Home Waters (salt) When You Can’t Travel — Marty Wells

The author checking out Great Oyster Bay

Explore your home waters

There’s no need to travel to far flung places around the globe to chase challenging species on fly. There’s plenty here as Marty Wells explains.

One of the most attractive things about fishing is the amazing places it can take you, places where the fishing truly is a bonus. Whether it’s an adventure to a new trout creek here in Tassie, one of the Northern Territories large barra filled rivers or to a far-flung coral atoll chasing bonefish, the travel and exploration bug is rooted deeply in many anglers. There’s probably an element of grass is greener syndrome in play as well. Due to the travel restrictions currently in place and knowing many anglers have had their 2020 big fishing trip cancelled I plan in this article to outline some of the incredible fishing opportunities available right here in Tasmania.

For those fly anglers who yearn for endless sand flats to stalk bonefish, permit and other tropical speedsters look no further than the many tidal flats around our coast. One of my absolute favourite fishing challenges is to wade the white flats at the mouth of the Swan River on the east coast throwing flies at the healthy population of bream that reside there. I once heard that there were enough recreational gillnets set to completely circle Tasmania twice, the black bream has been the species most benefitted by the enormous reduction of both recreational and commercial netting over the last decade or so. The bream over the white sand are incredibly spooky in the super clear and shallow water and provide a challenge equal to or harder than fooling a Christmas Island bonefish or northern Australian permit. Bream can tail in the shallows, grub around for crabs and occasionally charge after baitfish, such is the difficulty of fooling these fish they are known as Tassie permit amongst my fisho mates. This flats fishing scenario is repeated in most east coast estuaries, Ralphs Bay near Hobart and the Port Sorell estuary in the north to name a few. Put some time in looking at Google maps or aerial photos on ListMap to enjoy the satisfaction of finding your own spot X. When you do hook one of the common 40cm+ fish your backing will appear in a matter of seconds. I have personally had most success with worm looking flies dead drifted on the current past a cruising bream. Flies like damsel nymphs, squirmy worms and sparse rabbit zonkers have all produced for me. I know others have used small popper or foam flies to induce exhilarating surface strikes. A 4-6 weight fly rod will throw these flies with ease and as there’s very few snags on the flats it’s possible to get away with a light 4lb tippet.

For fishers that were anticipating a barra trip up north the yellowtail kingfish gives a comparable alternative

without having to get on a plane. They don’t inhabit the big rivers as they do across the northern region of Australia but their love of current and structure aligns them with barra in my mind. Also, the magical metre mark is just as special for kingfish anglers as it is for barra folk. The tackle one would use is similar, as are the flies. Kings can be handled on an 8 weight but the larger flies are better suited to casting on a 10 weight which also has more stopping power when fishing near reef or amongst boat moorings. At times kingfish can be found feeding on the surface but look for subtle swirls and boils rather than the whitewater and froth that give away schools of salmon, mackerel etc. It is amazing the tiny size of baitfish that kings can fixate on. There is a range of tactics that can be successfully employed on the kings. The low light periods of dawn and dusk are perfect for prospecting around boats, moorings and channel markers with surface patterns like the Crease Fly. Another productive method is to anchor where there’s structure with plenty of current ripping past and lay a berley trail. Subsurface flies like pink things, clousers or Game Changer patterns worked deep through the trail can all elicit solid takes. Sinking lines are handy for this technique otherwise a sinking polyleader or weighted flies will suffice to get your offering down deep into the fish’s face. Kings in the berley trail will often lurk deep, not showing themselves to the angler, for this reason it pays to keep half an eye on the sounder for deep cruising fish. Over time you can recognise different species of fish by their sonar return. The other bonus of berley is the non-target by catch that can turn up, snotty trevally, silver trevally, snapper, mackerel, salmon and even flathead will all swim up the trail at times. Kings are notorious for their curious nature and showing up behind a hooked fish. This instinctive trait can be exploited and improve your kingfish chances by keeping a steady stream of fish coming over the gunwales of your boat or the platform you might be fishing off. Don’t be in too much of a hurry to land that fish, let it kick about for a minute or two boat side if you think there might be kings in the area. If the kings do turn up it is critical to have another suitable rod on standby all rigged up and ready to go. It is not the time to be mucking around tying knots when there are 20 hungry kingfish milling around the boat. Prime kingfish areas in Tasmania are no longer the closely guarded secrets they once were. Again, rather than following the masses take some time to investigate areas of structure and current in your local region. Places to start looking are around boat moorings, tidal channels, channel markers and areas of reef. Your chance of finding kings increases proportionally to the number of these features found in any one spot.

