Richie

It was good having a chat with you guys. Always nice to put a face to the name! Anyway, I wasn't fly-fishing... I was "practicing my casting" If I had have caught something then I was fly fishing... Cheers guys, Richie.

Hi everyone. I've been using Berkley Vanish for a couple of years now with my SP's. I tried a few knots (Uni, blood, surgeons, albright) for joining the leader to the gsp and settled on an Albright. I have never had a knot failure other than at the hook. Big claim, but true. I'm very happy here. On my fly gear... as a tippet... Berkley Vanish sux! It has no knot strength! No matter what knot I used. I used some Siglon in the same strength, and it was heaps better... I'm going to buy some Nitlon or Yamatoyo (spelling?) FC this weekend and try it out. Anyone else had a similar experience? What do the other fly guys use as their tippet? Cheers, Richie.

"Bye Honey! I'm just taking the boat out. It hasn't been out in weeks! I'm not fishing! I promise!" 5 minutes later... "Oh? What's this? How *convenient*! A fishing rod! And some plastics! We can't let that go to waste!" Happens to me all the time

From reports, about 100 (or so) people braved the wretched weather and went along. Good on em! It's kinda good that the "Flycasting Pond" is actually being used for flycasting again Cheers, Richie.

I've found I get more hookups on the shorter jig heads, like the gamakatsu's. I have found that bream go for the head more than the body. After a few misses, if I swapped to a shorter shanked jig, it improved the situation.

You could always try a bread fly

No worries There is an article on this site about Narrabeen as well that you might want a squizz at: http://www.fishraider.com.au/articles/narrabeen/ It has some detail about the Caravan park in the fly section. Hmm... I might get out there myself soon...

Hi Dude, I've pulled fish out of both spots using SP's. Mainly flatties and bream. Mullet ck and Middle ck both hold fish at the lakes (my pb bream was from Middle ck @ 42cm, but that was with bait). A mate caught a Red Gurnard at Mullet, it freaked us all out... Figtree is where I caught my first fish on SP's. I hoicked a grub under the mangrove and up came up a flatty. Both are good spots, why not do both?

Disaster alerts superimposed on google maps! Pretty schmick! It's a bit of a worry about the things we don't hear about... http://visz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert.php?lang=eng

Holy carp you guys! I've only got 2 - a 9wt fly and a light Soft Plastic...

It's fascinating stuff all right. I've just finished watching the Blue Planet series. Recommended for anyone with an interest in the ocean. Even if you're just a fisho, there's some baitball action that gives you a different perspective on what happens. My 2 year old loves this stuff too! When I was younger I wanted to be a Marine Biologist. I'm a computer geek now, but I still have an interest in Natural History. Bewdymate, Richie.

megalops: A crab larvae. megalops: Scientific nomenclature for Tarpon. I used to think people went fly-fishing for baby crabs... It is the season for (baby crab) megalopa too.

Sounds like you are not letting the line staighten out on the back-cast. I've been making the same mistake myself... I've joined the local sydney flyfishing club and I've signed up for some lessons with a casting instructor. I've only just started out and I thought that I may as well learn to cast properly from the start rather than pick up bad habits to unlearn. I have enough of those already... If you have the chance, it's well worth the investment. Cheers, Richie. Oh Yeah,

For those who use fly, the Sage Casting Analyser will be there with guys like Peter Morse hanging around to make you really feel inadequate help you improve your cast!

