Each time I go on a major fishing trip I modify my packing list. My latest trip was to Christmas Island in the Pacific. These are the revised lists for my High Sierra bag when it is used as my carry on bag and for the same bag when it becomes my fishing bag as well as my list for my check in luggage. I will modify these list as I head off to other destinations.
Contrary to popular belief sandfly bites are not associated with laying eggs. They are in fact bites associated with feeding. The fact that almost immediately they start to itch and the itching increases is related to the fact that during the feeding process they urinate and the bites become infected.
How you organise fly boxes is important as it can make a big difference to how much you enjoy your fishing outings. This question and answer explains my approach.
Scientists at CSIRO have wrapped up almost a decade of testing to prove the bug kills only the so-called “rabbit of the river” clogging the Murray Darling Basin, The Weekly Times reports. Applications to introduce the virus in Australia are now being submitted while an unlikely alliance between industry and environmental groups, including the National Irrigators Council and Australian Conservation Foundation, support the measure.
My variant does not include the shroud of mara wool tips around the zonker tail. I have left that off because for me the currents around the body of the fly produce more movement in the tail when it is not shrouded. I like hot spots on flies and accordingly have added a hot spot of red Wapsi palmer chenille under the tail. For my deeper water flies, as many other users have done, I use bead chain eyes rather than the unweighted plastic chain eyes as on the original.
Using this process if I decided that I want to swap from my existing leader to one of my pre prepared leaders that is stored on a ‘leader pad’, complete with its fly or team of flies, all I need to forfeit is around one minute of my fishing time.
These reels are beasts and have an impressive capacity of backing. I have gone for 70lb braid for backing and so that the backing is not the weak point in my system and even then 300 meters of backing fits easily. The reel also has a drag that locks up and needs 13lb of direct force to give line and then it does it ever so smoothly … OMG..
On Monday this week I fished a deep snag in the Boyne River and made contact with a big barra that came out of the snag and took my fly. Unfortunately the 24lb fluorocarbon leader wasn’t up to the shock and as the fish took of in panic the fly and the leader parted … … Read more
In 2015 Australia will be the host country for the 10th Oceania Fly Fishing Championships. I’ll be there representing Australia as a member of the green team. Go to the FFA web site for information on the Ociania’s and of course follow the event on the FFA Facebook page. If you have any gems of … Read more
This knot is very simple to tie and because of its figure eight configuration is relatively strong. It also has the advantage over the other many other loop knots in that the two parts of line coming out of the actual knot are next to each other so the actual open part of the loop can be as narrow as just the two thicknesses of line.
