adamski

Nice fish and scenery! Looking forward to the day 2 report!

Thanks for the replies gents! Hey papafish, The water's reasonably clear, but also quite shallow too and a mix of sand and sea grass. The fish come in close so it's quite easy to see them, though I went back again this morning and it was very quiet except for the gars. Cheers Ryder! Thanks again so much for the rod, I'm hoping one day I'll do you proud on it! So far I'm struggling to find areas that'll let me back cast- bit put off by wading the flats as the last time I was out at Rose Bay I stepped on a ray! Didn't get stung luckily, but still... Wind's been a nightmare too! When I do get the fly out I can get the occasional follow, but yesterday was the first time I was able to get an actual strike on (pure fluke- I was trying to place it in front of a school of blackies!). Tippet was only 5lb though and I made the mistake of trying to lift the fish at the wall, so it broke off. Lesson learnt though, I'll be better prepared next time!

Hey folks! So this morning I decided to take a break from from the so-far futile quest of trying to catch my first fish in Oz on a fly, and went back to plastics at Double Bay for a change. There are loads of flatties, whiting, blackfish and gars on the flats to the left of the wharf there at the moment. Biggest surprise of the morning was getting an octopus off the wharf on my Z-man grub! I don't have a pic as I had no idea what species it was and wanted to shake it off in the water rather than trying to deal with it on the pontoon. I'd say the head was about the size of my palm, it was a brown-purple colour and had a greenish tinge in one part of the hood, looked a little thorny as well. I'm trying to google pics to find a best match. Switched to the fly later and lost a flattie on the weed fly (would've been my first godamnit!) Few flatties:

Congrats on your first fish on an SP mate. Sure it's the first of many, they're very effective!

That would be awesome dude, I'll send you a PM!

Well done mate, hats off for digging up your own bait. 41 cm bream is a thumper, no?!

Thanks for the replies gents! Originally I had a tapered 8.5 lb trout leader, but after changing flies a few times, I've added a 5lb tippet with the improved blood knot. The idea is to target bream and estuary species on the flats and around shallow areas. At the moment my tippet is way longer than it needs to be, I assume I only want about 2-3 ft max, right? I've been out for 3 sessions so far, but haven't managed to get a fish on. I'm starting to get some decent distance on the flats every second cast with enough space for the back cast (there are still times when I wait too long and the back/forward cast hits the water sooner than I wanted, but I think that's more about timing than anything else), but it feels really good when you get it just right and the line unfurls perfectly. I think I can load the rod reasonably well if I remember to start by roll-casting and peeling the line off the surface. My main problem at the mo is the wind, which makes false casting difficult. I bought a few weed flies in the hope of tempting some luderick, but as soon as I cast them for the first ime I realised they were unweighted and would only float on the surface. I have some shot, but I don't know whether to add it just above the fly or further down the line. The other flies (clauser, Homer shrimpson) that I've used so far have fallen to bits very quickly because of my poor back casts and hitting stuff behind me, but I'm hoping more practice will mean less wastage (fingers crossed!) and I want to start tying my own flies, but I'll need to buy a vice and materials. So yeah, basically any advice you guys have is very welcome, I'm a complete newb to the fly fishing art, but very keen to learn! Cheers, Adam

Awesome dude, well done! Getting one on the plastics is just that little bit more satisfying too!

Kingy on a fly would have been epic dude, well done! It's my goal this/next year to get one and a jewie on fly gear.

Yeah, the triple surgeon seems the most common consensus. Sounds like an awesome trip, Stewie. Do you have particular species in mind? (I'm just after a flattie or a bream, just want to get that first saltwater fish on a fly!)

Awesome man! Good flattie there, you'll never look at bait in the same way

Hey folks, Been looking up the best knot for a leader to tippet for fly fishing, but there doesn't seem to be a general consensus. Best I've seen is an improved blood knot which still broke at around 75% tensile strength, but double/triple surgeon's seems to be pretty popular too. Any fly fishermen/women use a different knot with a proven track record? I've used an FG for SPs, but I assume there's a reason it's not used in tippet tying? Just out of curio too, aside from the casting benefits a tippet offers, is it worth deviating from, say, 8 foot of FC leader from the flyline? Cheers, Adam

Thanks for the advice gents. I didn't try the SPs today, but got a free casting lesson off a guy I met down the Cooks (if you're out there, Eddy, you're a legend). Gonna hit some eastern suburbs flats one day this week to see if I can finally get an Aussie fish on the fly.

