jimmy72

yeah im looking to target them in boat - locate on sounder and fish the edges of the ' swarm ' .. . your right it seems to be a reason why you dont catch in lakes some times - with such a huge volume of food the trout get clued into them and wont eat anything without a hint of being daphnia - there are some really creative pattern out there to imitate a cluster of them -- natural materials like golden pheasant tip wound like a hackle plastic creations made by multiple loops on mono bound to a hook with dobs of the right coloured nail polish on them, then there is the simple right coloured very fuzzy woolly buggers -- get the colour right and fish the right depth is the key .. ( apparently lol .. all sounds so easy reading it on the net) ' im off to jindy this weekend .. home brew straight from the temprite taps and trout fishing ( my bro owns the shop in canberra so his beer is amazing) .. can't wait.. probably wont catch more than a slight hangover, but if i get some fish as nice as HUNTRESS' catch i will definately put up a report tight lines ! grant

nice fish mate -- we went into the high country fishing streams over easter - only little wigglers but fun on hopper patterns can i ask you what colour were the lice? were they tinged orange or green? and have little black eyes? think thats the same food they call daphnia. heard stories trout can be hard to crack em when they focussed on them, thats my next challenge on fly when i get my boat down there .. have a few interesting patterns to try out. cheers grant

nice work CONGRATS !

what james said ! but fly fishing early morning off the rocks produced best results for me, due to lack of wind mostly i'd say making fishing easier. with wind you end up having your line tangling, flies getting stuck in your ear, hat or back and plus shorter casts mean you fly is in the water far less so naturally you''ll catch less the catch rate on bonnies and macks was always better earlier but have hooked kings and salmon up until lunch, which is usually when i head home. though the few time is have fished off the stones in the late arvo its been good especially if the wind dies down, just a pain walking out in the dark along a dodgy track

yeah burely works, though one of the reasons i got into fly fishing was so my hands didnt stink from bait / burley etc after a day out fishing . when we used to LBG a lot we'd take some rope and slash up bonnies sides a bit with a knife (head to toe) then hang the whole fish off the rocks so they would hang and get bashed by the waves and break up slowly making a burley trail. ive never bothered when fly fishing too busy casting changing flies and untangling line lol cheers gm

i thought i had 30lb dacron but i found the old bulk spool i got years back when i moved a few months ago and its only 20lb ha ha , i have broken 30lb leaders and snapped fly line that were supposed to be 35lb BS, but only once snapped at the backing - go figure.im about to re-spool all my backing with 50lb fins prt braid as my mate said he likes it best -- im not too bothered in worrying about it being the 'best' as its 50lb and i was fishing 20lb dacron previously.. but dacron doesn't rot , that why it lasted so long -- like 15 years lol -- im planing on using 50lb braid as any lighter in the braid and its too thin, cut your fingers off if something went wrong ( as with fly fishing your hands are near the line most of the time. i measure backing by how much i can fit on the reel without the fly line catching on the reel when wound in, its a bit or trail and error. to be honest i cant recall how much is on there now, im thinking maybe 300m +, i remember it was more than the reel was supposed to hold, but now i know its 20lb not 30lb that makes sense now ... i think the 50lb braid will be similar if not smaller diameter than 20lb dacron Rods weights - if i was only fishing using off the rocks i'd still use a 9wt or 10wt, ( fly rods are not the best fish fighting tools so extra grunt would be handy and with wind you cant move to a better angle as you can in a boat) and if i was only fishing from the stones i might even look for a 10ft rod not the standard 9ft to get a longer cast with less effort. i usually only fish for pelagics in the harbour - ive been fishing poppers lately as the kings love them this year. i often use small eyes flies, and sparse polar fibre minnows, surf candies, small and large flashy profiles, and squid flies too. im not a big clouser fan as i dont usually fish deep but they do work well too ( i'm also scared of hitting and breaking the rod tip with clousers and their lead dumbell eyes -- also they dig deep into my head when i make a bad cast ..ouch!) i only use flies that dont foul much... that is a big deal for me, if a fly keeps fouling, ill change straight away, often chucking it away -- its my biggest hate ... fouling flies and line twist !! i usually like to try match the bait size at the time.. usually 2 - 6 cm anchovies in spring and summer , or i like to go really big or really small (i.e the complete opposite to the bait).... i like natural colours in my flys, white or light tan belly, and contrasting back / shoulder, usually olive, greens,or tan backs, and of course chartreuse - but i have a few of other colours just in case brink pinks , black and blue cheers gm

