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AFTMA fly line ratings

StephenChatterton — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 21:17:10 +0000

Line Rating —- Line weight —- range for line rating

Note: on my table above there is NO AFTMA definition for ought, double ought, nor triple ought lines (depicted by 1/0, 2/0, 3/0 nomenclature).

Oxygen in water … effect on fish

StephenChatterton — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 01:19:12 +0000

The amount of dissolved oxygen in water can have a significant effect on fish activity and well being and consequently from a fishing point of view its useful to understand why and when there may be more or less oxygen in water.

Oxygen is absorbed into water in only two basic ways. Through diffusion and as a result of photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis is a chemical process in plants and phytoplankton that depends on the interaction of proteins called chlorophylis that consume carbon dioxide and sunlight to produce “energy” in the form of carbon and oxygen as a waste product.

Whilst the science is complex it’s worth noting that photosynthesis is vital for all aerobic life on Earth and is responsible for the production of more energy than human civilisation and is responsible for maintaining the availability of oxygen in our atmosphere.

Most of the time the process of photosynthesis runs pretty smoothly with plants and phytoplankton producing oxygen during the daylight hours as a by-product of photosynthesis and consuming some of that oxygen at night and when overcast.

Occasionally however the process gets out of kilter and more oxygen is consumed that in produced resulting on divesting results on fish stocks. The most common occurrence that creates that occurrence is and algae bloom. These generally happen when there are dramatic increases in nutrients in water, for example from farm run off, which cause the phytoplankton to multiply (bloom). Initially there is an increase in the production of oxygen but then as resources are used up the bloom cant be sustained and dies. The dead phytoplankton float to the surface and generally present as blue green or red alga. This floating bloom of course reduces light penetration increasing phytoplankton requirements and bacterial decomposition of the dead phytoplankton also uses oxygen.

The second way that oxygen enters water is through diffusion and that process has many variables including:

The turbulence of the water. This includes turbulence created by wave and wind action and also turbulence of rivers as they move past obstructions creating runs, riffles, water falls etc.
Atmospheric pressure has a substantial influence and at low elevations (higher atmospheric pressure) more oxygen is available to be diffused into water than at high elevations (low atmospheric pressures).
Water temperature also effects diffusion of oxygen into water and as water warms its ability to diffuse and hold oxygen diminishes.
Salinity is also a factor and all other things being equal the ability of water to diffuse and hold oxygen demishing as salinity increases.
Availability of oxygen in the atmosphere and that of course ultimately depends on photosynthesis.

Fish apparently need least 5 ppm (5 mg/l) of dissolved oxygen in water to survive and below 5 ppm will ultimately lead to fish kills. Trout and other fish species of course operate better with higher levels of dissolved oxygen and around 8 ppm seems to be around their optimum.

Depletion of dissolved oxygen can and does have a dramatic effect on the well being and of course survival of fish and should have a bearing in the selection of water that you fish.

Some useful tips:

On hot days favour oxygen rich water such as turbulent areas resulting from broken water on rivers and lakes.
Avoid areas where algae blooms are obvious.
Areas with weed will generally be more oxygen rich than barren areas and consequently will carry a more complex population of things that trout eat and consequently trout.
On hot days avoid large areas of shallow water even when there are terrestrials on the water in favour of similar water that is adjacent to deeper (cooler and more oxygenated water) close to drop off’s.

Summer 2012 fishing report from the Snowy Mountains of NSW

StephenChatterton — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 06:39:28 +0000

Well its been one of those seasons where it looked like it was going to be a better than average summer. In the local lakes Rainbows and Browns started off feeding fairly freely both around the edges and of course in the shallow bays with plenty of drowned vegetation producing plenty of midge and great fishing. In one December week I had 3 days where I boated 42, 51 and 36 rainbows all over 40cm. The rivers started strong also and plenty of both Rainbows and Browns took up residence in the normal hot spots.

Then the weather changed and so did the fishing. What happened to summer … I have had summer days where I have had the fire on at home and of course predicting what weather you might face a week into the future has been difficult at best.

More recently its been very hard to find fish in both the rivers and the lakes consistently and I put that down to changing weather conditions and water levels.

Always the optimist I am hoping that there will be a late rush of summer and settled conditions that bring on better times.

