Things are looking up for Bynoe weekend

Well a bit of not so good news first.....
The boat is out for weekend, motor is too unreliable and given the lack of boat traffic to rescue me if the motor won't start. When I do get it back I will have to do a few local trips close to a boat ramp till I get confident with motor again.

But now we have the good news.....
This Sunday, with help from a friend of a friend - I managed a deckie position with one of the best SWOFFERs in Darwin - Lord Jim.


I have fished with Jim for a couple of Bynoe Grand Slam tournaments. He likes to get on water very, very early and really knows Bynoe and other spots around Darwin very, very well. He spends a lot of time on the water and he is regular contributor to the NT Fly Fisher Social Mob Blog. Great guy and I learn heaps when fishing with him.

But now I also have a different problem.....
You know when its your own boat you can take heaps of gear and all the fly boxes your storage hatch can take - just in case you might need it ! Well, for me when you are a deckie all that changes. When a deckie, I like to give the captain as little fuss about me on their boat as possible - one bag of gear, one bag of food/drink etc and rods - but not too many rods.

So the question is not just what fly to take. Let me set the scene for you........
For fly fishing gear I usually take everything including the proverbial 'kitchen sink' - six or seven boat boxes and far too many flies stacked in to them. All inside a cooler bag I won a long time ago in a competition. Along with spare reels, lines, loop connectors, line cleaner, spares of everything, and all the rest of the stuff you can accumulate over the years. Every pocket of this bag is bursting with stuff - and now to trim it down to the essentials is hard. Especially given the varying locations and species we could fish for at Bynoe on weekend.

Yeh, I have already mentioned my go to flies to be tied to what line and rod setup ina previous blog. But now as a deckie on someone else's boat, I will probably only take 3 rods not four - now I will be taking the 7 weight and the two 8 weights but leaving the 10w behind and the bigger flies behind. the 10w is just in case a big fish comes along and I have caught large fish on my 8 weights before, just takes a little longer and not as much control.

The regular things will still be needed - spare sunglasses, bug spray, suncream, spare hat, buff, and finger guards. Tool like - line clippers, pliers, hemostat, SLR camera, action cam, small towel. Good leader material - such as a spool of 20lb and a spool 40lb fluorocarbon leader material. My leaders are real plain and simple (plus quick to tie!) - I just use a meter and a bit of each line class for my leader. No shock tippet. Using a loop knot at flyline end using a surgeon knot. The 20lb joins to the 40lb with a double grinner or uni knot. Using a lefty's loop knot for final connection of 20lb to the fly.

A friend just gave me a new fancy two side boat fly box, my old ones are all wooden ones with brass hinges and clasp that I get my woodwork students to make in Yr8 technology elective I teach. So I will take this new box and in it I will have a selection of 'go to' flies. Surface flies and barra flies one side, subsurface flies on the other side.

The two smaller versions of this see-thru box he also gave me will hold some extra flies for those special occasions - like crab patterns, scampi and squimp flies etc - in case the flats fishing develops the need to finesse the fish with more lifelike imitative patterns.

So while not taking my own boat, at least I will have a fly or two in the water this weekend - which always helps in catching fish !!!!

But another problem arises - I am such a pessimist ;(
    ----- I will also have no excuse not to catch fish except my own ineptness!!
         ------ we shall see......

Bynoe SWOFFING trip report and pictures to follow in next blog - will post Sunday or Monday