Morsie
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Very careful about where we use the floatboats – no crocs in that water.
Zach what about some of those Amazon fish? some of those are pretty large.
Morsie
Not at all related to the saltwater cod Zach. These grow to 200lbs and live in our inland rivers but there are two east coast sub species. Very handsome fish, fairly temperamental and like most of our freshwater fish bite best on a rising barometer. There’s a closed season on them right now. The adults guard the “nest” and are very vulnerable in spring – season opens on the 1st of December.
Close encounters with crocodiles can mean some sleepless nights Rusty. There’s a new movie out – its a “jaws” type thing but with a big saltwater croc as the central “character”. They are all too real I’m afreaid, there’s talk about allowing some sort of cull on them, their numbers in those northern waterways are frightening. Fortunately (to my knowledge) no one in a boat’s been a attacked.
Morsie
This is the freshwater “cod” caught in a small headwater stream by Dave. The really bigs ones are a great challenge on fly. This a small one although slightly larger than the average fish we caught on this trip.
Mate Geoff Volter lifts a small cod. Because the flies we use are bulky 9 weights are pretty standard for this fishing. They’re very powerful fish in short bursts.
The “big rig” Gordon Low wades deep in a leech infested cod stream.
Dave with a floatboat caught cod – great way of fishing for them.
This is an eastern cod from the coastal Clarence system, about 22lbs. When it ate the Dahlberg I just about had a heart attack. A surface strike from one of these things is impossible to forget.
Just about the only fish species i’d go way over the “limits” with as far as tippet is concerned are the New Guinea bass and then its 40-60lbs. Fly line strength was an issue for the guys. Leviathans take care of that these days.
These are fish I didn’t mention, don’t know why, they’re one my favourites. We call them Spanish mackerel, not at all like your “spanish”, more like your kings but these grow to 100lbs and are great eating. Many teeth and are close relative of the wahoo. This fish was caught by Rod van Beek in Weipa.
Morsie
Zach, That was a big specimen but was OK. We had a particularly belligerent one follow us around the year before. This is a pic of it coming across the billabong at us.
Rusty the New Guinea bass flies are big and often heavy, imagine a 4/0 black ‘n barred – I’ll find one somewhere and get a pic of it – but the rod is mostly necessary for the extraction. A lot more guys have gone to New Guinea since I was last there and caught these fish on fly, some using 10 weights for the smaller ones. Because I got malaria up there my wife has basically banned me from returning, but I will go back……. here’s a link for the lodge that is still currently operating and doing well by all reports.
http://www.baiasportfishing.com
These pics are from the wetland billabongs of the Northern Territory.
Early morning saratoga hookup from amongst the lily pads – angler is Toby Evans.
The beautiful and primitive saratoga.
We fish for the saratoga from first light to mid morning then when the water warms through the day the barras become active – Â barramundi are always the main game.
They have big mouths and feed by implosion most of the time.
Marabou style whistlers with plenty of movement in a wide range of sizes and weights from size 2- 2/0 are our best pattern.
These things like barramundi as well – this croc is a round 14 feet long – its the one I mentioned in the podcast.
This croc was chomping on an 85cm barra -that’s out around 17-18lbs.
Little tarpon are extremely prolific.
Cheers guys – by the way Mat took the pic of the bonefish I’m holding – was in New Caledonia with me and Charles Rangely-Wilson.
Here’s the tail end of a bait ball bust up near Weipa. That’s a longtail tuna in the water coming straight at us.
Some of the best tuna fishing is sight casting to single cruisers using poppers – Crease flies are excellent but this popper is made with round foam and is tied in the gurgler style – I call it a “gurgle pop”.
Tom McCullough of Cortland with a longtail tuna erroneously called by some a “northern bluefin”.
A baitball south of Weipa – 5 different species of bait and countless predators, tuna, several species of mackerel, queenfish, several species of trevally – this lasted 3 hours but the predators stayed deep most of the time – you can see a big flash in the lower right corner from something.
Rod van Beek with a queenfish pulled off that baitball.
A beach caught queenfish, seen cruising on the incoming tide in water barely deep enough to cover its back.