Protected: Riley nymph

StephenChatterton — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 19:20:55 +0000

Secret

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:34:02 +0000

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Brogo Reservoir

StephenChatterton — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:06:36 +0000

Opened in 1976 Brogo Dam was created by damming the Brogo River with concrete faced compacted rock dam wall. It has an uncontrolled unlined rock spill way which unfortunately allows fish to escape down the brogo river when the lake overflows but does not allow bass to return to the dam from the river. When full Brogo Reservoir, covers an area of around 95 hectares. The dam was constructed to meet local town water supply, irrigation and stock and domestic requirements.

The Brogo Reservoir is fed by the Brogo River and Nelson Creek.

The closes major town is Bega but it is also close to the small rural villages of Cobargo, Bemboka and Tarraganda.

It is open to boating activities, including power boats, however there is an 8 knot speed limit.

How to get there

For detailed maps search Bega on Google Earth.

View Larger Map

Facilities

Toilets, wood BBQs, picnic shelter & rubbish bins are provided and most importantly a concrete boat ramp is provided.. No camping is permitted at Brogo Dam and the access gates are closed around 6pm and then do not re-open until around 6am each morning.

Open season

There is no closed season on Brogo Reservoir.

Target species

Australian Bass.

Food chain

The ecology of the reservoir is diverse and populated by galaxia, yabbies, nymphs, and shrimp and terrestrials such as beetles, hoppers and other insects form a large part of particularly the bass diet. When water levels are static or rising in summer tadpoles and frogs are also key elements on the bass’ menu.

Fly fishing techniques

Dry fly is the most popular fly technique. Two approaches are popular either casting into the bank or casting along the bank. In either case it’s best to let the fly sit when it lands and wait as long as possible whilst fish that heard or saw the fly land make up their mind if its edible. If there is no response a twitch of the fly may produce results. Fish also hit flies retrieved at various speeds but in my view static fishing is by far the best option. Wet fly fishing for bass in Lake Yarrunga is not as popular as dry fly but it definitely works. I like to cast the fly parallel to the shore on a sinking line and then twitch it back once it has reached the desired depth.

Fly suggestions

These are the flies I carry when I fish Brogo Reservopir.

Slovenia

StephenChatterton — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:59:59 +0000

Slovenia is host to the 2012 World fly Fishing Championships.

The Australian Team selected by Fly Fish Australia Inc to fish this years World Fly Fishing Championships is as follows:

Vern Barby
Rick Sunderland
Brian Hughes
Lubin Pfiffer
John Fisher
Stephen Chatterton

The first 5 team members will all fish on the first day.

I’ll will replace the lowest scoring team member from the first day on the second day.

The team fishing for the third day will be determined by the team captain based on performance during the training days, performance on the first two days, condition of the team members etc.

Venues:

Sava Bohinjka

Sector I: Sava Bohinjka, the upper part – in the fishing family Bohinj district

Sector II: Sava Bohinjka, the middle part – in the Fisheries Research Institute of Slovenia district

Sector III: Sava – in the fishing family Tržic district

The Sava Bohinjka is regarded by many as one of the best rivers in Europe and is an alpine river that is regulated and generally has very constant and flows along its full length until it flows into Lake Bohinj.

Target species:
In the upper reaches brown trout dominate.
Grayling are evenly distributed through the river but the larger fish are in the lower reaches.
Rainbow trout evenly distributed through the river.
Huchen.
Danubian salmon (Hucho hucho) increasing numbers in deeper sections of the river.

Sector IV: Kokra – in the fishing family Kranj district

The Kokra is one of the most beautiful alpine rivers in Slovenija, especially in its upper part when it runs through the Jezersko area. Most of the stream is a superb fly-fishing district. There you can find deep pools, rapids, clear and bright waters. The whole district is managed by the Fishing club of Kranj.

Target species:
In the upper reaches brown trout dominate.
Grayling and rainbows are mainly in the lower parts of the river.

Rivers generally:

In the height of summer the fish are exceedingly shy suggesting that clear or olive floating lines and longer and light leaders will be the order of the day. The maximum leader length under the competition rules is 18 feet.

As the water is warming trout and grayling are best sought in the currents and fast water stretches.

Only allowed one rod and one fly.

