Chatto’s baitfish
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.
Big fish flies
Adding lead to a “weedless” AKA “worm” type hook
Weight can be added to a fly in many different ways and they effect how the fly sinks and swims also in many different ways. This is how I add weight to weedless / worm hook when I am going to use the fly to make a fly similar to my Scrounger fly.
Candy – hardyhead
Even for pelagics such as tuna, mackerel, queenfish & trevally matching the hatch is often critical to success. This fly is my version of a hardy head which is one of the baitfish that particularly tuna and queenfish target in Central Queensland but because of its form and function it’s also a good representation of some other small baitfish that these hunters target.
Articulated bibbed barra baitfish
This fly is designed to be fished very slowly and is one of my favorite targeting flies for barra in Awoonga dam. It’s not designed to represent any particular bait fish but it does have a shape, form and function similar to many of the little fish that barra target.
Chatto’s minnow – brown bomber inspired
Hard body lures in brown bomber colour have earned a place as a popular lure colour combination for barramundi in estuary and coastal mangrove edged water. The same colour scheme is a great colour combination for flies used to target barra along the edge of mangroves.
Chatto’s minnow – guns & roses
Guns and Roses coloured of red over chartreuse are very popular hard body and soft plastic lure colours in Queensland and work equally well for flies particularly in low visibility water.
Chatto’s minnow – Qantas colours
This is my favorite ‘all rounder’ colour for many flies that I use in Queensland and works in both fresh and salt water, day or night.
Articulated bugger
It doesn’t matter which of the larger CQ species your fishing for … at 13cm long and with a great swimming action more often than not my articulated bugger in Qantas colours is my goto fly.
Leaders – #10 weight / Central Queensland
At the business end of my leader I have a 50lb Mustard Fastach clip to make connecting flies to the leader easy and fly changes easy. These clips allow flies to move around as easily as when connected to a loop knot and I don’t find the clip to be any more intrusive that a loop knot.
Jig fly
This fly is designed as a bait to jig along the muddy and sandy bottom of local rivers and estuary bays when targeting fingermark, grunter and and flathead in particular.