jdanger

Hey mate, Not sure if you're still looking but I would stick with second hand if you're just getting into it. As others have said, fly reels are mostly about holding line unless you're going tropical and chasing monsters on the flats. Been using basic trout gear in the salt, just need to make sure you give everything a good rinse afterwards. There's a forum specialising in Australian salt water fly fishing which often has good deals on barely used rods/reels/line. I'm actually thinking of trying a cheapish Chinese reel from Ali Express if you're happy to wait a couple of weeks for shipping. They're getting a pretty good wrap for the price ($30-$60 shipped). Also a great place to get cheap fly tying materials if that's on your radar (just don't skimp on the hooks).

Far out man, you're spanking the pelagics! Reel's gonna be due for a service earlier than usual i reckon.

Agreed! IME trout have the worst walking:catching ratio around. Just as well they live in nice places.

Fished a small oberon stream which was nice but didnt hold large fish. Had a brief crack at the coxs river as well but yet to land anything there. Tasmania is good but didnt get to do my annual week of the Western Lakes as i was in Thailand over summer (first world problems, eh?) Havent fished thompsons before but may head up in July. I've read about the large rainbows but also hear it can be a frustrating fishery.

Got a love hate relationship with the trout! Hard to beat sight casting dries and you get some exceptional scenery while chasing them. When we were down everyone was struggling. Fished the Euc and Thredbo for one fish between us and saw a lot less fish than last year. The reports seemed quiet around the time we went but started seeing a few pics hit social media a few days later. Ah well, show's all over now i guess.

After a dud of a trip to the Snowies for trout, my mate and I went back to the comfort of our local salty stretch hoping to catch the salmon busting jelly prawns in the back of the Parra bays. Day was pleasant, water was calm and the gulls on the water had us thinking things were about to set off. The salmon didn't eventuate so we decided to wade the flats on the run out for bream as usual. Last night I had tied a shrimp fly using almost everything in the tying box, mostly to try out my recently ordered shrimp eyes from China. Anyway, the fly ended up a little busier and much brighter than usual with some hot pink & chartreuse feelers, pink BMS tail, tan dubbing and wing. Having a general preference for browns and olives, I figured if the bream wouldn't eat it a flathead eventually will. I haven't fished shrimp flies a lot, finding the simply BMS baitfish pattern being more than effective enough, but a few outings recently mixing it up had me rethinking my strategy. Old Mate wasn't thrilled with the colour scheme. I had my reservations as well. "I dare you to fish it - you stick with your shrimp and I'll stick with the BMS". "Fine." A few casts in and my hot pink mess gets munched by a mid 40's flatty. Game on - but will the bream bite? Things went quiet for a while - it was a weak tide so it would take a while for the current to warm things up. We decided to move to another part of the bay which has been productive in the past. Eventually, my mate who was fishing ahead started finding a few as we made our way up the flat. A mid 30's bream, a small flatty - we were just complaining about how whiting don't really fight that well and are inconsistent compared to bream when they apparently heard, took offence and started attacking his fly with gusto. It was begging to get dark and we were both getting cold. Hands numb, I found an excuse to start fishing in front and promptly connected to a solid fish before it spat the hook. Fark. Hands number, I soon connected again. Initially I picked it for a flatty as there was a fair weight but the run wasn't blistering. A few strips in and the fish suddenly woke up, giving plenty of nice headshakes and few good little runs. Still thought it was a flatty. Eventually the fish got its flank into the current and a long slog ensued - by now the rythmic thump-thump identified it as a bream. Eventually got it to the net and we were both a little surprised with how little space was left. We knew it was a trophy and took a rod-measure so Matey Potatey could confirm the numbers when he got home. Pleased to say the pink shrimpy wonder worked a treat - the fly was well and truly down the gob of my new PB of 43cm, and made a great consolation prize for the lack of pelagic action. Suddenly, my hands were warm again.

That was sick

The term "proactive policing" usually sends a shudder down my spine - nanny state, 1984, etc. But in this instance i'm okay with it.

