2 years since last post - time to pick up my game and do more SWOFFING in the NT

wow! 2 years since last post - time to pick up my game and do more SWOFFING in the NT

and Write about it!!!!

Soooo soooo looking forward to this year 2022 and the fly fishing planned

Especially with COVID not having the impact and shutdowns that it has for the last two years

As such, Peter and I haven’t fished much in last couple of years – at least not like a few years ago where we were fishing constantly

Maybe getting softer, but also, we have caught plenty of fish, so don’t head out as much unless conditions are perfect - that attitude has to change - must fish, often! even in crap conditions

Luckily, we have the 2022 Darwin Fly Rodders club’s Freshwater comp in a few weeks. So, prep for that is paramount in our minds. I have been tying flies madly for it

But we also need time on water to fine tune tactics and practice strip strikes for those at times subtle Saratoga takes.

Peter just getting back from a trip back home to Canada to check in on family this coming weekend, but we are planning a freshwater session only a week after he gets back.

With the road into coroboree still flooded from wet season rains, It will be Manton Dam which has a bitumen road all the way to boat ramp – it has all the same species but without the water flow that happens through the billabongs. The DFR club has a club outing there, so will be good to catch up with the guys and gals of the club. there are alway the water skiers in the dam but they are restrcted to certain areas giving us a quiet corner to cast to without yahoos zipping by in their loud boats.

I am super keen to get a fly wet after not fishing since mid-December 2021. Boy, do I need to get a new boat after selling my old punt a few years ago (just not reliable to take young daughters out in). Fishing in Peter's boat is great but i dont get out as much as in the past (he is much nicer to his wife than me it seems!)

Reports and video soon on the Manton Dam outing.

After a heap of stress (work and personally) – and not much fishing last year – I really need that to change in 2020

In prep for this year’s freshwater comp on corrobboree. Tactics need to be honed and tested. Last year we got toga and tarpon – in size and numbers but not enough barra. We think we know how to do it based on post 2021 comp analysis and breakdown. We finished third in 2021 and are both keen to improve that – a full line of barra could be the difference between first and third like in 2022.

The majority of the toga I have caught in the last three DFR fresh fly comps on the billabong have been on a #4 gamagatsu B10s dragonfly mudeye style scruffy fly with all olive colourings - weed guarded, sunk right in to the lilies - paying close attention feel that typical subtle take of the toga down deep - awesome fun - sometimes taken high in water column as it starts to sink - sometimes they will follow it from the depths out front of the lily cover right to boat before hitting the fly. have several versons of it.
Peter, who catches as many toga as me, on the front of the boat while I am using my tiny fly from back of same boat - but he uses a vastly different fly he calls a 'jelly bean' fly (longish rabbit fur tail at hook bend, bright coloured cactus flash chenille head/body length of hook shank, bead chain eyes above hook point - #2 - 2/0 – simple (resembling no food source I have seen) fly but highly effective - once out of weeds gets the tarpon too - and a few small barra) - over longish soft 60lb mono weed guards (key could be the long weed guards vibrating as fly is retrieved - maybe / maybe not )

for sport fishing non comp outings - I love to stay on surface all day with foam hooper patterns, gurglers, and an articulated foam frog pattern I have been improving over last few years - this one hard to cast but oh such surface strikes!! the leg action is totally lifelike - is about 7-8cm in length on 1/0 and 2/0B10s hooks (see it on middle right of fly box image at beginning of this blog entry). Also, a go to fly early in the day in the over shadowed edges is the disco shrimp. All flies weed guarded - the surface takes on all these surface flies are everything good about fly fishing the billabongs for prehistoric toga

Seeing a big toga stalk the fly then punch through a lily pad to get at the insect like foam based fly being dragged over a pad - absolutely fantastic!

10 or so years ago you got the occasional 80cm (83cm my PB at billabong from late 2013) – but haven’t heard or seen that size for a while now (though I am not up on all the news of course check with guys from DFR club - lots of clever anglers there)

The winning biggest togas in last few years in the fly comp has been 60-65cm - heaps of 50-60cm (though I haven’t fished late evenings or nights when the larger one might be about like for barra) - my biggest toga for last three comps (in each comp) 62-63cm or there abouts. The start of second day last year's comp – my first cast - a 62cm toga, second cast -  a 58cm toga (I think) and then another 62cm toga fourth cast of the day from the same one corner to a side lagoon area – got several more within a 100m stretch of here – great start to the 2021 comp day2 (we just didn’t get the barra!!!!)

during comps some anglers use 10w so they can get the toga up and out over the weeds when they take at the back of a long cast into lilies - less fish lost to wrapping around the countless lily stalks – the toga are sooooooo good at wrapping themselves on stalks and pads - then getting off the hooks

I mostly use an 8w fly rod in most situations - three rods set up one full fast sink, an intermediate (not used much) and a full floating - used depending on location - but fast sink rod setup used the most in comps – also have a 10w fast sink ready during comps - if I start losing too many to stalk wrapping. I use a shortish simple 1.5m straight 20lb leaders. Nothing fancy.

You can work the edges anywhere on the billabong and you find toga even 100m from boat ramp (as most anglers on the billabong are trollers so not that much pressure on lily hiding toga) – Peter and I like the windward lily sides of prevailing winds of water ways on the billabong– they work better for us with 10-15 toga in a run down along these edges compared to opposite side of same stretch of billabong which you will barely be taking a fish

And this sweet water only 45min from my house - fantastic fly fishing!
I am very lucky to live and fly fish this region of NT
In the opposite direction 40min – Longtail Tuna, heaps of big 90cm queenies, bastards and more in Darwin Harbour.

And too - an hour away SW of my house we have Bynoe Harbour and Dundee – one a massive estuary and all its species plus offshore Dundee has sails, small marlin, macks, and more!

A lot of foreign fly mags and sites are talking up the queenfish in and around Red Sea in the Middle East - we have schools of thousands here in harbour some good sizes too. Yet most top End anglers up here, don’t even chase this awesome sportfish. even better longtil tuna in amongst them at times

when I had my computer career in 80s, 90s I only took the jobs based on the fly fishing - working and fly fishing most capitals in Australia. Even so, I would spend the money to come here a few times each year, to Cox peninsula back then and its fishing camp. now after a few life changes been here 13 years and despite the great kingies and other pelagics in Sydney harbour or the great fly fishing in so many salt and fresh water locations around Brisbane - I really think I am in the perfect place for a SWOFFER. Yes, no speckled feral (trout) but I can manage that trip south or over the ditch every now and then. but plenty other species to catch up here right on door step to keep my fly lines stretched - GTs, Brassie, Threadies, Blue Salmon, Jacks, Macks, Tuna, and more You also have Vernons to the north, a bit further along Melville island, to south you have Peron islands and further along maybe an overnight trip to Cape Ford (last time there 6 casts 5 goldens to 82cm and more species untold - rods bent all day)

When first up living up here, I would take my boat to work and five minutes after work I am on the water for a few hours fishing - awesome times learning the fishing up here (still learning!)

Am very lucky to be living and working here in NT - hoping to retire in next few years so even more fly fishing to be done

Anyone coming up please contact DFR club - plenty to give advice and help you get into some tight lines