I love my green Rod

I recently came into possession of a BIIX by winston and I must admit that I am loving every minute of fishing this rod. Coupled with a Felty "predator"810 reel I've been seeing much of the saltwater grounds around sydney open up to me.

I'm happy to report that despite the winter conditions, I've been landing kingies and Tailor. I'll post more when the time permits but here are the pics!

Working N Fishin.

Hi all,

Just started work not too long ago and fishing time has been cut down quite a fair bit. However, I'm still trying my best to squeeze in two sessions or so a week. Coupled with a lack of Internet access for most of April, I have been unable to post till of late.





I hope that fishing sessions are as precious and enlivening for you, our fair readers, as they have been for me.

Having figured out a host of flies to use in my local estuary and locating a school of nice sized Trevally, It's easy to say that my weekends have been eventful at least.

With limited success over last week- a lot of flathead action on surface bugs- I was itching to have a crack at good old silver.

It was a Saturday evening and I geared up. 7wt intermediate winter line(intergrated shooting head),tapered leaders of 50lb down to 8lb and a sink tippet. While tackling up, I said a silent prayer. The sessions that I have today are almost revered moments in time where all else fades away.

Tying on what I now call my "estuary special". I proceeded to cast to my usual beat. My spirits lifted as I saw the flyline go taught mid way through my first retrieve. I struck and half lifted my rod. I was overjoyed to feel some weight at the end of my line. The fight was not what we would call "a thing to remember" but up came a nice little flathead. Still things looked promising, First cast First fish.

Flat heads of similar size followed over the next half an hour or so.It was a pleasant enough session but quantity though very welcomed, was no substitute for quality.

I waited for the "witching hour"; the golden moment that I knew would let me tangle with my beloved estuarine silver dynamos.As that magic moment neared, an inspection of my tippet revealed it to be tattered and mangled in many section thanks to the raspy dentures of the flat heads that I had been catching.I proceeded to tie on a new tippet and my worst nightmare came true. Having tied on my tipped, I proceeded to strip line of the tippet spool as I usually do and was horrified when only 20cm of line came out. I frantically padded every pocket in my attire in hopes of finding some tippet material and only came up with some 50lb material. I was upset but determined not to let this spoil my much awaited session with the silvers.

with only 20 cm of tippet at the end of my leader, I proceeded to cast into the gutter that was filling up with frantic jelly prawns. The first 5 casts were nipped and tugged but brought up nothing.Then my dreams of the past week came to fruition on my sixth cast. on the sink, I stripped the suspending fly and let it sink. Strip-Jelly prawns jumped on the surface as a wake followed the fly just below the surface- strip. the surface filled with silver shapes. Strip- Wham! the fly was hit and I struck as the school turned and a lone silver shaped started heading for the horizon taking my fly line with it. This is all its meant to be I thought as more line peeled from the reel.

There was a point in the first run where I thought that I had been under gunned on this occasion as the fish did not seem to want to stop. I put on the pressure and after about half a minute of reeling I managed to close the gap between myself and my quarry. The fight then got more interesting as the fish headed for the mangrove roots that were not too far to my right. I palmed the reel for all it could take and applied as much side pressure as I would dare but to no avail. The fish made it to the mangroves. Not one to give up easily, I started to point my rod tip directly at the fish and hand lining the fish out of the roots. "I'm still in this" I said to myself as the fish was towed out of the mangroves and started charging towards me (this time holding deep. Unable to reel quick enough to match my opponent, I resorted to stripping line just to maintain the pressure while trying to coax what was by now proving to be a nice sized trevally up from it's holding in the deep.

after a fight that was one of my best in the NSW estuary system, I hauled a thick shouldered silver onto the shore. Happy snaps ensued and the fish was happily released. three more trevallys of similar size were landed over the next half hour or so with the biggest being almost 2 and a half kilos on the scales.



I had a blast and wish the same for all our readers on your fishing trips.


Tight lines and good fishing!

There Just Might Be Fish in Hong Kong..

After 4 long months in "Asia's World City", I found out that it certainly aint "Asia's Fishing City"... When I first came over, the only information gathered in from the internet was that - you gotta go to Sai Kung to catch a fish... but I thought "Nah, there should be fish all over HK"... I take that back. Sure, there are locals catching stuff all over the place, but the good spots - especially for lure fishing - remain very closely guarded secrets. Even trips to places recommended by unselfish fishonetizens proved to be unproductive (for me at least). But I guess I should give those places a few more visits... which means that I'm sacrificing my once-a-week fishing time to try again as opposed to finding THE spot.

This past friday (o4 Apr) was one of those exploring trips. Since it's a public holiday, I thougt it'd be high time to holler my ass over to the Sai Kung vicinity to verify if what I've heard about the place lived up to its reputation. A quick check on Google earth and I decided to carry out my excapade at a place called "Hebe Haven"... dunno if it has anything to do with the Taiwanese all-girl pop group S.H.E.... heheh.

