saying hello to all from Australia

[BrianM 0]

My name is Brian and I'm a kiwi flyfisherman living in Queensland Australia. Have fished most of the good streams rivers and lakes of New Zealand with fly and nymph, and usually commute to the Tongariro river every second year. I tie all my own and have just finished a restock of Tongariro nymphs. There are no trout in Queensland because the waters are too warm, however, down in New South Wales and Victoria there is some superb water with both rainbows and browns. Up here in Queensland, the trophy fish are Barramundi, Bass, Saratoga, Tarpon etc - they will all take the fly. I do miss the lovely streams of my native Canterbury (south island) and try to get over there as often as possible. Tight lines

[reactionhit 0]

Hi Brain

 

Welcome to the board!!!

 

Cant wait to hear more about the fishing down there.. And see the flies you use and pics of the diffrent type of fish you are chasing down there..

[BrianM 0]

Hi Brain

 

Welcome to the board!!!

 

Cant wait to hear more about the fishing down there.. And see the flies you use and pics of the diffrent type of fish you are chasing down there..

 

Hi Reactionhit - thanks for the welcome.

The Aussie fishing is pretty new to me - I'm a bit isolated here in the fresh water scene - the flyfishing is pretty much all saltwater and I haven't seen another flyrod on any of the lakes or dams sofar. I did have a go on a local dam (Ewan Maddock) in amongst the lilypads, with a cicada imitation, looking for a Saratoga - like the Barramundi their eyes are at the top looking for surface food. I had to be careful on the edges of the dam, some of the most venomous snakes in the world frequent this area!

A boat would be good. Further up north at a place called the Awoonga dam, the Barramundi grow up to and over a metre long and they will take the fly apparently - like a large woolly bugger on a floating line. That kind of fishing is in my long-term plans. There are plenty of lakes and dams within 30-40kms.

It's winter here and things are pretty quiet so I'm tying flies, experimenting with new patterns and updating some fishing gear.

cheers

[FlyFishin'Jam 0]

Greetings from an Aussie living in Canada Great to see more of you on here. You might be interested, a user here lil'dave is part of the north queensland fly fishers, he regularly posts pictures of Barra that makes me jealous.

 

http://www.nqflyfishers.com/

[BrianM 0]

Greetings from an Aussie living in Canada Great to see more of you on here. You might be interested, a user here lil'dave is part of the north queensland fly fishers, he regularly posts pictures of Barra that makes me jealous.

 

http://www.nqflyfishers.com/

gidday. I've checked out lil' daves website and seen the pics. I'm sure I could hook a barra as they lay up in the shallow bays, the problem is what do I do with a metre long fish once hooked !. I have a 10

weight rod which is stiff enough to hold a double figure trout, but a barra? - it would be a waterskiing event I kin tell ya. Worse still if I only had my lovely Fenwick #6. I've bookmarked the NQ site and will follow it - pity they're not down here on the sunshine coast. Where was your home town in Oz and did you fish Victoria or Snowy river ?

regards

Brian

[Li'lDave 0]

gidday. I've checked out lil' daves website and seen the pics. I'm sure I could hook a barra as they lay up in the shallow bays, the problem is what do I do with a metre long fish once hooked !. I have a 10 weight rod which is stiff enough to hold a double figure trout, but a barra? - it would be a waterskiing event I kin tell ya. Worse still if I only had my lovely Fenwick #6. I've bookmarked the NQ site and will follow it - pity they're not down here on the sunshine coast. Where was your home town in Oz and did you fish Victoria or Snowy river ?

regards

Brian

 

 

10wt is fine mate, the boys up here use 'em for tuna and small mackeral, just match it up to a reel with a good drag... You'll probably want to fish with a 40 to 60lb tippet (atleast) for the big girls down at Awonga... and tie plenty of flies with weed guards... First mission of course is to get the eat ... then you'll figure out what to do pretty quickly after that.... My 6wt wasn't up to a 70cm fish in a local estuary the other day ... but it got the heart rate up

 

white deceivers and white clousers... for something different maybe a fly in white will work... or some gold / flashy profiles using the DNA holofusion / etc...

 

if you're where I think you are you're actually not too far away from the New England Tablelands, which holds some reasonable trout waters (by Ozzie standards anyway), and there's also some Australian Bass around the shop too (atleast in the fresh). If you're after a bit of fun the little tarpon / ox-eye herring are just great on light gear and will eat small clouser minnows, crazy charlies, gurglers and poppers (just about anything actually!!).

 

Anyway, check out a couple of our links to useful pages on our website that might be able to help you out, and there's also the SE Qld Flyfishers that you might be able to find through the ANSA website....

 

If you're in Brisbane check out the "tackle warehouse" on Old Cleveland Road, I visit it whenever I'm, down that way... heaps of fly fishing and tying gear and some friendly guys to boot.

[FlyFishin'Jam 0]

Heh, i was from Perth, please don't hold it against me didn't trout fish there much as it was very average (more salty stuff). Moving from there to here was amazing, the amount of fly fishing i do these days is pretty wild in comparison.

 

I agree with Dave, the 10wt is plenty of ammo and some, crank the drag down and hold on! Madness! Also second on the bass fishing, it's quite addictive and you will always have a score to settle with those green bruisers, i usually go a bit light for them 5wt trout gear, 6-8lb tippet, but its incredibly sporting. Up here they sometimes act like trout, find them in fast rivers in the pockets and eddies, will take dries and nymphs. For more weedy areas i would probably use an 8 but i am often in pretty open water.

 

Sorry i can't be much help for the East over there, think Dave has you covered tho

 

*goes back to tying more salmon and steelhead patterns*

[BrianM 0]

Heh, i was from Perth, please don't hold it against me didn't trout fish there much as it was very average (more salty stuff). Moving from there to here was amazing, the amount of fly fishing i do these days is pretty wild in comparison.

 

I agree with Dave, the 10wt is plenty of ammo and some, crank the drag down and hold on! Madness! Also second on the bass fishing, it's quite addictive and you will always have a score to settle with those green bruisers, i usually go a bit light for them 5wt trout gear, 6-8lb tippet, but its incredibly sporting. Up here they sometimes act like trout, find them in fast rivers in the pockets and eddies, will take dries and nymphs. For more weedy areas i would probably use an 8 but i am often in pretty open water.

 

Sorry i can't be much help for the East over there, think Dave has you covered tho

 

*goes back to tying more salmon and steelhead patterns*

 

I like Perth, spent some time there few years back - good saltwater fishing and the beer's drinkable.

Will still commute over to NZ for the winter run of Taupo rainbows - some would call a #10 weight overkill but they haven't been punching line into a howling in-your-face gale as it does sometimes. I also take a #6 for the quiet places and small pools. There is plenty to offer here in Oz, it's a pity I'm not living down in northern Victoria because there's some great streams down there, also around Jindabyne and Thredbo in NSW. I guess you have your hands full with the steelheads over there.

cheers

Brian

[slowpoke 0]

Hello,Brian.Welcome to the forum.Lots of feathers up there in Queensland from what I hear.That means We can expect awhole bunch of fine looking flies,

being posted here. LOL

ALL the Best, Joe

[BrianM 0]

Hello,Brian.Welcome to the forum.Lots of feathers up there in Queensland from what I hear.That means We can expect awhole bunch of fine looking flies,

being posted here. LOL

ALL the Best, Joe

thanks Joe, there's only one feather than I use mostly and that's the partridge for the hares ear spider

and it's variants. I'll post some pics of the caddis's, natural and radical in due course.

cheers

Brian