thread - optionally I have tied on a band of red thread here to form gills
Give head a lite coating of epoxy - place on drying wheel
Once dry (better if still a little tacky), place on a prism eye on each side of head
Give head another lite coating of epoxy - place on drying wheel
Tie twenty or so or more, and go fishing!

Enjoy!

THE STIG HAS A HALL PASS

See The Stigs blog at  http://swoffingntwaters.blogspot.com.au/

Ok, I have been a good father and husband this week and even though I have time constraints due to a an essay that is due shortly...
I have earned a 'hall pass' to go fishing this Sunday - but where to go?

Option One: Darwin harbour
The tides are ones I like - neaps tides working towards spring tides with Sunday's high of 6.4 just before sunrise at 5:55am, low of 2.4 m at midday.
This is good as I can fish first light at Weed Reef or other rock bars like Lee Point for pelagics as the tide starts to drop then fish the harbour arms for some flats species - be home just after lunch time - but hopefully action continues and I can fish the rising tide and the current lines for more pelagics till late in the afternoon.


The only minus is the wind forecast - with 5-10 knot winds first up with patches of higher and lower wind speeds varying through the day - thinking about it its not too bad of a forecast if it stays true.

Would be on the water 6:30am with the predawn light and out to Weed Reef by 6:50am, We would choose actually location we fish first by wind speed and direction and time of tide.The next decision would be which boat ramp and that depends on where I choose to fish first up to target pelagics like queenfish and trevally - so the first fishing location is down to two places - Lee Point (as too for the bonus of possible Broadbarred Mackerel and Longtail Tuna) or Weed Reef and its usually dependable species.

If Lee Point it would be from Nightcliff but you need a 2.5m tide to retrieve the boat - so that's a mid-afternoon ramp return option with this tide which can also be a problem if wind increases and I cant put in till tide rises.

Otherwise - its East Arm ramp which is good in all but the lowest spring tides - and to take advantage of the low tide flats and other locations to fish on the way back into the harbour as the day progresses.

So option one is looking OK

Option Two: Corroboree Billabong
Tides are not the issue but water temp is - its been quite cold nights recently, down to single digits in the rural areas last week but day time temps at in low 30's. Plus it is a long drive  (am I talking myself out of this option already?).
In the positive wind is less of an issue as less intensity in an inland wind and lots of curves in the billabong to find a point get out of wind. Plus the wind can help with some very good drift lines along the edges of the lillies and weed beds


And I do love my Saratoga fishing, and if we left home at 6am we could be on the water by 8am just as the sun is warming the water. We might miss out on dawn topwater fly action which always worth a long drive but the fish will get quite active between 9am-3pm on sub surface flies and the warming water.

Option Three - Vernon Islands.
Still trying to get here again!!!!

But my inexperience and possible increasing wind have me scared off this option. It can be pretty intense wave action here due to wind and tide in between the islands - especially in my low profile boat. I might wait till the calm weather returns at beginning of the wet season for this much longed for trip. (What an old and soft wuss I am becoming!)

I will chat to my 'deckie', and a friend who might bring his boat, to decide what option we will take.

Fishing report in next blog - hopefully with some fish in it!

WINTER BARRA AT KATHERINE

Nathan Billings is across from Townsville and we were hoping to take him out on the flats at Bynoe with the good tides, but the wind put a stop to that, 30 to 40 kmph during the day dropping to around 20kmph during the night.

But Nathan still wet a line in Katherine and found the fish...

Nathan Billing

11 hours ago

Spent the arvo catching barra that don't eat in winter, on flies they won't eat, in a picturesque system of crystal clear "trout streams" with the 6wt. All under 60cm, but sight casted and it can't get much it cant get much better. #ilovehotsprings#iloveNT #theyneedtothinkoutsidethebox #flatgoprolikeusual

There are 4 barra, a few sooties and some catfish in that pool. biggest around 60cm..

LONGTAIL TUNA

NT Fly Fishers Social Mob shared Recreational Fishing Australia's photo.

Who has ever caught a #LongtailTuna??
Did you know that in Dec 2006 Longtail were declared a "Recreation Only" Fish?
Check out http://www.longtailtuna.com.au/

EUTHANIZING FISH PROPERLY

Thanks to NT Fisheries ...

Fisheries NT

about an hour ago

All fish that are to be kept should be euthanized humanely immediately after capture to eliminate unnecessary stress to the fish and maximise the eating quality and storage life of the flesh. The best techniques for this are ‘iki jime’ spiking the fish in the brain with a sharp instrument just behind the eye (see example for barramundi)or by using one or more sharp percussion blows to the head to render the fish immediately unconscious. Only once a fish has been rendered unconscious should it be bled and placed in an ice slurry.

TOMMY ...AN ABSOLUTE BLOODY LEGEND!!!!

You may all recall the bit of a horror story of Dennis's vehicle and trailer running off the ramp in Barramundi Drive into the depth there.   The locals rallied around and tried to get a diver to go down and attach straps to the vehicle so it could be recovered, but apparently no divers were available.  But it is Bynoe and they don't let you down.

Well, along came the 'Legend of Bynoe',  and with apologise to 'Superman'  he was 'faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, disguised as a mild mannered pizza cook  from Sand Palms' ......TOMMY. 

The Mild Mannered Legend

Tommy took the bull by the horns, or should I say the goggles and flippers and attached the lines to the sunken vehicle and trailer allowing it to be pulled out.  Here are some of the photos....

It's out there somewhere, make sure we are crocsafe!!!!

Are you sure that bloody croc is not around, or did that big shark eat it?

I can feel it with my feet!!!

Yep, there it is

Got it

Don't drop that rope

Here it comes!!

The Diesel decided to leak

Keep it coming

Now for the trailer

Got it too, the safety chain held

Its a bit messy, but its out.

The photos are courtesy of Denise McFarlane and more can be seen by clicking on her name