2022 DFR Freshwater Results and full tactics explained

What a difference 6 years makes in fly fishing results - see next image of a FB post from 6 years ago talking about a DFR Freshwater comp results

So in 2016 – We as a team, Peter and I were 10th out of 16 teams - not many team points at all - 2492 points

Me individually - 27th out of 30 anglers – still after 3 prior comps, I could still not barely stay connected to anything – even tarpon!

I just couldn’t imagine how the winners caught sooooo many fish!

But I listened, I observed, I asked, I learnt every comp and outing.

Interestingly, in 2017 we still were not catching much and after a fruitless day we went up that creek near the boat ramp. Here tarpon were everywhere – absolutely teaming with rolling tarpon mostly 10-20cm in length.

I feel it became what was turning point for our freshwater fishing.

We reverted to tiniest nymph type flies and proceeded to catch baby tarpon after baby tarpon

10cm, 15cm 13cm, 10cm etc one after another

We were adding the lengths of caught tarpon together, competing with each other

Quickly both of us got past 1m in total, then later 3 meters of fish each

We ended up catching over 6.5 meters of tarpon each in a short period of time

It was the starting point of a changing on our understanding billabong fly fishing. They don’t take the same as toga but have a session targeting lots of tarpon. It is amazing how much it can help a beginner in NT waters, like I was.

We pre-fished the next few comps more often, fished other billabongs, tested lots more flies and tactics. I still couldn’t work out the barra as targets, but toga and bigger tarpon started to be a more regular thing.

Over the next few comps – we might not have had the numbers every session like the winners – but we managed a few biggest in species for tarpon and toga between us – the hunger and drive, the competitiveness in us drove us on.

We have learned so much in those 6 years!

A big thanks to everyone at club, and a significant few - no longer at club

We are casting better

We make better fly choices

We formulate better tactics based on changing conditions through the day

A lot of people has influenced us, have helped us

It has been a long journey of learning (and still learning! always will!)

Now to this past weekend………..Our comp report from our prospective.

We started the first day very keen – first to launch and straight out in the pre-dawn light to our “Plan A” starting point - worked out during two comp prefish outings. 

The morning ride out was spectacular – 23 degrees, calm as calm, pink and purple hues invading the sky from the east. (who would live and fish in any other place so so spectacular and full of phenominal fishing opportunities close to a capital city????) 

We arrived 10 minutes early of the assigned start time and put the electric on anchor – we check leaders, fly hook points (though I did this the night before – so OCD I am!)

As we wait for 7am and official “lines in”, a couple of other competitor boats zip past us – we listen to their motors and hope they keep going as we planned to fish hard two sides of a 2.5km stretch further down the billabong from our position. It is our “Toga Alley” that we wanted to focus our fly fishing on. And the next 4-5 hours would be spent entirely on the electric, our fly lines frothing the stretch of water where we started with our casting as we repeatedly cast our flies far into the lilies and retrieve our weed guarded flies.

Every pocket searched, every lily pad traverse with a fly and allowed to drop off its edge and sink before a staccato varied retrieve.

Sometimes it was a grassy edge that would have a fly sunk right to bottom along its edge – ever wary of the hoped for subtle saratoga take.

You had to be soooo focused as a perfect looking 'textbook' locations and patches would at times not have fish and a nothing area with a crappy cast would shock you as your line came tight with another fish.

I hooked up first cast of the day to an average sized saratoga, then several tarpon came next, 7 casts later missing a massive toga – it jumped up right out of water and off the hook went - bugger! 

But you keep casting as the very next spot the fly lands could have another.

Peter and I used different style flies – his a rabbit zonker tailed, bead chained eyed,  flash ice chenille headed thing. While I used beadhead or bead chained bugger style flies. My colours more olive and subtle. And Peter’s black tail, with a pink, purple or orange  body/head.

Our flies were tied on Gamakatsu B10s hooks 2, 1 and 1/0. All with longish V weed guards of 60lb mono.

We found heavy flies (which have been the go in past) not as effective as bead chain weighted slower sinking flies this comp

We both used fast sink lines on 8weights – 99% of the time – I did start with a floating line and a V gurgler fly but more energy to cast, and as much as surface strikes of toga are absolutely amazing - with 10hours of constantly casting for the day - stuck to sinking flies. Leaders were very simple - a meter of 40lb attached to fly line, then a meter of 20lb between 40lb line and the fly.

At the end of every retrieve - we would roll cast the last of line in water and once it rolled out onto the water - with one water haul to backcast and then forward to get the fly back to the next likely fish holding spot along the weed bank – ready to retrieve again. 