yeah seem 9 wt is very popular size, in a boat you can get a bit lighter - seen rat kings landed on fast 6wts, plenty on 7wts but off the stones you want a little extra grunt , due to wind and trying to control an angry fish in the wash. even 10wt wouldnt hurt. i fish an old sage RPLXI 9wt .. late 90's model or early 2000's some thing with a med fast - fast action suits me and i think the style of fishing from the rocks a faster action rod is good tool. reels i have had a few, i have an old scientific anglers mastery series reel for 15 years, still going strong but has a small arbor, i have a spare spool for it it holds my 2 shooting head setups etc as i can get a load of backing on to effectively increase the arbor. my favourite and the most used now is my colton CRG-II 8-10 wt, made in usa, you can get them from the manufacturer off ebay the guys is very nice and legit , think reel was 180 or so, plus i got a spare spool and delivery .. 250 all up? but that was was 3 years back -- the actual website often has big specials around christmas and thanksgiving. its very well made product, fine tolerances , good quality alloy, cork is smooth as drag and as good as any reel i have used. only casted one of their rods and it was sweet too most reels by known manufactures should be Ok , okuma have a decent looking one that's cheap the hellios my mate is on the loops team there stuff is not bad either, but i think most graphite these days is pretty good, as always best to test before you buy. some great warranties with some manufacturers , but you pay for that in the initial price. ha ha another essay , i need to diet my posts cheers gm second hand gear is also an option, some guys are tackle crazy and have to do clean outs . a nine is overpowered for bream and salmon, but the extra grunt will do well off the rocks... just never high stick them and breakages will be less

yes mate - old mans hat is the best spot for LBG swoofing in sydney, though the undercut ledge and the mushroom type rocks to the east don't help any when hooked to a decent king, the buggers look at you then make a dash and cut you up !!... only fish it in swells with some north in them , maybe small east is ok, can be wet to downright dangerous when fishing there with any south in the swell, take a stripping mat or even an old blanket to stop the line catching on the rocks and stop it blowing around. fan you casts through 180 degrees, we seem to get hook ups on the kings when casting ... in a certain direction?? i'll let you work that out, the little tunas are usually further out ;-) my mate and i ed have caught kings, bonnies, salmon, frigate and macks from there, plenty black fish too if that your bag, and the odd smelly pike you just need to be aware of other fishos behind you when you cast, thats why shooting heads are good less false casting -- when you get going one of two back cast and let it go gets you out 80-100 ft+ depending on wind and skill shooting heads save effort,and at least use sinking lines ( they cut wind better and get the fly under the surface current, also means you dont need heavy weighted flies, making casting easier again., i like Lc 13 or t14 home made heads as you will loose some ( i have some info if you are keen to make your own, they work out at 15 bucks each, i like these with floating running line... i have been known to use an old 5 wt floater fly line as a running line -- trouty one.. only 30lb breaking strain and 90ft long is only just enough ... t14 is 50c a foot and depending on rod weight its <$15 A HEAD, YOU WILL NEED TO MAKE GOOD BRAIDED LOOPS though.. easy enough done with rear one big enough to put your reel through to change heads, like to a floating shooting head for poppers, or getting the old one off after being dusted ( make few and keep on hand line reels in your bag) shooting heads should be made 2 line weights greater than your rod is rated for .. thats is using the AFTMA table, cut longer and test and trim to size, test with a leader and fly on too ( my 9wt is just under 26 foot of t14, thats about as small a head as you want to use length wise.. optimum is around 30 ft) use t11 for anything lighter than a 9wt, and t8 for smaller rods again. the T"xx" number is the grains per foot weight of the line.. t14 is 14 grains a foot and t11 11 grains and so on- so my 9wt head is 360 grains. a little which is actually heavier a standard 11 weight full line weight ( line are weighted for the first 30 ft , but when casting a normal wf line you need more than the 30ft out to load the rod , so shooting heads are designed to just get the head out the tip which being heavier will load the rod and then let it go, so very little false casting, very efficient and less room needed beware these heavy heads are a little dangerous , wear a hat and good glasses, you will get hit in the head with the wrong breeze and the weight will pull the hook deep .. no fun !! there are other ledges around but this one is near perfect for fly.. just go early or late so you miss the crowd.. over cast days are good for that reason,and the fish seem to get closer into the rocks if you want more info let me know i've a big file on fly fishing and do it yourself stuff wow thats an essay .. sorry for the near thread hijack lol cheers grant