Large hatches of insects occur in June and both the Trout and Grayling become very active.

Naturals include:

Suggested flies:
Soft landing CDC winged flies seem to be very popular in Slovenia with the following being on my fly tying list.

F fly in brown and charcoal
CDC march brown

Klinkhammers also get plenty of wraps in the Slovenian press so I will also tie browns, olives and some Oppo.

A lot is written about caddis dry flies and again CDC wings seem popular.

Also tying nymphs in #14 and #16′s in shades of brown and charcoal:

photo

Lake sector:

Sector V: Lake Most na Soci – in the fishing family Tolmin district

Only allowed one rod and one fly.

Appears to be a deep lake that was created by damming and flooding the basin of the river to service the nearby Doblar hydro plant. It presents as as the intersection of two flooded rivers and appears to only be 250 wide at its widest point but the north and south legs of the main river seems more substantial than the intersecting river which runs off toward the east. The water appears to be deep and in all of the photos I have found it is windless and as flat as a mill pond.

Naturals:
As above with a greater tenancy toward wet flies imitating the pupa.

There is also:
Yabbies
Damsels

Gladstone

StephenChatterton — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:52:55 +0000

There are many rivers and creeks surrounding Gladstone, as well as a couple of close by dams, many of which offer great fishing.

Gladstone is a major Queensland city located approximately 550 kilometres by road north of Brisbane and 100 kilometres south-east of Rockhampton. Situated between the Calliope and Boyne Rivers and covering an area of some 128 square kilometres Gladstone is home to Queensland’s largest multi-commodity port and is serviced by an extensive rail service and has its own airport servicing flights to and from Brisbane and a number of smaller Queensland destinations.

The city’s population was around 28,000 in 2006 but grew to around 40,000 by the end of 2010 and is expected to grow by up to a further 20,000 in the next few years as gas and resource projects that have already been approved and funded come on line.

In response to the rapidly growing population a lot of new land has been opened up mainly south of the city of Gladstone and places like Calliope, Borne Island (The largest one of 14 local islands but and the only one connected by road bridges) and Tannum Sands and they have developed into major population hubs.

Unfortunately service infrastructure has not kept up with the population growth and whist some of the larger retailers including, Coles, Woolworths and Bunnings, have now established in and around Gladstone there is still a lot of catching up needed.

There is also big demand for accommodation in the region and seeking accommodation on speck is problematic at best so make sure you lock your accommodation in before turning up there.

Fishing Open season

Most of the rivers and lakes are open all year except for the Barramundi closed season. The Barramundi closed season does not however apply to Lake Awoonga.

Services & facilities available

There area couple of fishing shops in Gladstone but perhaps the best fishing shops are just outside Miriam Vale on the road to Agnes Waters. All the shops are bait and lure oriented so if you want any fly fishing gear take it with you or buy on-line.

Target species

The main estuary and freshwater species that are targeted are barramundi, bass and mangrove jacks, saratoga, silver perch, sleepy cod, sooty grunter, and yellowbelly. Other species found in the estuaries and local lakes include Agassiz’s glass perch, banded grunter, bony bream, eastern rainbow fish, eel tail catfish, speckled hardyhead, fork tail catfish, gudgeon, long-finned eel, longtom, mouth almighty, sea mullet, snub-nose garfish, spangled perch and finally small numbers of Hyrtl’s tandan.

Along the beaches, headlands and coves a wide range of reef and estuary species can be targeted including coral trout, fingermark, flathead,bream and whiting. A little wider as well as being some fantastic reef fishing on fly a wide range of pelagics including, trevally, tuna, spaniards, cobia, queenfish are popular targets.

Stocking

The Gladstone Area Water Board has a fish breeding program in place and breeds Barramundi and Mangrove Jack for stocking into Lake Awoonga as well as some of the surrounding waterways.

Approximately 200,000 fish are released into Lake Awoonga each year (200,000 Barramundi and small numbers of Mangrove Jack). Since 1996, over 2.5 million barramundi fingerlings and 470,000 mullet fingerlings have been released into Lake Awoonga and many of those finish up in the Borne River. There is also intermittent stocking of other local fisheries.

The fish are bred at a purpose-built fish hatchery in Gladstone, operated jointly by the Gladstone Area Water Board and the Gladstone Ports Corporation.