Hi all, Went for a quick flick with my workmate and fishing buddy yesterday arvo. Last chance for local species before i head to thailand for 3 months. Anyway, the whiting were more than happy to play. Fish pictured went 36cm to the tip and inhaled the fly so deep it had to be retrieved throught the gills. Biggest would've cracked 40. Unfortunately he was lightly pinned and managed to escape nick's grasp before the glamour shot. Fly of choice was hammerhead BMS in tan with pink flashy rib, as pictured below. They didnt seem interested in the more elaborate shrimp patterns (probably because theres more baitfish than prawns in the inner west). After half a dozen or so whiting plus a couple of small but plump bream, we made the mistake of leaving fish to find more fish. Sadly the other side of the bay wasnt as productive. Hopefully the next report contains a mahseer or peacock bass!

You werent at rose bay were you? Was on a charter yesterday chasing kings on fly. The crowd around goat island was unmissable. Only thing ruining the fishing was the idiot trolling back and forth through the school at 15knots whilst everyone else was respectfully fishing the edges. Then he gets aggressive and screaming abuse at everyone for giving him the stink eye. Anyway, plenty of kings around for everybody. Mostly rats but a couple 1m+ models taken on live squid around goat. We ended up moving on and found plenty nearby and had them all to ourselves! Good fun on fly.

That fly is called a "carp bitter". Heavier fly for fishing the bottom, reminds me of the kind of shrimp imitations we use for bream and tied on the same saltwater hooks (SL45s) with bead chain eyes for weight. Definitely looks like a dragon fly in the pic.

Mate of mine spotted a bunch of carp in an urban creek in western sydney whilst feeding ducks with his 3yo a few months ago. Following the rains and fly reports from the central coast, we decided to give em a crack last week, and again today. Plenty of fish cruising and feeding along the margins but we got the impression they've eaten enough recently to start getting choosy with their flies. The water was especially dirty due to the rain so efforts had to be concentrated on the edges of the bank, with fish sometimes hooked at our feet. Red & black wooly worms and tan carp biters did the trick last week, but olive was the go today. Below pic is about average from what we've seen. Had a very visual eat after switching flies by a larger model who wasted no time screaming off downstream, running me into backing and burying me in a snag. Worth packing the waders to help with landing them and worth watching for snakes (seen two red bellies in 3 visits). Using a standard 9ft rod with 6wt floating line and 8-10ft leader to 10/12lb tippet. 8ft of straight 10lb fluro works fine too. A lot of fun for such a maligned species and a great local option for highly visual fishing!

Despite the hate, carp have a lot to offer as a sportfish. Great sight fishing, easily accessible and put up a good fight (got dusted in some skinny water today). I'll kill em if i catch them in water worth saving, but the inner Sydney freshwater bonefish can have their chemically polluted urban creeks for all i care. At least there's fish in em!

The response from fishos has been so swift, i doubt any party would be keen to stir the hornets nest again any time soon. Any fishing bans coming in the near future would have to be very, very sneaky indeed. I for one am comfortable that we're safe. For now. Good work to all who took the time to respond, but be prepared to do it all again in a few elections' time (another decade or so).

Spey casting to blackies... Love it! ?

Dinner and a show!

Lucky for me youtube videos embed as a link so fishraider doesn't cop the bandwidth. Otherwise i'd be around 100 times over the limit! Glad you enjoyed the vid neil. No shortage of wierd and wonderful creatures in the Tassie highlands!

Hi all, Had the pleasure of spending a week hiking through the Western Lakes in Tasmania stalking browns on fly. Long story short, the fishing was hard with numbers down on last year. The guys I was with reckon we saw 50% less fish than any other year. Happy to take their word as they have 30 years of annual trips between them. Low water levels following a hot, dry summer appear to be a factor as we found a few almost dead fish in some of the higher, almost dried out tarns. All fish caught on dries (adam's parachutes) though we did fish wets early in the trip as it took 3 days before the first scale was turned. Some of the sight fishing was awesome if not infuriating, with the biggest fish of the trip around 5lb with some bigger fish lost. While the fishing hurt sometimes, the scenery more than made up for it with plenty of wildlife to make up for the fish. Here's the highlights:

Most bream anglers would give their left one for a bream over 50, and you've managed at least two. Awesome

Had the day off so after chores (taking the dog for a walk) i decided the water looked good enough for a couple of beers and a flick off the rocks. Took down the surf rod and some slices, as well as the fly rod and new reel incase i felt game to test drive it off the stones. Fished from the top of the tide with the slugs for a while for zip. Retreating to my beer, i decided to try for blackies with the wand. Rigged up using a bomber (weighted) fly with a trailing unweighted fly on the point. Unfortunately my weighted flies were nowhere near weighted enough so after watching them blow around near the surface for a few more casts i once again went back to the thinking can to consider my options. "you gonna give up?" called one of the bathers, as i considered doing just that. After explaining my predicament and insisting to incredulous ears that fish do indeed eat green wool, i remembered an olive baited breath that a mate gave me for bream but which i found too heavy for the estuary application at the time. Perfect! It was heavy and olive which is close enough to green. I replaced the bomber and was back at the ledge. First cast and i'm happy with the sink. The fly line does something funny and i strike, lifting into the unmistakable headshakes of a blackie. A short tussle later and i had dinner on the stones, a new species on fly, a freshly blooded reel, and congratulations from the onlookers.

