Stephen Chatterton 
Whilst not designed to represent any particular bait fish I have designed this fly to have a shape, form and function similar to many of the little fish that predators hunt. This #2/0 estuary fly is 9 cm long and because it’s unweighted it’s relatively easy to cast. It’s a great fly to use when … Read more
One of the things I always promote is the importance of limiting the flies you carry in your fly boxes to just those flies that you are confident work for you, you understand when to use them and you know how to fish them.
I developed this fly to fish both the snaggy rock and coral waters but more recently have found a place for it when fishing the open blue waters and estuary waters of Central Queensland.
We are very lucky around Gladstone in that we have a healthy population of Mangrove Jacks, Fingermark, Barred and Silver Grunter and Flathead in our local waters and all four of them are reseptive to both fly and lure presentations.
When I set up a leader for my night time barra rods I start by connecting a stinger hook & Fasthach clip to what will be the business end of my leader, then I spool spool off the amount of leader required and connect that to my the 30lb braided backing With an FG knot.
The rule of 12ths … an easy way to know the approximate water depth at intervals of roughly 1 hour as the tide rises or falls.
We don’t get many days in Central Queensland when we get a break from persistent winds but when they come around it’s nice to take advantage of then and target one of your favourite species on fly.
These 5 barra above are all over a meter and have been caught in Lake Awoonga over the last 5 weeks on soft plastics that I rigged up in my own very personal way on soft plastics I poured myself in moulds for top pour soft plastics that I finessed and made myself.
Process: In the example below I am making two 46g two layered soft plastics. So in this case that will take 92g of material. The bottom layer is deeper and will use about 60% of that and the top layer is only about 7mm thick so it will use only the remaining 40 % of … Read more
These are big soft plastics for big barra. I make them in just 6 colours and fish them in Awoonga Dam which is of course a freshwater impoundment. I also fish them in coastal barra waters including Gladstone Harbor and the Narrows.
