THE ORRS - LAND-BASED FLYRODDING SESSIONS

A Huntin’,Shootin’,Fishin’ trip to the East Coast (of the Top End) a couple of weeks ago resulted in a several land-based flyrodding sessions of some note.

Bagged a few buffs and scrub bulls for the chiller but it was definitely the fishing that was a stand-out.

The venue was a small rocky headland protruding from the mangroves near the top of the tidal stretch of one of the Gulf rivers.

As the tide rose, schools of ravenous queenfish arrived and produced the kind of action one can only dream about. We visited this spot 3 times over 4 days, and managed between 35 and 50 skinnies each time, apologies for losing count!

The fish repeatedly attacked the fly like packs of ravenous wolves and as expected were immediately airborne on hook-up. Spectacular stuff!

 

Average size queenies around 80cm were in plague proportions.

Whenever an 'average' fish was hooked, there were always a few leviathans in attendance down deep, however it was very difficult to get a fly down to them without hooking a lesser fish. Busted the Lefty’s Loop on the 40lb co-polymer tippet twice by strip-striking the bigger ones as they took off. Their speed and power at hook-up rather caught me by surprise!  Eventually managed to stay attached to one for a tough fight, well over 50m of backing out twice as he made big powerful runs downstream, but stayed out of the rocks and mangroves thankfully. The end result? A 'personal best' for the fly at 104cm fork-length. 

Only 12cm less than Starlo’s record fish, so pretty happy with that!

 

Best queenie on fly at 104cm.

Also managed another couple of 'milestones' with the long wand on that weekend:

a PB Long Tom at around 1.2 metres....

 

Big gulf-river Long-Tom shredded the fly but stayed attached.

...and my first ever Queensland Groper on fly, luckily only a juvenile.  As it was, he went under a rock for a while and I had to wait for him to swim back out!

 

Uncommon flyrod capture- juvenile Groper! Aren't they gorgeous?!

 Cheers

Tony & Rebecca

105lb Moto Guide Electric For Sale

This 105 lb thrust 36 volt electric was mounted on my Hewes Redfisher until I replaced it with there new $3000.00 model.
It is a tiller steer can be mounted on the front or back ,has an extended handle and is extremely powerful.
For sale $600 you will need 3 batteries.

Email: insightflyfishing@bigpond.com.au

Phone: 08 8945 6658 or 0412 481 592

KIRIBATI - WHILE WE BATTLED THE WIND AND COLD

Dave and Andy have just returned from Kiribati where they had a ball....here is a selection of some of the shots they took, there are heaps more, plus Dave is putting together a video...so more to come later...Trevor Martin and Mario (The Fonz) Demaio were up there too...and there are some of Trevor's shots here as well....

  

 As Andy put it, "...such a wonderful week, epic fly fishing. I picked up 13 new species for me on fly taking my total to 103, super happy."

Gotta hate that 'dirty' water!

The planning stage

The 'party' stage?

Looks like it wasn't all smooth sailing??

From Trevor...

I think I have improved my skills. Others might say when the sun disappears behind a cloud on Christmas Island you can hear Trevor Martin swear and curse at what he calls the Zebra effect, polaroiding ceases due to low/no light. You seem to stand on the flat to long waiting for the sun to reappear. Well this trip I had more time on the flats and a great rotation of tides, returning to the same flat but different conditions each time. "Go like Hell" became my favorite. Rain we did retire but LOW light and NO WIND became my favorite. WHY? Well I could not wait for the Sun because it was not going to show, to much cloud and a front heading our way by the arvo. SO! We had to deal with the cards we are dealt. The still conditions, you could hear them all over the lagoon tailing and smashing bait and Trevs, black tips ripping the shallows. Tailors were not always easy they needed to be in casting distance and 100% busy because they could feel and hear you in the becalmed conditions. Sighting them before they sighted you was always a heart pumper, most hook ups were at a rod length, hand to hand combat of a real close encounter. This did shock me on occasion more than normal too, when what I thought was a small bone, after the hook was boofed and set, line stinging through the air and stretched hard onto the reel would continue to smash my knuckles with the duel handles until I got the run under control. Half of these brutes straightened the hooks from a standing start, never will I know the size of these missiles, but later I relaxed my strip strike and landed some lovely wide backed beauties. Any bonefish around the 7lb plus in real shallow water, is what I call an extremely exciting fight. PS. I never have liked PARIS Flat I really hated the crowded wall of death, so I would strip off and go swimming in the lagoon. This Trip we got it to our selves and I finally know why its always busy. Pound for pound these Paris Bones PULL hard, I mean real hard. I was so excited to catch another I back handed a cast over my left shoulder and firmly embedded the forgotten to debarb hook into my left ear. Thank You Melow for promptly operating on me with your forceps and firmly ripped it out of my body, luckily with no infection. I was promptly told by the guide to harden up.... he had seen worse and we were moving to another flat pronto. LOL. those BoneFish were well worth the experience anyway woot! woot!
Regards
Trevor Martin CXI July 2015