This type of casting and retrieving, then quickly and constantly getting the fly immediately right back into the back of the lilies where you want it - is sooooo important - and it takes lots and lots of practice to get good at it.

As the result of such casting is maximum time for your fly in the toga strike zone throughout the day – in turn more opportunities to hook more fish and put more fish in the net.

This casting technique came into great advantage several times. Particularly when a toga would snap at a fly as it popped over a lily – missing it. With such an iconic swirl showing on water surface and being not pricked by the hook – one of us would cast immediately into the swirling water aftermath – you needed to be accurate and do it fast. With the fly landing in the spot immediately, a hookup was almost always happening – then to get the toga out of the lilies is another story! As too stay tight without hook being spat out!

I tied my flies on to the leader with a uni knot, some called a grinner knot rather than a loop knot as less time to tie. I also use the same knot to join my leader parts, as I can tie the knot without looking at it while I scan for the next place cast to. 

I also lost a lot of flies casting well into the weed banks but it is where the bigger toga are – so you have to expect fly losses. Snap the snagged fly off instead of dragging boat in or weeds out - instead save fishing time and tie on a new fly as fast as you can - fish, fish ,fish - instead of messing about retrieving a 50 cent fly of which you can tie 20 more of for next outing. It is fish in the net you want during comps, not flies in your fly box at the end of the day.

Above is an image of the main fly type I used on Day1, it is ugly as but works. I started with a black/deep purple version and moved towards this colouration as sun got higher in sky. I lost all 15 of these I had made for comp during Day1, and a few other styled flies too.

The following image is of a similar fly but it is without the fluoro orange tungsten bead head I normally use – this one with simple bead chain. (90% of Sunday’s Day2 fish were caught on this type of fly). you can use rabbit strip or marabou for tail.

  

We fished hard all day - rarely sitting down. Drinks and food quickly taken between casts, chewing food while waiting for fly to sink - but pay attention – I missed several fish while holding the rod one handed and taking a drink while waiting for fly to sink, missing several of those subtle takes of a Toga on the sinking fly.

We knew we had to be constantly casting, repeatedly casting – to get the numbers needed to get the points needed to finish in top three teams and as individuals – our goal for first day results. Individually we both needed to 'line out' (20 fish) on tarpon and toga  - that last one we knew would be hard given pre-fish results - it was only a slight change in fly type to bead chain eyed flies instead of lead dumbbell eyes, I feel changed our hook up rates from those two prefish outings.

By mid arvo, we knew both of us would be exhausted, hands sore, muscles aching – but we kept casting to the next spot and then the next likey spot, pushing ourselves.

We fished our prime weed bank areas hard - and by 9am we had 8 and 9 toga each, and full lines of mostly 30cm plus tarpon - the area was alive with fish. While the toga were mostly 39-41cm there were lots, we also missed, dropped, failed to get to the net several larger versions. Our favourite 50m stretch of bank got Peter his 55cm and 61cm togas in four casts. The tarpon, while needed too, were annoyingly taking time to unhook, measure and record on scoresheets - during a time frame when toga were actively about and taking our flies readily, more so because the toga were worth double points for the comp.

The next 5 or so hours we only used the electric and worked our way back in the  direction of boat ramp - fly fishing every inch of the bank as we move along. 

Grassed edges and points, we fly fish just the edge and sink the flies deep. When lilies line the edge, we cast right to the back and wiggle slowly our flies over and round the mulitple lily pads, then once to the weed edge drop and sink the flies. While every jumped off fish is so frustrating, every hit and take, is a joy - and brings on an adrenalin rush that keeps us casting!

The advantage of our flies we used is that the Toga love them, and just as important - once out of the Toga strike zone, a quicker retrieve gets us the tarpon on the same flies.

(BC told me that important tip way back on a comp Prefish). 

But watch your leaders, tarpon rub their teeth on the leader wearing it a bit each time, and you can lose a good toga (and tarpon) on weakened leaders right near the fly. So, regularly check you leaders after tarpon captures with a quick rub of fingers down tip of leader.

We both dropped a few big toga – uuggghhh! But each of us manage to net plenty of 39-41cm toga on Day1 of comp. Although I had several toga on the score card before Peter got his first for the day – he caught bigger ones and in the end more often. Throughout the day, I would catch a couple but Peter always one or two toga ahead of me. I ended up with 17 saratoga, Peter got 18 saratoga – both of us also with full lines of tarpon with multiple upgrades to larger fish we found later in the day – best tarpon 39cm (me!).

