THINGS THAT SNAP THINGS THAT D O N’T

40% stronger than the competition.

You don’t have to take it from us. We had a 3rd party lab independently test and prove that our wet knot strength is 29% stronger than our previous material, and 40% stronger than the premium competition. scientificanglers.com For nearest stockist visit www.mayflytackle.com.au and click on the logo. mastered the understanding of that, you’ll know there are times when you will need to do it another way to get the same result. Maybe the currents are unusual in that particular pocket or section of the river and it requires what would be considered the wrong cast to get the flies doing the right thing. Makes sense right? These things unfortunately can not be taught, they must be experienced to truly understand when and why you should be doing them.

Fishing for everything

The more fishing I do, the more I realise it doesn’t matter what part of the world you are fishing, things are always relative. Coming to this understanding though, requires you to have experienced a range of different fishing scenarios. As dedicated fly anglers, we can sometimes turn our nose up at all other forms of angling that will teach us far more than you could ever realise. Take fishing for garfish with bait for example.

Now I know of many fly anglers that wouldn’t give away a day on the river or lake to go and catch garfish on bait, but the amount that can be learned is massive. Fishing nymph under dry or plonking is the same thing as fishing for garfish. You have a pencil float (the dry fly) and then two baits suspended underneath (the nymphs). The angler must have good contact with the float to detect the bite, watch for any takes and make adjustments depending on the wind and currents (tide). You may need to fish a shorter or longer leader depending on where the fish are holding. Sometimes the fish are cagey and require a longer cast, sometimes they are happy to eat and can be caught closer to you which in turn are always easier to land. I would say that it is far easier to catch a garfish on bait than what it is to catch a trout in a stream nymph under dry. So being able to see this all play out, fight the fish and send the rig back out again to repeat the process will ensure you understand the mechanics of why what is happening is happening. With the use of berley, you can get a whole school of garfish just waiting to grab the bait, so here we learn about the pace of fishing. Playing the fish quickly, without ripping the hook out, unhooking the fish, then casting back out again, getting in contact quickly and then watching for another take.

In Tasmania, we are blessed with outstanding bream fisheries in most parts of the state. Now fishing for anything with soft plastics is considered sacrilege for a dedicated fly angler but it turns out, you guessed it, there’s a heap to learn that will make you a more competent fly angler. I’ll say it loud and proud, I absolutely love fishing for bream with soft plastics! Bream are very fussy and will refuse anything that’s not presented naturally when it comes to soft plastics. It needs to be as light as possible and fished with almost a slackline to get the lure sinking the way they like it. Most bites from bream will come ‘on the drop’ so contact is key. You’ll feel bites through the braid, by seeing the line move or maybe seeing the fish change direction. All these things are the same when fishing euro style fly fishing techniques on a river.

Be open to doing different things as you will be amazed at how much there is to be gained. There is no need to spend thousands of dollars to do so either. A single light spin rod will cover many different fishing scenarios here in Tassie and will only cost a few hundred dollars for a very good one.

It’s not the fly

The more I fish for other species and then come back to competition fly fishing, the better results I have. I’ve had several times when I haven’t picked up a fly rod for 10-12 months and then win a round of the state championships. Looking a little closer into this, I have found that one of the biggest things I can pick up from it, is that my fly selection is very basic. This is something that I have kept in my head now, even when I fly fish flat out for an entire summer.

You don’t need to have 20 different fly patterns or that one special nymph that someone else is using. You need to present the fly in such a way that the fish are going to eat it. That said, you want to be using something the fish will eat but that’s not a complicated affair. Take the pheasant tail nymph for example. A great mayfly pattern, which is the preferred food item for most of the year for a trout. Have these in the weights and sizes you need for the area you are fishing and that’s it! Fish them well and the fish will come.

The time spent fly tying countless different flies or variations should be time spent on the river or lake experiencing what is happening on the water. I’ve always found it funny that you can give someone one of your flies, that is the same fly as one of theirs, but they will fish it with far more confidence and get better results. Why is this?

It’s a few things really, the fly stays in the water longer because it’s not being changed and therefore percentage-wise has a far greater chance of being successful. Another big one is the fly is fished with confidence, so rather than thinking about what flies someone else is using, the concentration of the angler is put into making the casts right and the retrieves successful. European anglers are such a great example of the fact that the fly is just a small part of the entire system and will be quite happy to substitute material for whatever is available at the time. As long as it looks kinda similar and sinks or floats a similar way, they’ll fish it well and catch fish on it more regularly than we could dream of, even if we were using the original ‘killer’ pattern.

Confidence is key

Confidence is key when it comes to successful angling and this comes from experiencing enough to know when things are happening and why you should be doing something, or making a change to something else. These things can only be loosely taught. Take for example when you should be making the change from fishing streamers in a lake to nymphs or dries