Isn’t technology an amazing thing – Thanks guys đŸ˜• ::)
I’ll post a string of images here. I need to get my new Guinea images scanned, they’re all on slides and to do that I need to be game enough to open the filing cabinet all my slides are kept in. That scares me.
Our tarpon – Megalops cyprinoides.
This a fairly large one caught at a Cape York river mouth.
Indo Pacific permit (We’re unsure whether these are Trachynotus blocchi or Trachynotus Anak or something else altogether) – they’re being examined.
Four of 5 permit landed froma single milling school.
Alan Philliskirk and Dan Blanton with a Weipa GT.
Gold spot trevelly – Western Australia – angler Craig Radford.
Golden trevally – our premier flats species. These get up and tail.
I had the great privilege of being given a guided tour of the Tibor factory (its on my web site) by Ted himself. The new anodising plant he had installed was 1.5 million dollars, the “waste” water that came out of it was cleaner than Miami’s drinking water. There were 2 X $50,000 engraving machines as well.
Think about how many reels you have to sell to pay for that plant and equipment alone…………
We should be grateful for them. I know this makes me sound like a crusty old bastard but I can remember when the only decent saltwater fly reels were Seamasters (and they never responded to an inquiry) Fin Nors, (dreadful shape), then mercifully the Billy Pates came along, thank you Billy and Ted. There were a few others – Catino for a while, the Feura Taurus and the cheapie was the SA System 2. I am so bloody grateful for the quantity and quality and CHOICE of great reels that’s out there at the moment.
Morsie
Charlie – a kelpie man eh! I have one too, great dogs, getting a little long in the tooth now but she’s been my fishing companion for many years. Used to chase the tuft of wool when I practised casting in the park – now there’s a good way to exercise a dog.
She’s a real studnet of casting. I recall with a smile on my face one day when we were going fishing the dog, as a youngster, taking a dump on the back seat of Dave Anderson’s new car. He still cries about it.
Morsie
Neal when it goes to shit like that wind in the line so you have only around 25 feet out (plus leader), put your left hand in your pocket and with just the casting hand make a series of casts with as little effort as you can possibly get away with to just turn over the leader. (TURN SIDE ON AND WATCH THE LINE) Do that until you get the feel and the timing back then rebuild it from there. Think smoooooooooth.
Every time you lose it go back to that exercise – its a great way of reminding ourselves that as far as fly casting is concerned technique will beat effort EVERY time.
Morsie
FFFCCI
The Redington Brakewater was a cork drag reel made in Korea – a fine reel too, albeit heavy. Their new CD (Cork Drag)L reel is lighter and is a fine reel. I know you can pick those up at a very good price if you shop around. (Not quoting prices here but friends have bought the largest model for under $200 US from the states).
Morsie
A few years ago we set out to design and build saltwater fly reel with a high end machining company, we wanted to introduce some innovations we thought were viable and necessary. To get to the stage of 6 prototypes for field testing was going to cost us $30,000.
I think its just bloody fantastic that we can buy high end reels IF WE WANT TO – and if we don’t want to -well we don’t have to either. I think its great to fish with the best tackle you can afford and not worry about what the other guy’s using. Its the same with camera gear – $10,000 for some bits of glass in a metal tube might seem pretty expensive too, particularly to someone who uses a happy snapper just as we shouldn’t get bothered by someone who takes happy snaps of pigeons in the park using an EOS 1DS Mk3 with a 400 f2.8 lens, that’s entirely their business.
I have looked for it on the net but unfortunately its gone – anyone see “The Rimfly Challenge”? A couple of guys set out to try and land a longtail tuna on a cheap Rimfly reel. I think they disintegrated three or four reels including one that ended in bloodshed.
Morsie
Dusty, I’ve mostly come from the saltwater spectrum of the sport so Lefty’s been my god for a long time along with Ed Jawrowski. I believe that to shorten up your stroke and tighten up your short game you need to look at the different “schools” of fly casting and Joan Wulff’s a good place to start for the shorter tighter game.
As for rod recommendations, I’m thoroughly enjoying the smooth easy action of the Sage Zaxis rods.
Morsie