Good report and nice catch scienceman. I agree, ikijimi is a good way to despatch a fish. I don't often keep a feed but a knife or pointy scissors do the trick too. As long as you hit the brain. Equilateral triangle behind the eyes is a good rule of thumb IME. Can't fault the lure & reel choice either. I use the same. Pity pflueger don't make it in the gold trim any more. Running J braid as well?

It's been a while in the making Stan! Only really starting to come together in the last few weeks. Having faith in the fly is half the challenge! Once I get some more hooks I'll send you a few that have worked if ya like

The weather's warming and so is the fishing. Starting to kick some more goals with the wand and I'm stoked to have finally spanked a few bream. Fished Rose Bay last Monday afternoon and was taken by surprise when a fly I'd tied using z-man Crusteaz legs, dubbing & flash got inhaled by a decent whiting (rough measure 35/36cm along the rod). More surprises came when yesterday I managed my first 4 bream at Rodd Pt & Hen & Chicken. Models went from 10-ish cm to low 30's as measured against the rod. Tell ya what, the fight from a good bream on 6wt is awesome. This time the fly of choice was a BMS Hammerhead, where I used crystal flash for the rib instead of the tradition tinsel. The hooks are a little bigger (size 2) than I'd like but that's all that was at my disposal. The nice thing bout the jighead style is that the fly always rides hook point up whereas other heavy guage saltwater flies often ride point down in the BMS pattern, despite the placement of the eyes. As with plastics, keeping things light with small eyes & long light leaders has been a must. We've been fishing 6wt floating line with 14ft tapered leaders down to 4 & 6lb tippets. The long leaders are sometimes annoying to cast but I'm getting the hang of it. Here's the highlights reel:

And so it begins... Here's to many more!

Feels like I haven't been catching fish lately, largely because I haven't. I've been getting more and more hooked on fly since picking up the wand 10-ish months ago, and the last few months has seen an increase in donuts commensurate with the amount of dust building on the spin gear. Nevertheless, goals are beginning to get kicked - here are the highlights of a few outings in the last month or so. First, a trip past the mountains to the Coxs and surrounds. Long story short I dropped a few small browns, including one on the bank whilst being schooled by my mate-come-guide. Nick had most of his 10 (9 browns, 1 'bow) on dries. 2 of my 3 encounters were on a home-tied woolly bugger. A good reminder that fly actually works. I was starting to lose hope after a string of fruitless attempts in the salt. A few more fruitless trips targeting the suddenly elusive flathead around Sydney and the opportunity arose to chase bass on the canoe. Yes please! Using a borrowed Sage Bluegill and donated stealth bombers, it wasn't long before the first came on board. My three for the day were all on the small side, but I wasn't fussed. Don't get to do a lot of bass fishing anyway so the scenery, company and the absence of trebles made for a great day. Nick, as usual, showed us how it was done. This freshwater thing feels like a breeze. On the way home, we stopped to persuade a python to get off the road before becoming pancake. He wasn't thrilled with the suggestion or the canoe paddle but an agreement was reached and we all made it home. Our (my) kindness was repaid by the snakey fish gods. Eventually. A couple more frustrating trips around the harbour (Rose Bay is a great place to go if you like to look at big fish ignore lures), and a trip out to the old faithful inner west produced the goods. First, a chopper tailor on a home-tied crazy charlie-ish fly taken on a very quick strip. Not a first, but encouraging in the salt. Then. Finally. Flathead. I downsized to another home tied fly - the BMS hammerhead variant. Couldn't get my hands on BMS dubbing but the guy at the shop suggested angora goat hair as an alternative. I suppose it works. Lost my lie detector but the ferule to which the flattie runs measures at 41cm. I'll take it! Fly. As rewarding as it is frustrating.