 

So, a great day fishing – one our best during any comp - where both of us fished and caught well. I caught my first sleepy cod, both of us got a catfish – Peters the biggest! Hahaha! He can have that honour. But he also got the biggest togas for the day in our boat with a 55cm and a 61cm. When he caught that big one, you could have heard his yahoos and yeehaaahs back on boat ramp, maybe even at the Corroboree Tavern where the comp was being held at, he was that loud.

He was hoping for this big toga, so that if other boats found the barra (that we couldn’t ) and they would easily beat us for points like last year - he might get at the very least get the biggest toga for comp – we have both shared that prize alternatively several times the last few comps. But given our results for the day of 35 saratoga between us, we were thinking we should be at least in the top three teams of the day. We kept fishing til the latest possible moment left in the fishing time slot of the comp before heading back to the ramp. 

One more fish! One more fish the constant motivation for effort when already absolutely exhausted - such a long day of constant casting in hot humid conditions.

We made it to ramp and submitted our scoresheets with 25 seconds to spare!

Now to load boat onto trailer, back to Tavern accomodation for a shower, and an anxious rest before we could find out where we were on the score board later in the evening.

Saturday night is the fancy meal before the results of Day1 are presented. In the chat before the meal between competitors, we heard of a big toga of 66cm being caught in another boat -so no biggest toga for day (let alone the comp) for us.

The meal was awesome – but I was so distracted and impatient for the days results.

Surprisingly, I won biggest tarpon for the day at 39cm – not many big tarpon caught it seems - we had found a patch of 50cm tarpon during a prefish but didn't find them again during the comp. Peter also won the biggest catfish for the day – got given a lovely gold crown to be crowned “Day1 Catfish King!”

Interestingly, with all those anglers - only 8 barra caught on Day1 by competitors – this knowledge indicated to us that we now were well in the running for at least the top 4 teams given the numbers of toga and tarpon we had caught.

Then finally (well for us) the important slide popped up on the night’s presentation – team standings as of Day1 – it showed us as a team that we were in 1^st place and approximately 600 points in front of 2^nd place. Significantly next few slides showed individual standings, showing Peter was 1^st individually, and I was in second place – awesome!

We were fairly chuffed at our results and placings Day1 – but fully aware of some very good fly fishers pushing us to work just as hard on Day2. I was straight to bed after the presentation – exhausted, and had to sleep lots to ensure ready for next day

Day 2 details.

So, it ended up not much sleep as I wanted, as I woke up at 2am and could not stop going over plans and figures needed for Day2 in my head. Minimums, percentages, totals, leads over others and more calculations. 

We were up at 5:15am, again first to launch, and straight out to same “Toga Alley”. This time 15 minutes early and got busy checking gear before first cast at 7am.

Morning Day2 - first to hand were four 33cm tarpon before the first toga. The sounder screen was absolutely full of tarpon from top to the bottom of the screen in the 7metres of water we were fishing off the weed edge. 

To be safe at top of scoreboard – I calculated 12 toga and a line of tarpon for each of us - were the minimum for the shortened Day2 to have some chance of remaining top of the standings.

 Like Day1 of comp, we had similar toga numbers, this time 7-8 toga each by 9am and almost full lines of tarpon.

Again, like Day1, we worked the banks lily by lily, moving along slowly.

I once was casting across some lilies and a small arm length croc chased my fly across the lilies. I had several casts to it, it continued to chase the fly racing across and around the lilies. It grabbed the fly once but didn’t stay hooked up. Still, it chased another cast fly. Eventually I snagged a lily pad and it got scared off. Would have been an interesting fly removal!

One more important thing on casting styles - let me explain our boat set up for casting. Peter is up on front deck, also operating the electric. I am down back of boat with a cleared space in back corner of deck. If the bankside we are targeting is on the starboard side of boat - being both right-handed, we can both cast forehand style - so real easy. Me over back of boat, elevated Peter on front raised deck - over my head. 

We have to time our casts - we communicate heaps on this "down right side", 'In now", "over the top", "you first" etc. you can pause your retrieve if needed to keep fly in water (where it catches fish!) til other has recast. After fishing together now for 9 years we are a well oiled machine when both of us are casting constantly - we hardly ever tangle up - we do - yes, it does happen with a lot of line in the air but not much these days.

However, when we fish the portside of boat different casting is required. For while Peter can still cast forehand due to being up higher and casting over the bow of boat. I cant cast forehand in this situation due to Peter and console being in the casting line. So I cast backhand over my left shoulder to maximise my options.