There seems to be a new influx of new fly-tyers out there. So I thought a post similar to this was in order. How to tie a Clouser Minnow --== Materials: ==-- - Saltwater Fly Hook (Mustad S71S SS Size 1 used) - 3/0 White Silk - 3/0 Chartreuse Silk - "Small" (1/36) Lead Barbell - White Bucktail - Chartreuse Bucktail - Head Cement --== Method: ==-- 1. Wind the white silk up and down the eye half of the hook shank. 2. About 1/3 along the hook shank, tie in the lead barbell using figure-8 wraps. 3. Trim off a bunch of white bucktail. Pinch the tip of the bunch and let the smaller hairs fall out. The length of bucktail, should be two or three times the length of the shank of the hook. 4. Tie in the white bucktail at the head of the fly and gently tie it along the shank till just before the bend. Neatly wrap the silk back to the barbell, and tie off at the head. Bucktail hair is hollow, so if you wrap too hard it will flare out. 5. Trim off a bunch of chartreuse bucktail. As with Step 3. Pinch the tip of the bunch and let the smaller hairs fall out. 6. Turn the hook upside down in the vice. Tie the chartreuse bucktail in at the head using the chartreuse silk. Build up the head and tie off. I've also tied in a couple of strands of Krystal Flash. 7. Cement the head well, also cement between the eyes for durability. 8. Voila! A chartreuse clouser!

Getting hitched in Fiji was the way to go! Pity I didn't get any fishing in... I got the missus to agree that a canoe was in order. It may be a couple of months away though due to financial constraints... BTW Haraka, were you down at BH/ATB with the rubber ducky? Someone towing one zipped by me.

Went down to Bobbin Head for a quick, wife-is-at-the-outlaws, fish. After fighting to get a spot (it was packed) I ended up with a nice 0. The only fish I saw caught was by a 6 year old who scored a little tailor on one of those $10 outfits... There were heaps of leatherjacket around and I had to replace my plastics about 8 times - Lesson for today is to never use gulp sandworm with leatheries around. I ended up flickng some 3" atomics around. They were Watermelon/Gold Belly. They look good. I did start up a conversation with a 'bass' man who was a wealth of knowledge. I hope others had more luck than I. Cheers, Richie.

www.engrish.com

No worries MM! Everyone seems to be a bit busy this time of year... Any help on the fly front is appreciated! Especially effective patterns I can throw around Cowan Creek/Figtree. Cheers mate, Richie.

I'll be in that! Richie.

Hi MM, Any chance of seeing a Deciever? I've been tying a heap of Clousers in pink, olive and chartreuse. I've started tying Crazy (Nasty) Charlies. I'll post a few pics of them for comparison. I'm also looking for a squid fly. Thanks dude! Richie.

Although I've only just got my flyrod, I enjoy tying my own flies. Mainly clousers and crazy charlies as all I've got is bucktail ATM When I was a kid, I used to tye trout flies with my uncle in the UK. Now, may years later, I'm a novice salt water fly fisherman. Go figure... I suppose it's in the blood. I'm joining a fly fishing club here in Sydney and I've signed up for a casting course from a bloke from Tassie who comes highly recommended. Maybe next season I'll catch my first fish on fly...

I've got an Okuma Mystique 2000 on my SP stick. So far it has performed admirably especially concidering it was a cheaper reel for a tighter budget. It's a year old now and still going as new. But then, I'm a nazi about cleaning my kit when I'm done. Good Value for money.

Hi Guy's, I went down to Bobbin Head to practice with my spanking new fly rod. After an hour of hurling the line about, I decided to fork out for some lessons (I really sucked!). I had fun though. I cracked out my trusty SP kit and hit the mudflats. I walked around to the Mangrove bridge, getting a few hits and one or two solid whacks, but no hookups using a 1/8th Keel head and Pumpkinseed 2" grub. I changed down the jighead to a 1/16th Keel as the water was quite shallow. A few kids gathered to watch me fish when I hooked a little (just) legal flattie. Geez didn't they go bonkers! I released the Flathead much to the disappointment of the kids. Good to see kids get an interest. A few minutes later I scored a little whiting who went back as well. I tried for another 30 mins and decided to call it a day. This was at low tide during the slack. There was plenty of baitfish about, lot's of jumping mullet. Next time I might hit the bridge during a run-out and see what happens. Cheers, Richie.