HANDLING THE WIND LAST WEEK

Even my morning brigade were staying close in the cold

Weather reports indicated 15 to 30 kph winds and severe drop in temperatures.

If it was just me to go fishing I would have stayed home, as a guide there is no choice visitors cannot disappear so confronted with the conditions I set out every morning wind or no wind.

The real beauty of Bynoe besides it scenery and fishery is that it is one of the few areas that can and does provide shelter in pretty well all conditions,having fished a huge variety of estuary's across Northern Australia its my choice in inclement conditions.

One issue with strong winds is first get to where you want to go and second getting calm enough water without the wind coming strait through the trees, you can narrow this down by using Google earth and selecting high landscapes behind it .

                                             Pan fried Queenfish ,great on cold days

The cold was another matter its consistent that Barra and Threadfin will either shy away or just plain ignore you when the temperature drops, they will eventually get over it but initially its a problem especially early in the morning on shallow clear flats,water temp gets around 23c but in the shallows the ambient air at 16,17 degrees cools the edges even further making them often hard to find because they leave early for thermoclines in deeper areas.

                         A shark and I had a disagreement on who's fish it was, still measured 73cm

This week that occurred often and then the lack of fish suddenly turns into large groups up to 15 or twenty at a time, if you do come on groups never cast in the middle always take the lead fish first otherwise they will all bolt. 

The run up usually occurs later in the day on making moon phases and tides inherently a little warmer and its your best option .

I often say treat wind as your friend it might just force you in to being outside your comfort zone away from frequently visited areas and adding a few new spots to your list of places to go

Even today  I still find those  and there are still places for one reason (usually wind that I have never ventured, Bynoe is credited with over 4000 kms of foreshore.

late turns of the high tide during the week produced Queenfish and Trevally in large numbers there were bigger Queenfish on the flats but even they were hard to pin down.
In a nutshell it was hard but nonetheless caught reasonable numbers.

BLOWING AT BYNOE

Has been pretty windy out at Bynoe the last few days, so many of us have fished in different spots to get out of the wind...fish are there, but can be very very frustrating.  In one spot there were five barra around 70cm, which was a bit larger than the groups we have been seeing, and under them was a huge threadie. They were all lazing in very shallow water, but nothing would attract them.  Fly, Lure or Bait....might have to get a spear gun, or even a good cast net because they stayed close to the boat and could probably have put the net over them.  

Still managing a few barra out of groups that are around 50cm, plenty of small queenies and trevally on the reefs if you can stand up in the rough water caused by the wind.  Speaking to everyone out here, we are all finding it hard, but the truth is we have been too spoilt in the past.  We are seeing plenty of fish, but they wont eat.  Heaps of bait around might be the answer or maybe next week??

Pete Davies is out here with his Bynoe bandits, but we have not been able to speak to him yet to see how he is going...went out with the Helifish mob today so might catch up to him tonight to see how he is going...

Pete's Bynoe Bandit

Roggie has been tryng a heap of different flies but the most succesful so far have been these type on Enrico Puglisi fibre

These all have a thin line of DNA along the inside of them

This one has DNA over the EP fibre

A couple of the boys (Cliff and Gary) who have fished here for years, came back into Milne Inlet to get out of the wind and got hooked up on a mangrove, when they went in to get the lure (dark side) they saw a metre plus barra laying under the mangrove...they panicked, but it didn't seem too scared and swam out onto the sand flat, so when they got the lure off, after catching everything in the boat, including themselves trying to get the lure out, they managed to hook the fish.   Off it went, dragged them around on the flat and then made off at speed, shaking its head...the lured pulled out..and all the hooks were straightened....frustrating!!!!!