Fishin' blues

It's been a really really long time since Justin or myself has posted a word on this site.

We've been busy. Work commitments, post Grad studies and the F***ked up economic situation meant that many of our fishing plans had to be shelved till our lives moved into a more stable spot. (if we get sponsors that would be better. But till then we're worker before anglers.


It's not that we haven't wet a line. It's just that we haven't had much time to do so.

Here are some pics to entertain you if you're reading from the office.



Tight
lines!

New Wand New adventures

Not too long ago I came into possession of my Winston BII MX. I must say everything was as I dreamed it would be. Together with an 8 and nine wt, I've been able to open up the possibilities of solely fishing on the fly.

The recent spate of me not posting was largely due to my time spent fine tuning and exploring the options that we modern fly fishers now have with the amount of gear readily available on the market.

From all forms of land based flay fishing to inshore boat work. methods have been refined and techniques honed.

I shall dispense with much of the talk and let the photos tell the stories. I've also developed some patterns and rigs to better suit my preferences for fishing the areas that I chose to concentrate on.

So enjoy! and do contact me if you want to join in the quest to fish the entire sydney on fly.

TARPON TIME

With the weekend approaching, the proposition of a tarpon on fly proved too tentalising to pass up and I was willing to be in the office at 3am to complete a task if I had to. But thank goodness that there was nothing in my mailbox at 4am - which meant that I wasn't needed at the office .

With a 45minute train ride ahead of me, I decided to swap the intermediate line over to a floating when I'm on it. Reached rendevous point at about 710am and was greeted by my mate and friends. It's just good fun getting to fish with other people...

A short cab ride saw us reach our destination without any dramas, followed by a 10 minute walk.

Upon reaching the river, it reminded me so much of a place in Singapore called Lorong Halus, where the first generation of fly fishermen there got into huge tarpons, herrings and barramundis...but sadly, that place was decimated by drift netting when I started to fly fish. Although this river suffered a similar fate, Tarpons were still around and that's enough for me.

We got to a section of the river where there was in inflatable weir and water was overflowing to the other side as the tide rose.... and Tarpons were rolling on the surface!! With no time to waste, the rod was rigged up and a Reuben Estuary Special found it's way to the tippet once more. There were fish rolling as close as 10-20ft in front that there was virtually no need to cast. After flicking the line out, I dragged the fly slowly through the water. It wasn't until the fly was almost out of the water that the fish decided to have a go at it, but failed to hookup. This happened a few times and I decided to use a jiggy retrieve and kept the fly near the surface.... it worked! A flash of silver in the water as a fish rolled for it and I set the hook without hesitation... it was on!! Though not very big, they still pulled reasonably well and lept out of the water like their larger American cousins. The next 30-45 minutes was just magic...there were no shortage of hits, just whether the hook found its mark or not. I landed about 7 or 8 and probably missed/dropped about 3 times as much.







And when the tide maxed out and started to recede, fun was over... we stuck around for another hour or so with no results and decided to move elsewhere.

FIRST WEEKEND BACK IN HONG KONG

Was pleasantly surprised that I did not have to be in the office over the weekend... which meant that I can go fishing! Awesome! Had initially texted a local friend that I knew in a HK fishing forum to see if he was free to take me Tarpon fishing. Unfortunately, he was only available the next week.

So a visit to Mr Red was in the cards. But as before, I wanted to check out the other parts of the surrounding region to uncover new fishing locations. The first location only produced a tiny (and I mean tiny... thumbsized) rock cod. And instead of taking the short-route to Mr Red's house, I decided to take the long way. For a person who's not into photography, some of the scenery I came across was just too beautiful. This location gave me the feeling that I was in the European countryside or something....



After about 20mins, I reached a bay that had pretty strong waves. And since I'm already there, might as well chuck a few plastics... As I worked toward teh middle of the beach, there was a patch a rocks about 40meters out and I thought maybe fish would congregate behind the rocks, using it to break the water. There must be countless tiny crescent perches in front of me as the lure was being pecked all the way in. And after a while, I felt something larger (but still pretty small) took the plastic. I fought it to the front only to have the hook pull 1m away from me... and the little cod swam away leisurely.

Taking into consideration that cods have amnesia, I continued to cast repeatedly back to the same area. And five minutes later, I was rewarded with this little cod. If he was caught by the guys at the pier, there was no way he was going back. But the fact was that he met me and lived to see another day.


After that little encounter, it was time for redfish. But the tide had already rose pretty high and true enough, I didn't find any...