Public Fly Boxes

The word nymph has of course two fly fishing meanings. The first is "Juvenile, sexually immature stage of certain insects, usually similar to the adult in form, and which require an intermediate stage before becoming an adult. Mayflies, Caddis flies, Dragonflies, Damselflies, Stone flies and Midges…

There are obviously a lot of flies that have been designed for estuary species and in the right conditions and on the right days most work. Whilst the standards like the crazy charlie, baited breath and clousers are all good flies and might work for you I found that they don't work consistently…

I reserve my dry fly selection for flies that are fished on the surface of the water and either represent the dun or spinner of a an insect that spends part of its life cycle in the water such as a Mayfly, Caddis fly, Midge, Dobsonfly, Cranefly etc. or they represent terrestrial insects that have…

Loch Style fly-fishing  involves fly-fishing from a boat, side onto the wind, using a system incorporating one or a number of flies. There are both wet and dry lock style fishing techniques. The dry fly technique involves casting out in the direction of the drift, stopping the cast above the water…

I have listed this fly box first because its undoubtedly the most important of my river fly fishing boxes. I am a firm believer that when fishing rivers you have to get down to where the fish are holding and also that flies particularly in faster running water should include "hot spots". These…

I have extended the population of flies that I carry in my nymph fly box to include flies like Carixia and Shrimp flies because I fish them ostensibly in the same way that I fish my nymphs. Have a look at a full list of carixia and shrimp featured on this web site: QUICK LINK From the above list I…

It's a subtle distinction between what I consider streamers and pulling flies and what I consider 'loch style flies' . The main difference for me is that whilst each of the flies below work well in a team of flies they also fish well by them selves. My favourite woolly bugger flies and some nymphs…

I have lumped the flies that I prefer for Australian Native fish into one group as by in large the species I target are all structure oriented. They tend to frequent areas with structure such as weed, sunken logs, rock bars, under cut banks, holes and drop offs etc. and generally react in much the…

Fishing to spawning fish isn't everybody's idea of fun . . . it certainly isn't mine so I just don't do it. In the interest of completeness however I have included a selection of pre and post spawn run flies that suite this style of fishing. Detailed below are the flies that I carry in my 'pre and…

An important part of my bead head fly box. I am a firm believer that when fishing rivers you have to get down to where the fish are holding and also that flies particularly in faster running water should include "hot spots". These flies satisfy both these requirements. I tend to use my bead head…

The word nymph has of course two fly fishing meanings. The first is "Juvenile, sexually immature stage of certain insects, usually similar to the adult in form, and which require an intermediate stage before becoming an adult. Mayflies, Caddis flies, Dragonflies, Damselflies, Stone flies and Midges…

Detailed below are the flies I used on my last Tropical Fly Fishing Trip. Whilst that trip was to Melville Island off Darwin the selection is relevant to most Australian tropical destinations and is a good starting point for one of those exotic tropical fly fishing destinations.  For normal salt…

You could easily go over board with your selection of flies for offshore fishing as there are heaps of options out there. I don't think you have to do that and that just the few flies listed below in a couple of sizes and a few color combinations will do the job in 95% of offshore fishing…

Boobies are an essential fly if your going to cover all the bases with your impoundment fly fishing techniques. They are also great flies for targeting other species especially Australian Bass. because they cross over between species, have specialist applications and  and are bigger flies any way I…

As the pupa or sub-imago of Mayflies, Caddis, Midges, Stoneflies, Dobson flies etc. move to and through the surface of the water to hatch they are referred to as emergers and when large numbers go through this process at the same time it is referred to as a hatch. When fish are feeding on emergers…

There are more hoppers flies out there than there are actual hopper verities and you can carry a few of each if you like but I have opted to carry just three patterns that work well in most situations. There are of course a couple of flies in my dry fly selection such as the elk hair caddis, claret…

I have lumped these diverse types of insects together as much for convenience as because in may cases they can be fished in similar ways. All of them respond to being fished relatively static except for current and without any drag. Having said that for midge in particular remember that if you are…