This back hand casting is hard and if you dont do much of it, it needs to be practiced for intense fishing times like comps. And I practiced a lot. I do so regularly on the mowed area of my rural block. Especially when it is windy. I can now cast almost as well backhand as forehand. When I am tired it is a craps game, laying out a straight line, it becomes a terrible J whip on the end when landing. It is manageable if I focus to ensure my wrist is positioned right, at the end of the last movement of my casting action. 

A couple of good toga I got during comp were when a long backhand cast was needed. To be truthful there are other times I cant land a fly any where near where I want it to be. I mainly want to emphasis the need to cast over both shoulders, in wind, in tight situations - accurately! It is not like casting in to a saltwater melee of tuna or queenfish. More like flats fly fishing where accurate long casts need to be made.

On Day2 wind direction and heading the boat into it, regularly required a lot of back hand casting on my part for hours and more. As a strong wind came along around 10am which effected our plan of slowly moving along every weed bed and lly pad. Instead, due to the strong crosswind ruining drifts and impeding casting - we had to power up to next short calm area behind trees, fish 50-100meters and then power up to next spot. Our tactics changed to suit the conditions to more sinking flies very deep along the edges before retrieving. Boring fishing but each calm area would get us most times a toga, at the very least an upgrade for tarpon or two.  

On one such calm corner – we started fishing this method near a fishing guide and his clients. Peter proceeded to land in 6 casts a good tarpon and 3x toga. I got a toga too and three or so upgrades for my tarpon line. The guide impressed by our catch rate popped over to chat to us about our methods and flies etc.

Then we powered up again to the next calm spot, repeating this till 12:30pm before heading to ramp to hand in score cards.

With 12 toga each and a good full line of tarpon we were confident but still anxious about our results for Day2 and particularly the overall results.

Which of the gun fly anglers behind us slightly in comp standings– had had a better day?

Did any find a heap of barra for lots of comp points? 

Drove us nuts thinking about it!

Back at room, I packed everything from room into my ute and was ready for arvo presentation of awards with half hour to spare. Tried to rest but just couldn’t – anticipation and unknowns were just too high.

The presentation went through the Day2 best of species. Then they start at the bottom of the individual standings and worked their way up. By the time we got to the last four competitors it was Peter, myself, and two other very good anglers whom have placed repeatedly the last few years. Both have been yearly club champions too.

I had heard one of them, Shane, had caught five more toga than me today, those five fish worth right about the same amount of points he was behind me from Day1. Hmmmmmm, very interesting. Pressure building, heart pumping – aaarrrgghh!

Fourth place went to one of the other two, leaving Peter, me and Shane.

It seems like an eternity till third place was announced – well done Shane!

Euphoria unmeasured!

So, Peter and I – 1st and 2nd individually and with those scores meaning - first placed team was secured as well 

Awesome!

Both of us were ecstatic! Hard work, lots of hours rewarded. Lots of poor fishing results – quickly forgotten. What a privilege to fish with so many good anglers and get a result we planned, practiced, and strived for.

My results of 2022 Darwin Flyrodders Freshwater comp based at Corroboree Billabong - Runner up Champion angler  though only just as Shane who had a great second day who almost got me - one more fish for him or one less for me - it was close! 

Fishing partner Peter Cooke, well deservedly got Champion angler (beat me by 200 point or there abouts) – the two large sleepy cod and a massive catfish and a few smaller ones he got last session in comp, assisted in him staying ahead of me – as we both had 12 toga for the half day Day2 and a full line of 30-33cm tarpon each.

This is one of the best comps I have fished in as comps go (the DFR salt comp is, I believe, the best fly comp there is!)– and that’s not because of the results this year. Except for a barra location on the billabong – most will tell you what they are trying, using and even suggest areas to focus your fishing. The banter, laughter and culture of the club is awesome. Yes, always a few loud ones, some quiet ones, some WTF ones ( buts that's the same in every club regardless of type of club) but over all a great group of fly fishers.

So, congrats to all the fly fishers participating 

  it was an awesome 2022 DFR FW fly competition

Thanks to DFR FW comp committee and leadership team, and the countless and greatly appreciated sponsors (especially in current post covid economic mess we are in!).

Wonder how 2023 DFR FW comp will go? Or 6 years from now?

Peter and I might have to split up one year and fish with interstate anglers who want to come for a vist and catch some Toga! Then fish together the next year and so on - maybe, maybe not, we shall see. Also my daughters (12 and 9 years old) will be soon old enough to fish hard all day with me. Maybe my builder son in Newcastle can come up to fly fish with his old man, and see if he can keep up with me in the hot humid conditions! 

So many options, such good fly fishing to be had!

Who would live anywhere else - Top End, NT what a great place to fly fish!