last week i finally got the boat out for first time this summer, luck was with us as we had a pretty good morning. missed a few kings but landed a couple - not big fish but on a 8wt fly rod and on poppers size hardly matters on the way home we found a few frigates speeding around chasing bait so hunted them down and my mate hooked up and landed a pretty big one on his 7wt - think he might have line burn on a finger or two but you would not guess as he looks pretty happy cheers grant PS saw a 8 ft bull shark leap 5 ft clear of the water too, must have thought he was a great white on Nat geo channel - no seals around so probably smashing the frigates..

yeah, im keen to hear some reports, all rumors i have heard says it was a shocker for trout ? i did not fish i was helping mate finish up the renovation, dump all the builders rubbish and move in new furniture. best mate has twins a week ago - they were 6 weeks premature and his builder nicked off a week early. i could not say no .. hell i wanted to but no fishing for me on the weekend - my mates skipped the trout, went further west and fished for yellas and got a few to 12lb. reports anyone?

for a 6wt you'll do better with a heavier butt section, so something like for 4lb tippet butt 155cms of 30lb mid section / taper 30 cms of 18lb (or 16) - 30 cms of 13 lb(or 12) - 30 cms of 8lb tippet 80cms of 4lb ( remember this is based on mono thickness not breaking strain at approx 70 - 75% of previous section, so sometimes its guessimate or you use what you have closest to that diameter required.. for reference i use the scientiific angler freshwater tippet thicknesses as thats what i have in a chart and in my vest - my mates are into stroft so their results will be different breaking strain its a little bit thinner per breaking strain. but we are only fishing here its not brain surgery. cheers gm

hi Ving, now it depends on line thickness and that can vary a bit so a rough guide would be (cut the sections at noted it allows you 5cms on each section of line to allow for your 3 turn surgeons knots to join them, should end up around 3m long for 4lb tippet butt 155cms of 20 mid esction / taper 30 cms of 14- 30 cms of 10 - 30 cms of 6 tippet 80cms of 4lb i think 4lb might be too light those mudsucker pull hard maybe try a 6lb tippet butt155cm of 22lb mid/ tapered section 30cms 16lb - 30cms 12 lb -30 cms of 8lb tippet 80cms of 6lb if its windy say summer arvo nor easter or bigger flies or i have sent you on a goose chase and the leader is collapsing on delivery , i,e not rolling out fully then try go 20cms longer on the butt and take 20cms off the tippet... if you need more delicate presentation extend the tippet a bit again all care no responsibility cheers gm PS i sent you a PM on some carp on fly stuff

top stuff mate, those carp have big motors did you need to burley with the bread or did you get the fly in their feeding zone ? either way well done

hey ving, flyfishos like to make it, interesting, and more than a little complicated, the joy is not so much difficulty of all the various options and methods , but its addictive having technical options, and adaptable systems, we like something for every variable, even if we don't use them, its like we need to know they there ( so we have excuses ??) its weird but fun having a long drawn out process , method or idea to help adapt haha ( prob could do away with half of it for 98% of the time.. but then there is that 2% where it or you can save the day and justify all the BS lol ok ill try answer you questions but it will take a load of space for fear i miss something tapered leaders help the leader unroll better and thus i suggest them to guys starting out and people like me who are not superstars & are lazy casters lol, but they cost or you need to fiddle and make your own tapered ones with diff bits of mono. furled leaders are a way of getting same result as tapered leaders, good transfer of energy to the tippet to "turn the fly over"-- thats is unroll in a pretty fashion at the end of the cast , usually best for salt water work as they are usually bulky and have some built in shock absorber in their design and i'm no good at making them hehe straight is good to get deep fast or for times when presentation is not important ( though a good caster can likely make good presentations with anything) braided usually fine mono braided.. bit like the hollow braided mono loops used to join line via loop to loop or wind on game leaders . fly ones are usually a tapered braid and coated with something to make them sink,or float, i have not seen them in a while, coated poly leader dominate that market now . they can also loads of water and throw droplets that spook fish.. so they say.. shallow, clear heavily fished water???? to reduce sinking we use floatant, like muscilin, or silicone on the butt and mid section to fine tune the depth fished and sink rate, tapered mono sink slower due to the diameter of the line, fly type and construction, material type, added weight and hook gauge will also play a big roll in depth - you can use a strike indicator to control depth if dead drifting flies if you have a bunch of spools of diff strength mono i will happily give you a rough recipe to make you own you that suits your purpose you just need to tell me couple of things what tippet strength did you want? i.e what strength did you want to tie to the fly? do you need one for spooky fish or a standard one ? what weight rod/ what weight line ? what you fishing for? shallow or deep water, what depth do you want a fly? is its still or running water? is it usually very windy there? none of this is my original thinking, its stuff you get from books mates websites etc,.. and i dont guarantee results or anything lol anything here can be googled and you'll find heaps more by better qualified people ;-) hope that helps a little cheers grant

