Fly Fishing Line Sink Tips
Fly Fishing Line Sink Tips
Fishing the Arnhemland way! by Alex Julius
“Barra are where you find them” is true, but “barra are where you find bait” often precedes the former maxim. That’s what happened early last December in the Liverpool River when I was doing one of my irregular stints at guiding.
The wind had been blowing onshore at more than 20 knots. Combined with the occasional rainstorm, the barra fishing had been tougher than the normally excellent fishing available during the latter months of the year along the Arnhemland coast. One obvious reason was that the unseasonal strong winds prevented any coastal traveling to other rivers and tucked-away sandy mangrove creeks that literally reek with barra during the hotter months preceding the wet season.
Staying at the Arnhemland Barramundi Nature Lodge was a group of old mates from NSW and Victoria – nine in total – many of whom had been fishing with me for nearly 20 years. I’d taken them all over northern Australia and twice to PNG but, since starting the Lodge some four years ago, they’ve been happy to make that their annual Australian Top End destination.
So there we were on the first morning – doing it tough and trying hard to find that first good barra session to kick-start the trip. As I indicated at the beginning, bait is often the first clue to finding barra…
…When I saw it, it stood out like a neon light that said FISH HERE FOR BARRA; a small creek mouth hardly wider than the length of one of our boats. The small making tide was greenish yellow but clear, but the water flowing slowly from the little creek was milky. More importantly, the tell-tale rippling circles of mullet breaking the surface were evident from the mouth of the creek all the way to the first bend inside it, something like 40 metres.
This was not your normal run-off creek. There was no swamp backing it up; only a large mangrove saltpan, so I figured it was one of those usually short-lived discoloured drains that started after an overnight rainstorm made a bull’s eye hit on the saltpan itself. In any event, I reckoned we were on for sure.
On board were Elton Stone and Brian Pidcock. Nothing like a fish on the first cast, and not surprisingly it was that cunning old fisho, Elton, who started the proceedings.
For some reason, the barra weren’t sticking to the lures very well. We probably hooked 40 fish in a three-hour session that stopped abruptly when the tide got too high and the creek started flowing the other way, but the lads only landed 14. They weren’t huge fish, mainly 55-65cm, but there were a couple around the 80cm mark amongst them.
Good news back at the Lodge was that the other two boats on the water that day had also found fish, so they were a pretty relaxed and happy bunch on the large decked verandah as they hoed into their salt-and-pepper calamari and beers, watching the sun set on the river floodplain below.
One of the original regulars in the group is a terrific bloke by the name of Barry Cougle. I’ve fished with a lot of people over many years but I’d have to say that Bazza is a lay-down misère winner as I my pick of the most-enthusiastic angler I have ever met. Bazza was fishing with me the next day.
“Alex, should I take my fly rod?” he asked at the bar after dinner.
“Sure Bazza. If that gutter I found today is still firing, you should have a lot of fun,” I replied.
To cut a long story short, the gutter was still firing all right, particularly on the morning falling tide. On board with Barry were Elton again, as well as yet another old mate, Don Jeffery.
Now Bazza has never been one to conform to fishing correctness. The first time I went barra fishing with him, he used a closed-face plug caster that was older than I was. Now, anyone who’s experienced at catching barra on fly will tell you that a 9 weight to 11 weight oufit is the go. However, I was not the least bit surprised when Bazza broke out his 7 weight rod, the same rod he uses for trout fishing in New Zealand, which in itself is bordering on sacrilegious.
The rest was okay: a floating line with a sink tip and one of the best barra flies you can ever use, a yellow Clouser.
The lads caught 27 barra that day, with some nice fish amongst them, and Bazza accounted for at least a dozen of them on his delicate fly rod.
I was trying to work out why he was doing so well, especially against proven barra lures. Later, when I put a sounder over the area where the hits were mainly coming from, I discovered two holes: one about 3 m deep right in front of the creek mouth and the other about 6 m deep slightly downstream of the creek mouth. I figured what was happening was that Barry’s Clouser, with its weighted, steel bead eyes, combined with the sink tip, often finished up at the edge of the deeper hole. The line was being dragged along with the current as Barry stripped it in slowly, but the Clouser held its depth as it pranced along the bottom into the hole.
I’ve seen it many times, both casting and trolling: if you’re catching barra near or on the edge of a hole, and there’s a big barra in the hole, it will be down deeper than the rest of the fish. But right on dead low tide, it will rise from the bottom and, if your lure is in its path right at that time, whammo! it’s down the hatch.
Well, it was Bazza’s fly this time that proved the theory. As the falling tide came to a standstill, and the little yellow Clouser moved into the hole, suddenly Bazza was onto his last fish of the session.
Right from the start, it was clear it was reasonable fish. It swam out from the bank downriver from the boat and then spent the next 10 minutes heaving about back and forth in the middle of the river. Bazza had a bit of pressure on it, but it didn’t jump once. As it finally got closer to the boat, I remember saying with disbelief: “You got a metre fish on here Barry, have you?”
And then it suddenly popped to the surface in front of the net, the Clouser fly looking ridiculously puny in the corner of its mouth. At 109 cm, it was more than just a great fish; it may well have been the year’s biggest wild barra caught on fly over the whole of Australia. It weighed 17 kg in the Environet…and on a 7 weight fly rod.
For more information visit http://www.barralodge.com.au
About the Author
Alex is one of Australia’s best-known fishing media identities in Australia. He publishes National Australian Fishing Annual and its sister publication, Barra Bass & Bream Digest. Alex also has an award winning fishing lodge, the Arnhemland Barramundi Nature Lodge.
In 2003, Alex was awarded the Centenary Medal for services to Australian Society during the Centenary of Federation.
Rio 15 foot Sink Tip Kits
