Drummer On Fly!

[Cameron]

My son and I went drummer fishing last weekend on the Central Coast in the normal way ie big bag of stale bread for burley, bobbycorks etc. Down on the rocks we encountered a couple of other guys who were fly fishing for blackfish using home made green flies made up of what looked like fine strands of nylon. I have read about blackfish taking dyed green seals fur flies in the past, but have never seen it done. After encountering no success using the green flies they switched to bread flies ie large white ones and almost immediately one hooked up on a nice trevally.

Then to top it off a little while later I looked across to see the same bloke doing battle with something that was giving him a pretty hard time. If it were possible for a rod to be tied in a knot, then this was about as close as it gets! Given that my son and I had been catching drummer on bread, I thought is it possible that a drummer would take a "bread fly"? Sure enough after a titanic struggle up comes a drummer of around the 1.5kg size, a mighty effort on a No8 flyrod.

I'm not sure that this is about to change the whole face of drummer fishing, but it was really interesting to see a tried and tested technique for other species working on drummer. I think 9 time of out 10 a drummer would absolutely bury you in the bottom on that sort of gear, but it certainly was entertaining to watch it work on the tenth occasion!

[Bashir]

There are a few guys doing it nowdays, I've seen some great catches on such flimsy gear! I've used the green weed flies in the past for a bit of fun and they certainly work. I don't fly fish however so I used my basic float rig with the fly at the end of it all. I have a good spot where I can berley up plenty of drummer, bream, trevally and blackfish with bread so a bread fly would be interesting there.

[tyrone07]

This wouldnt of been at winney bay or avoca would it. I no the guys that normally flyfish down there, was gunna give jacksons a shot this arvo for some blackfish but the swell was way to flat for my liking. Have you been getting many fish of late

[Cameron]

Tyrone,

Winnie Bay was the spot. It was not an ideal day for drummer or blackfish as there was not a lot of swell, but it did not stop my son knocking off a 2kg drummer, along with some smaller ones. We fish as a team; he hooks them and pulls them in while I get to pick them up and stick them in the bag. The way I am fishing lately, that is how it seems! We also saw a whale jump totally clear of the water about 800 metres from the rocks. That was worth the price of admission on its own! Then to see a fly rod drummer was the icing on the cake. Mind you a drummer meal last night was not too bad either.

[Hooch]

Yeah I ran into a guy a while back at Box Head fly fishing for pigs.

[Narralakes]

Sounds like it was very exciting. Iv'e caught plenty of blackfish on bread and weed flies in the lake and they certainly go, will have to give the rocks a go one day, read a couple of articles of guys who do it, might have to dig those out again.

[stix]

Hi Guys, sounds like youve run into a few members of the Central Coast Flyrodders, primarily Bob Williams and disciples, they target pigs on bread fly a fair bit. As far as i can gather these fellas have been doing this for a few years at least and have it down pat.

Great fun, cheap and effective fly fishing, my best at 3kg was taken on an 8# and gave a hell account of itself!Goodluck with it.