Bluewater fly fishing is increasing in popularity around the world, non fishos are astounded when you mention marlin, sailfish, giant tarpon can all be caught on fly tackle. Many Australians travel to tackle the prolific sailfish on offer at Kuala Rompin, Malaysia every year. Tasmanians don’t have to go begging for big game fly options close to home, we have the southern bluefin tuna and mako shark.

To successfully chase these species everything needs to be upsized; the tackle, the flies and even the boat. In Queensland there is a popular tuna on fly fishery built around the northern longtail tuna, anglers there generally don’t fish rods heavier than 8 weights. Having never caught a NLT I can’t provide an authoritative comment but I’m guessing their tuna don’t pull as hard and as long as a SBT. The banana benders are usually throwing small surf candies or similar, needing nothing heavier than an 8 weight to cast. Tasmanian tuna and makos eat bigger flies that need a minimum 10+ weight to cast. More likely a 12-15 weight. Match this with a heavy-duty fly reel with 300m of braid backing and you’ll be in the game. Unlike trout fishing where the reel is little more than a line storage device saltwater fish will regularly put you into the backing, for this reason it pays to buy the best reel you can afford. The Redington Behemoth is a good value option at around $200. Lamson and Sage both have reels in this price range as well. The upper price point is astronomical and can’t be justified for me as my heavy gear gets dusted off only a few times a year. While talking tackle, if you do find a tackle for sale online at least give your local tackle shop a chance to price match the item, most will if they can. The added plus of a physical shopfront is appreciated if the item fails or needs repair. SBT and mako both reach world record proportions in Tasmanian waters, if you are chasing records you should know the IGFA regulations back to front, top to bottom and inside out. Basically, the rules state a leader of 20lb maximum breaking strain and a bite tippet no longer than 30cms. World record or not, catching one of these gamefish on IGFA legal tackle is an angling achievement to be proud of. If you’re not fussed with ‘playing by the rules’ then a straight through leader of 80lb with a bite tippet is advised. Both tuna and makos can be found right around the coast of Tassie but the waters off the Tasman Peninsula and St Helens are recognised as the hot spots. Mako shark need to be berleyed up, once the berley pot goes in the water the waiting game begins. This may take 10 minutes or 10 hours, once the shark shows at the boat stir it up by casting a piece of fish

out of a spinning rod and tease the mako like you would a kitten with a ball of string. Your fly is basically half a chook tied to match the colour of your fish teaser ie. white for fish flesh or red for a tuna blood line. Once the mako is suitably fired up, perform a switch with a fly and hang on. It is sensible to initially drive the boat away from the hooked mako to avoid the angry fish jumping into the boat.

To tangle with a tuna there are two strategies that can be employed. Search until a school of tuna busting up is found then cast into the maelstrom or troll conventional gear and once a tuna is hooked start to throw handfuls of cubed pilchard, mackerel couta etc over the side to draw the school into casting range and hold them near the boat. Cubing is not recommended if seals are in the area. Flies should match the hatch, either baitfish or fish cubes.

For both species, flies can be tied on tubes and rigged like game fishing lures. This allows a finer gauge hook to be used which will have better penetration into the hard mouths of these fish. When a take is felt or seen, do not trout strike, anglers should strip strike. Simply point the rod at the fish and keep stripping to set that hook only stop when the fish reacts. Using the boat to change the angle of pressure when fighting a game fish will greatly reduce the fight time. You really want to avoid the straight up and down tug of war as the fish will win almost everytime.

There you have it, I hope I have shown there’s no need to travel to far flung places around the globe to chase challenging species on fly. The grass isn’t always greener outside of Tasmania, spend your holiday dollars in Tassie, buy from local tackle shops and consider hiring a local guide to fast track your fishing success. Looking for targets with the easily recognised Hazards in the background

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