The Board has a continuing fishery monitoring program in place using net surveys, to evaluate the success of the restocking effort.

Food chain

In the fresh small fish of various species are obvious element of the food chain from a fishing point of view but that chain is of course well supported by a well balanced phytoplankton and populations of nymphs, shrimp and red claw crayfish. Drowned terrestrials including, beetles, hoppers and cicada are significant to the fresh water nd estuary food chain.

In the salt there is also a diverse food chain with shrimp, prawns, crabs, squid and small fish of so many types being the most important from a fly fishing perspective.

Techniques

If your targeting Barramundi I suggest you use a shooting head or a fast sinking line. For all my tropical fishing, and I would include Awoonga in that, I like to add a ‘loop nail knot‘ to the end of my fly line and then run a level 6-8 foot leader of 20lb to 30lb of Maxima Ultragreen, Schneider Clear-line or fluorocarbon off that with a single fly at the business end.

Choice of rods is important. If you use your trout gear and hook up to a Barramundi or even a healthy mangrove jack your gear with in most probability ‘explode’. I suggest rods in the #9 or #10 weight range are best suited to tropical fly fishing.

Reels and backing are important also and large arbour reels with an efficient drag system and a full complement of backing are certainly the go.

Count your line down to various depths and experiment with a range of retrieves from dead slow right through stop and start and twitchy and even roly poly.

If your fishing specifically for bream, whiting, flathead or other less aggressive estuary species or you want some serious sport on bass or mangrove jack an #8 weight rod is a good choice but I still suggest that the tippet shouldn’t drop below 20lb fluorocarbon.

For Bass in particular it’s also worth having alternative lines on hand so that you can fish shallower and even floating flies like cicada and hopper imitations.

If you want to work through a couple of different fly lines you will find that the loop nail knot will make it easy to change lines in a minute or two so that your fishing down time is minimised.

Fly suggestions

Fly choice will certainly depend on species targeted. Bass and Mangrove Jack, pretty well universally, respond well to the types of flies in my Bass and Native Species fly box and Estuary fly box and of course Barramundi are suckers for many of the flies in my Tropical fly box.

Hot spots

Lake Awoonga is considered by many as the ‘jewel in the crown’ of local fishing locations and the main species that are targeted are barramundi, bass and mangrove jacks, saratoga, silver perch, sleepy cod, sooty grunter, and yellowbelly.

There is also plenty of fishing away from Awoonga:

Mangrove Jack or fingermark:

Boyne River

Calliope River

Scrubby Creek and Sandy Creek on the road into Turkey Beach

Wild Cattle Creek – past the boat ramp on Millennium Esplanade Tannum Sands.

Boat Creek which is accessible off Mt Larcom—Gladstone Road, north of Gladstone.

Monte Christo Creek which runs into The Narrows between Curtis Island just north of Gladstone and the mainland.

Fingermark and barramundi:

The narrows between Curtis Island just north of Gladstone and the mainland, specifically Rock and Gravel hole right at Ramsays crossing.

Other locations I have been told about but have not yet located include Port Deception Creek, and Port Alma,Berke Creek and Mosquito Creek

Estuary species:

Fish the incoming tide over flats facing the Shoal Bay shore

Pelagics and reef species:

Manning’s reef near Catcombe Heads

Ant – Chatto’s original Palmered ant

StephenChatterton — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:32:11 +0000

If it’s a hot day, a warm balmy night, if water is rising over previously dry ground or almost any time for that matter you can get huge hatches of ants. They vary in colour but the dominant hatches are of black meat ants and banded sugar ants.

The ants that I have come across in my fly fishing exploits have all had the same general shape. They have three distinct segments. The bulbous abdomen, a thinner thorax where the legs and wings if they have them are located and a head that is also bulbous but generally smaller than the abdomen.

The recipe below can be used for all three and of course there is a winged version. Both the winged and non-winged versions are quite a lot different to traditional ant recipes in that they includes a full palmered hackle over the middle thorax area to represent the legs. The full hackle also of course serves the additional purpose of helping the fly to float which is something that is a perennial problem with traditional ties.

When the fish are feeding on ants they just sup the insects down one by one often at the exclusion of all other food sources.

