 |
Web Hosting by Netfirms | Free Domain Names by Netfirms |
|
|
|
|
Fly Fishing With Robert Jarvis
|
|
|
Copyright © 2003 Robert and Melody Jarvis I was chewing the fat with some fly fishing mates the other day and the" B" fish came up as they always do in Queensland (Bass, Bream and Barramundi). My companions, all originally from south of the border, were casting aspersions about Queenslanders. Why do Queenslanders target fish that begin with a letter at the beginning of the alphabet? I quickly defended the state’s honour by reminding them that we also target fish that started with the letter "T". Fish like Tuna, Trevally and Tailor but they were thinking about another "T" species. A fly fishing conversation with fly fishers of southern origin always brings up the other "T" fish, Trout. If the practise of salt water fly fishing is the modern path which started about 100 years ago, then Trout fishing is definitely the traditional, dating back thousands of years. These Trout fishos always talk about presentation and the lack thereof for your average salt water fly fisherman. They usually talk 2 and 4 weight rods, with 3 to 5 metre long leaders, with the tippet being 2kg or is that 4 pounds? Dry flies are usually tied on hooks between size 12 to 16. The eye of these hooks are so small that your tippet has to be 2 to 4 pounds or it will not fit through the hole. So after quite a bit of sledging about poor presentation, stream craft and the ability to spot fish, I accepted their challenge to go Trout fishing the following Thursday and Friday at Ebor, Northern New South Wales. The Styx and Guy Fawkes Rivers are both stocked with Brown and Rainbow Trout from the nearby Dutton hatchery. From all reports the fish in the local area do not naturally grow much more than 1kg, but the hatchery sometimes release a few of their larger breeding fish. On Wednesday night Paul White and I set off with camping gear in tow and arrived at the Point Lookout Camp grounds 7 hours later. On our arrival, Chadwick Day and son Anthony awoke from their tent and discussed how the fishing had been the day before. They were our forward scouts and informed us that they had landed 4 good size brown Trout. This made erecting the tent at 2.00am in the morning quite exciting especially seeing how it was about 4 degrees Celsius. We arose about 9.00am the next morning and made our way to the Styx River off Hardwood Road. We decided the best plan of attack was to walk down stream, turn around and fish back up river towards the car. On the way back we spotted about 7 large fish in different pools. I did not fish this day deciding instead to observe Paul fishing with a view to picking up the finer techniques of presentation and stream craft, but all jokes aside, mainly to learn how to spot the fish and see what they were doing and where they were holding. I noticed that there were two different types of fish in the river. The first was a single fish that took up station at the end of the pool with its tail only a few inches from the drop to the next pool facing upstream waiting for food. The other type consisted of two fish of identical size cruising the pool side by side about one foot apart - these fish did not appear to be feeding but seemed to be patrolling their territory. This was a good learning curve for me as I had no experience stalking Trout, and even though I spotted 7 fish, I am sure we spooked many more. There were no insects flying or on the surface of the water so Paul tied on a nymph, but no fish even looked at his offering. The next day we went into Ebor to refuel the car and pick up some supplies. Guy Fawkes River is at the entrance to Ebor so I asked Paul to drop me off for a quick fish, while he took care of business. I did not have high expectations as the Ranger at the Dutton Hatchery where you purchase your yearly fishing permit told us that the river had not been fishing very well lately. I noticed that there were some insects floating on the surface of the water so I tied on a size 14 Royal Humpy. This is a really good dry fly, not only because of its’ fish catching ability, but because at 37 years old, I can see it. Entering the river wearing full length PVC waders I headed upstream while casting from left to right - the water was flowing fast and was a bit murky. I had travelled about 100 metres when my Humpy got boiled by a large fish, however I raised the rod too fast and missed the fish, but at least I was getting some action. I had two more takes within 20 metres and was able to lip a small Rainbow. He also got off but I had now learnt to count to three before striking with the rod after seeing the take. Paul turned up then and it was back to the Styx River for our last fishing session. On our return I suggested this time we fish up river. Upstream of the camping area was pocket water - small shallow pools about 5 metres long terraced up the hill. Armed with the knowledge that the fish were at the tail of the pools, our casts were short - not much more than the leader was outside the guides. We worked the first three pools before I saw my Royal Humpy disappear. I waited 3 seconds and then lifted the rod and to my delight I was connected to my first Rainbow Trout about 250mm long. The major part of this fishes fight was to try and hide under a rock, which is okay in these small pools as it gives you some time to wade upstream and land them. We only spotted one more large Brown Trout at which we both cast all different patterns to. He did follow occasionally before taking up station again, but on his fourth follow he turned right around to chase the weighted nymph and unfortunately saw us standing behind him and spooked. Paul and I laughed for we had been no more than 2 metres behind him for about an hour throwing our fly boxes at him. I’m obviously hooked on trout fishing because on our journey back to Brisbane we started to plan a Trout fishing trip to New Zealand. |
|
Send mail to
rj.design@bigpond.com with
questions or comments about this web site.
|