Getting there required a ride on the MTR followed by bus. It was the first time I took the green-top mini buses too... oops, second time actually... the first option was to check out a river that flowed into the bay, but it was scratched after the water looked a little too shallow and lifeless. Time for plan B. It was a hike (of about 30mins) toward the central bay area. And it's quite interesting (actually 'weird' would be a better word) to see semi-modern houses in an area where attap or zinc-roofed houses would pass off as more appropriate... single lane road, plenty of bushes and shrubs, and self-made parking lots. To cap it off, there was even a Supra parked alongside the road.

(Don't be fooled, there's nothing in the little stream shown above).

I walked to the end of the "village" to a little protruding islet and found a nice spot to start casting. Out comes the Reuben Pink Headed Gotcha (that I tied... heheh). The tide was low and I was able to find some really good rocks to stand on to cast... if anything, the casting was enjoyable. An hour went and nothing found the fly appetising... and then a man showed up in his 'sampan' (or wooded dinghy) and promptly laid a few drift nets around the area... no wonder this area is devoid of life.

Feeling disgusted, I broke the rod down and was contemplating if I should call it a day... but just out of curisosity, decided to check out what's on the other side of the islet... walking along a small path and down to the rocky shoreline, I was greeted with the smell of decomposing fish... and quite alot of flies. It was a barracuda of about 2-3 ft in length on a rock. Hmm, that's encouraging... a predator of this size actually hunts here. I spotted a rocky outcrop that made its way out to the water and decided to cast there... and I also found a nice rock from which to cast.

The SA Nymph taper that I bought a couple of weeks ago in Singapore is a dream to cast... turning over the gotcha and 12 ft leader with ease. It didnt take long for something to take a bite at the fly... even though they're small, the cods make up for it by hitting the fly pretty hard.

At long last!!! My first fly caught fish in Hong Kong!!! Then something unfortunate happened.. I lost my balance (for no reason) and fell into waist deep of water... "The phone's gone for sure" I thought... and true enough, it died. Feeling sorry for myself, I wanted to call it quits. But the wet shorts meant that I had to stick around for a while. So I walked back over to the islet to give it another go... with no results. So back to spot that produced. It didnt take long for this small fella to gobble the fly.

Then things went quiet... and I decided to walk over to the other side of the bay to take a look. It reminded me alot of Double Bay back in Sydney and I enjoyed myself walking there in knee-deep clear water, and found another patch of oyster encrusted rocks from which to cast from. The water looked like it was 2-3 ft deep, and was ideal. I proceeded to land another three cods from this patch, making me a very happy man.

Hopefully, this will be a prelude of better things to come in the future. Till next time....
-Justin-

Clouds That Hold Silver

As I was saying in the previous post, I have been trying to learn to fish more effectively in the estuary system that surrounds my home. To the point of tewaking retrieves, presentations, leader lengths and "developing" new fly patterns.

Today was another chance at the "grand slam". It was an incoming tide at my newly appointed favorite time of the day. I tackled up and casted at my usual starting sport just to wet the line. Satisfied that everything was in order I made my way down to begin a "beat" that I've since developed after that faithful day with Justin.

I casted retrieved and walked. This went on for a good 7 to 8 casts until I reached what I now refer to as The spot.

As I was slowly stripping line, I felt a slight bump. I paused for a half second and was about to strike when whatever it was just started running for the horizon at an alarming rate! I couldn't even think, much less react as line just peeled through my fingers. Thinking that the fish must have hooked itself, I lifted the rod slightly in an attempt to turn the fish.

This was to be my undoing as the line suddenly went slack. "Big flathead" I thought, remembering "thumping" my rod experienced. "Could also have been a big Bream" echoed in my head as I recapped the blistering run. Possibilities ran through my head.

I was disappointed but not discouraged. Bracing myself and mentally running through the motions of "Strip Strike not ROD STRIKE", I put out another 70 footer. Remembering that I had hooked up on a rather well sunk line, I let the sink tip do its thing and commenced my retrieve.

Strip

Strip

Jelly Prawns were going crazy on the surface as something tore into them.

Strip

"Peck!"

What on earth was that??? Short strip, Peck! I felt weight and I struck.

What followed next was a run reminiscent of the fish a cast ago. I kept the pressure on and the fish put on a great fight, holding deep with runs that took me close to the reel. "This must be a good bream" I thought as it started swimming to the rock wall I was casting from. Then came another run. "This is one strange Bream" ran through my head as whatever it was stayed down deep and made another bid for the horizon. It was not till a full 2 minutes that I saw a flash of Silver and it still didn't occur to me what I had on the end of my line.

Not long after that first flash of color I managed to tire my opponent and proceeded to grab the leader. For those who catch Bream on the long wand, you'll be expecting that the good old Bream would know when it is beaten and come to the surface. However my quarry stayed deep and only after I hand hauled the last of 12 feet of tippet that I realized that I had landed my first estuary Silver Trevally! The sweetness of the moment was made better that it had been on a fly that I had put much thought and effort into.
2 more Trevallies and one flathead were landed after this momentous occasion.

I didn't get my slam today but what I managed was great satisfaction at being able to land one of my favorite Piscatorial Targets after much work.

Good fishing to you all!