either way nice fish mate, but certainly looks like a brown to me. but stranger things have happened, interestingly in the late 90's a photo of a fit 5lb brown (caught in lowers cox's around the spawn run time) was seen by fisheries (i think the photo was up on the wall at a syd tackle shop) it was identified as a salmon by a guy from fisheries? apparently they had been stocked in there decades ago but should have all died out as they were not supposed to be able to reproduce..... 'life' has a way of winning, and identifying fish can be tricky.. so who knows? best get back up there get another one and take some good photos anybody here ever caught one of the brook trout they stocked in there at the beginning all be yabby food now i guess? PS you can get stocking data from fisheries if you ask nicely, for personal purposes only, i hope posting here is not going to get me into trouble 08/09 Brown trout 5,000 fingerling Thompsons Creek Dam Portland 08/09 Rainbow trout 5,000 fingerling Thompsons Creek Dam Portland 09/10 Brown Trout 5,000 fingerling Thompsons Creek Dam Portland 09/10 Rainbow Trout 5,000 fingerling Thompsons Creek Dam Portland

congratulation stan, you'll be addicted in no time ! you can try a deer hair floater with a sinking bread fly below ( tied off the hook bend of the floater 20- 30 cm then you have a bet each way, hard not to catch them. foam also works for the floater and cotton wool on the sinking fly. you can also burley up with pop corn and tie flies to match, also if there are any sort of fruit tress or ones that drop big seeds at the edge / over the water, fish will hang under there wait for a feed in the right season... mulberry flys are big in the USA where the tree borders the river, carp love em, they are rated as a target over there too good luck !

nice fish ! well done

all good advice here. most fly lines are good these days, just make sure it weight forward, they make short and medium length casting easy, lefty is great but i also like mel kriegers tuition he is a funny man.. and a true legend - but honestly treat yourself and get a lesson or a couple of them ( it will save you loads of heartache, some of my mates took up fly fishing much later in life than i did, they got lessons and practiced and are much better casters that i am (see i can admit it , lucky im a better fisherman, thats all i can say lol) For me to get better i need to unlearn some bad habits = lots of work ;-) - A sore shoulder, im assuming this is normal? - yeah its pretty normal (but you get used to it and cast with less effort as you get better) PS don't try too hard... fish a short length of line upto say 15m get used to that, watch the loops feel the load, then pull another 1 or 2m off the reel cast that a while more and build up that way). - I have hooked the back of my head and my scarf like 3 times, lucky it was there lol ended up casting hookless for a while - hold rod tip out at a slight angle away form your head, only a little maybe 10 degrees and watch the wind angle - you dont want it coming from your casting arm side if you can help it ( change spots , angle of cast, - if you cant do that then put you rod tip on the other side of your head and bicep across your chest and try cast that way (harder than normal) or cast backwards facing away form the water and deliver the fly to the water with your back cast) - After a few casts, the fly might actually snap of. Is this happening because im whipping back and forth too fast? most likely its hitting the ground/ grass / trees behind you. I will be getting my new reel soon and want to spool it up. Can anyone recommend a good fly line. Its a 6wt Rod and Reel. Also, should I be using braid or dacron as my backing or both? Would 6lb braid be ok? dacron as its thicker, wont cut your finger off as easy, if using braid use 50lb minimum it will usually hold more than 30lb dacron anyway thats my 2c worth cheers and best of luck PS get a lesson PPS get a lesson and practice

he he very clever !