The best technique for ant feeders is to grease your leader except for the last 60 cm or so and to cover individual fish or place your fly amongst the naturals in the path of feeding fish.

Materials

The ants and termites that I have come across have three recurring colour combinations. The colours vary but the main three types of ants and termites that I see in the trout’s food chain as black meat ants sometimes with a ginger head (8mm/#12), banded sugar ants Camponotus consobrinus) (10mm/#10) with a black abdomen and head but a ginger thorax and legs and finally what are generally referred to as red ants but are more often than not are termites (8mm/#12) and have a brownish ginger colour.

Hook	Abdomen	Thorax	Legs	Head
Knapek Dry	Black or ginger cotton treated with fly floatant	Black or ginger cotton treated with fly floatant	Black or ginger hackle	Black or ginger thread

Process

A	Run out about about a meter of cotton and treat the whole length with fly floatant and then wind the cotton back on the bobbin. You don’t need to lay down a bed of thread/cotton along the hook shank for this fly because the full body of the fly is cotton or thread. Start by tying in the cotton at about the 5% position wind the cotton in touching turns to the bend of the hook. Understanding hooks

B	Trim the tag end of the cotton. Using the cotton build up the bulbous abdomen of the ant on the rear 1/4 of the hook shank.

C	If your tying a sugar ant tie the black thread off with the ginger thread. Tie in a slightly oversize hen hackle, with the dull side forward just in front of the abdomen.

D	Build up a thorax over the middle half of the hook shank. Tie the cotton used for the thorax off with the black thread that you are going to use for the head of the fly.

E	Palmer the hackle forward over the thorax. Three or four turns is plenty. Tie the hackle off and trim the excess hackle.

F	Build up a neat bulbous thread head between the thorax and the eye of the hook. Whip finish and varnish the head. Neat heads

Royal coachman wet – Chatto’s version

StephenChatterton — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:05:57 +0000

One of the first wet flies tied was the coachman and that consisted of just a black body and a a set of white hackle slip wings. Over time flies have evolved and one path the coachman took was the substitution of a “royal” body for the simple black body. Many versions have been tied since and this is just one. The materials have been slightly tweaked by me to make the beard and wing a little darker and to make the fly a useful addition to my arsenal of top dropper flies for loch style fly fishing.

It is also a very good point fly for beginners when fishing a single fly on an intermediate fly line to rainbows. It has very little wind drag, plenty of hot spots and very attractive particularly to bows.

12 year old Jordan got his first fly rod for Christmas and on his very first fly fishing outing got his fist fish on fly using a royal coachman wet.

Materials

Hook	Thread	Tail	Body	Beard	Wing
Knapek S #8 to #14	Black	Golden pheasant tail tips	Peacock herl and red floss	Natural badger hackle barbules	Cock pheasant feather slip

Process

A	Wind the thread in touching turns to the bend of the hook. Understanding hooks Tie in a tail of 6-8 Golden Pheasant tippets that is as long of the hook shank.

B	Tie 3 or 4 peacock herl along the top of the hook shank from the 90% position to the bend of the hook.

C	Form the herl into a rope and wind it forward, and if necessary back over itself to form a reasonably plump body section over the rear 1/4 of the hook shank. Roping peacock herl Tie the herl off along the top of the hook shank but do not trim the excess.

D	Tie a length of floss in half way along the hook shank and lock it down on the top of the hook shank right bach to the rear body segment. Return the thread to half way along the top of the hook shank.

E	Wind the floss forward to the thread in tight overlapping turns. Take a couple of firm wraps of thread over the floss at the 50% position and then lift the heral barbules out of the way and tie the floss off again on top of the hook shank.

F	Trim the excess floss. Form the herl back into a rope and wind it forward, and if necessary back over itself to form a reasonably plump body section over the next 1/4 of the hook shank. Tie the herl off along the top of the hook shank and this time trim the excess.

G	Invert the fly in the vice and tie in a beard of badger hackle fibres at the 90% position with the hackle tips partially obscuring the bend and bite of the hook.

H	Turn the fly back up the right way in the vice. Tie in a feather slip wing at 95% position. The finished wing should be about the same length as the hook and extending over the top of the fly at an angle of around thirty degrees. Build up a neat head, whip finish and trim the thread and finally varnish the head.