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A social group of dedicated fly fishers who are passionate about fly fishing in the tropical north of Australia and equally as passionate about the close camaraderie this sport brings. This passion and dedication led to the creation of the NT Flyfishers Social Mob blog site; an interactive and creative outlet where everyone can share our wonderful fly fishing adventures and link into the “after fishing” social events we enjoy in this incredible part of the world.

Sunday 6 September 2015

SIGHTFISHING AND THE NEED FOR ACCURACY

                                       Coming soon ...' the knock um downs' of Bynoe Harbour.

The past week you could certainly notice the change in humidity and the early morning cool disappearing,winds still seem a bit strong and have been relatively different, the southeasters that generally prevail have been more East and the afternoon Northwester has been more West, I have no idea why.


Crab Claw Resort Bynoe Harbour in the middle of some of the best flats fishing in Northern Australia

The change has brought temperature rises in to the 26 to 29 Celsius and the Barra and Threadfin have been pretty keen to eat,this year was one that the often experienced lows of 21,22,23,Celsius never eventuated.As the storm photo at the front of Crab Claw shows it will soon be time to pull the boat out every evening, I learnt the hard way when these storms turn up and unfortunately  sunk two boats on the beach in my 17 years there.

The fly ( top left corner )heading towards the Barra strike zone

Flyfishing is a hugely variable method used in many diverse situations, in my world it centres around the visual stalking of two iconic species King Threadfin and Barramundi, in many respects it matters little to me what rod or fly you use (within reason, no feather dusters ) it certainly is a concern if your line control and accuracy is non existent then the results will show.

                                        The eye watering knee shake bulge behind the fly

                                                          Fork tail is a give away


Threadfin need the fly to be at their level initially, they often follow and strike in a forward motion.

One thing that wont change is the pedantic attitude of Barra and Threadfin when sight fishing,pure and simple if its not in front of its mouth within one or two casts you wont win,I often say it is either right or wrong and after watching 1000's of shots this doesn't change,sometimes they wont eat but having raised their interest they will follow all the way to the boat where if you lift the fly to the surface they think its going to go airborne and grab it.

                   Tight loops and accuracy is a distant dream here but its at least a start

...forgive my bluntness, and assuming this applies to some, but my advice next time your in the park impressing yourself (and anyone else) with casting perfect loops and the ooh arrh bugger me long casts take the time to fine tune your accuracy because clearly if you want Barra and Threadfin you need to be able to land on a dinner plate at 10 ms  and within a metre of your target anywhere out to 25 ms  after that its all heading down hill.

Big Trevally and Queenfish in the shallows don't require the level of accuracy Barra need but be prepared for needing a fast reaction


Anticipating the link between the movement of your fly and the fish you are going to intercept is a major factor. No fish likes bait running into it and I have yet to see a Barra eat with its rear end (believe me many have tried)


     Remember  one/one rule,one metre in front one metre past and strip in front of there nose

                                                       Fish above is the fish below


Tuesday kicks off the run up to the new moon the last two sets of tides have gotten better and this week should be great

Cheers Graeme





1 comment:

  1. Great post old fella.....stirred me up and I'm getting the boat ready....will see you out there?....

    ReplyDelete