hmm bugger ..we need more rain, more cold - more ugly weather. i postponed my trip on the weekend just past due to the warmth and general good weather from last week.

here here and credit to Al for his work.. (what a job hey? he works for fisheries - trying to help us ). if you are interested Al is also working on keeping access to many rivers via public roads (that are/were going to be sold to adjoining land owners, blocked with illegal signage, leased illegally to others , or just illegally padlocked) , and thus no perceived legal access for the fisherman when he stumples upon the gate or sign in his pursuit of new waters to fish. Al is physically putting up signs, and cutting illegal locks on gates and providing resources for us to know what roads we can use to access a river legally. (keeping to the river bed once you get there means we wont be trespassing ). a lot of the access roads run straight though private property and are little used by anyone despite getting you to the rivers edge, they dont feature in forums cause the old guys that know about them 'don't do internet' , or dont fish anymore and the farmers seem to take over at some point in time with locking gates, incorrect no trespassing signs etc. then when the road is not used they can then be bought off the Govt so access is then lost for ever ! google this and sign if river access is importance to you " transparency for governments plan to sell unformed roads in nsw" - lets try keep what we have ! we have all probably done exploratory missions only to get turned back within a few kms or even within 100's of metres of the rivers by locked gates and "private property" , or " trespassers ill be prostituted " ;-) sign..... but now with Al's info you can now find out if its a load of rubbish and we could have got to the river down there legally. ( it doe nt mean the farmers wont still give you a spray, but least if you can call their bluff you might have a fish) i think you can use the email address in the original post to get more info on the access -- part of me want to keep it all secret and fish secretively the access points i have found out about on the these rivers, but thats how we lost control and use in the first place. cheers.. sorry hope this is not a hijack grant

could it be around barrington tops?

hey alluring, yeah a few kms past the caravan park woudl have been the go.. cant think of the bay, near curiosty rocks .. or anywhere with a little creek running into a bay would have some rainbows all stirred up, or thats the advice we got and general theory for this time of year. apparently last year it was very hard NOT to get a fish this time of year anywhere on the lake, but thats trout fishing better luck next time .. for both of us !

yeah in NSw some land owners can own the river, mostly its crown land - you CAN fish if you are on the river bed regardless if private or crown owned river bed there is a right of access that supercedes the rights of the owner. ( this does not mean you can access to the river via their property.. it only means you are allowed on the 'river bed'. its the high water mark, not the flood level. asking for access helps everyone though as we all never actually stay on the river bed all day and you never know they might tell you a better spot . its the idiots building fires camping and taking guns that the farnmers hate. thats why they lock gates to public through roads and put up incorrect warning signs about access/ tresspassing and private property etc i hear fisheries are working on sorting out access thas been made difficult or illegally impossible, keep your eyes out for that. cheers grant

Alluring, how did you get on , did you get to Jindy and have a fish? we got there Friday and met some great weather on the weekend but no fish, Monday would have been great with the rain likely stirring them up, but we had a big Goulash and Spaetzle (and plenty to drink) on Sunday night so a sleep in was in order before we headed home we fished hatchery bay late Friday arvo into evening, creel bay late morning sat and early Sunday we fished immediately below where the Thredbo runs into the lake, all for zero results - conditions were great for walking the banks with a big high pressure and windless days, should have been good for polarioding but we only saw a couple, maybe they did not like the barometer of 1020 and over 1030 at times. I had a good chat with a local fly fisho on sat arvo, nice guy scored a 5lb brookie on Friday ! He said fish were there on the edges but flies had to be scratching the bottom, and big was good size, i.e buggers, streamers etc,with the nymphs not the current favourite. So i added a sink tip for the Sunday and lost many flies to the timber, but at least it that got the heart going a couple of times thinking wood was a fish beautiful part of the world, i captured what i could .. and that was the scenery - i worked out how to get the lighting right on the iphone 4 Also heard the fish are deep on daphnia, tiny little larvae of some sort hanging down deep in huge swarms, so maybe a black size 16+ nymph with bead head bugger on point with might be an idea. Other current local advice was to concentrate on fishing the change of light and or change of weather. It was a men of the family +_+ friends weekend with kegs of home brew, other crafty beers and homemade spirits so it’s not really that surprising we blanked.. my ego is still smarting though lol cheers grant