You're Kreming it, Krispy! Awesome job as always!

Hiya folks, I finally got a fly reel spooled up and ready to rumble with an old fly rod given to me for blackfishing by a raider last year (cheers Ryder!) I tried it out last weekend and, though I didn't land a fish, I managed to get a couple of whiting at least chasing the fly. Anyway, I was casting away and a thought struck me: once upon a time I found a tiny grub-profile SP on a wharf in Sydney Harbour. I'm not sure of the exact size, but it was well under the 2" Z-manz I've used in the past. Do you reckon you could cast those on a fly rod with an ultra-light jig head, or even a worm hook as opposed to a jig head? I'm guessing a plastic of that size wouldn't weigh much more than a fly and I imagine using the fly rod is going to give a much more subtle presentation, so you'd be less likely to spook a fish. Plus stripping with a fly reel would allow greater control over the retrieve, making the lure move in a more natural manner than the standard double hop... I dunno, am I barking up the wrong tree? I tried googling and youtubing to see if it's been done before, but I can't find anything (to me that suggests there's a reason why it hasn't). Cheers, Adam

Hey mate, As other folk have already said, your gear sounds fine and you seem to be doing everything right. The fish will definitely come and once you get one, you know they work and you'll feel a lot more confident. Just keep trying and don't get disheartened. Your 2.5" Z-mans will 100% catch flathead, trevs and bream (I was in an area I'd never fished before last night and had a couple of flatties on your motoroil colour). One extra tip I'd add is a little touch of superglue on the jighead to secure the lure in place, which'll stop it coming off if you're using a more aggressive whip of the rod and increase your hook up chances. Try the Z-man bloodworm colour too- if you look at the bait that schools around a lot of the wharves in Sydney/in some of the rivers it looks almost identical in colour. You can also try lightly-weighted crab-profile SPs for bream (Z-man Crusteaz, Squidgy Critter, Gulp/Powerbait Crabbies). Location wise, just speaking from personal experience, but Roseville Bridge has never produced a decent-sized fish for me and it's snag-tastic. I'd make a point of trying different areas and moving about to cover as much area as possible, but at the same time putting a few extra casts into the places with structure, which are more likely to hold fish. Good luck, once you get a fish on plastics you'll be hooked and never need to use bait again!

42. Viper (Battlestar Galactica) 44. The Galactica 51. Cylon Raider 11. Captain Apollo 12. Cylon

Awesome! I'm desperate to have a go on the fly over here, doing it on a stream is just that little bit trickier too. How do you fish the Sawyer's?

Awesome work dude, especially to get a 70 cm model on bream gear! For land-based kingies you could also try Double Bay and Rose Bay: in the warmer months you can see them in close smashing bait up around the wharves there. You'd need a pretty heavy leader and strong leader/braid knot as it's structure-tastic.

Well done! For preparing the leather jacket, have a look at a channel called The Hook and The Cookon Youtube, they have a good vid on how to prep them.

Just my experience, but... I fish the Cooks a lot. In the months leading up to my holiday in Scotland in May/June, I fished SPs with S-Factor and regularly caught flathead, bream, trevally, whiting, tailor and the odd surprise. The week before I went to Scotland I ran out of S-Factor and since I got back I've been fishing the same stretch 3 times with no scent for 1 doughnut and 3 flathead. Of course, it could just be that the system is slowing down in the winter months and I haven't been able to get down on a decent tide, but generally I'd say scent (at least for bream) can make a difference. I've also noticed in the eastern suburbs that a scented lure will regularly get ripped to shreds by leather jackets or tailor, but an un-scented lure will flutter down past them untouched. It's definitely an attractant to some species, but not always the ones you're targeting.

I bought a similar rod weight and length in the UK a month or so ago for trout fishing and I was thinking about getting it sent over and using it for bream with sea flies (though it might have to wait til summer- my casting's crap in good weather, let alone the stuff we've had recently). The outfit coped fine with trout up to about 5 lb, so I reckon that weight would be ok for bream. Just out of curio, do you reckon bread and butter species would take a dry fly or a lightly-weighted sinking fly on floating line in warmer months? I figured bream and whiting take surface lures and shallow divers so it might be worth a shot.

Can't help, but congratulations big lad!

Nice new stick there, Ryder, and a healthy fish to boot.

Well done on getting back out and at 'em, bream on plastics are always fun