This fly has been designed to have an obvious bait fish profile and is my ‘goto’ fly when targeting sighted big ambush predators or pelagics or when prospecting for the same predators around structure. This is a big fly with the #4/0 version being 11.5 cm long but because it’s unweighted it’s relatively easy to cast.

A great fly for barra and mangrove jack … put a good cast into the target area and to allow the fly to settle for a few seconds before doing tiny twitches of the rod tip to cause some rings on the surface suggesting it’s a natural struggling and then if that doesn’t induce a strike to commence either a slow roly poly retrieve, or a series of stop start strips, back to the boat or bank. Whatever the retrieve the occasional pause followed by some twitches of the rod tip area good idea.

It doesn’t matter which of the larger CQ species your fishing for … at 13cm long and with a great swimming action more often than not my articulated bugger in Qantas colours is my goto fly.

Poppers are a bit harder to cast than a normal fly because of the wind resistance but if you slow your cast down a little I’m sure you’ll soon get the hang of it. Once you do you have another tool in your arsenal which is useful in three diverse situations:

Tied in either Qantas or brown bomber colours this is a great fly when targeting barra in Lake Awoonga and other barra impoundments on those quiet days when the barramundi are sulking and you need a fly that is going to be in their face for a relatively long time but still active.

My articulated swimmer is one of my most successful prospecting fly for Central Queensland. This #4/0 version has caught everything from barra to bream with plenty of other species in between.

Even for pelagics such as tuna, mackerel, queenfish & trevally matching the hatch is often critical to success. This fly is my version of a hardy head which is one of the baitfish that particularly tuna and queenfish target in Central Queensland but because of its form and function it’s also a good representation of some other small baitfish that these hunters target.

Matching the hatch is the key to catching pelagics such as queenfish, tuna, Australian salmon and herring on fly. These unweighted flies are like candy to pelagic fish because they closely match the form and function of a lot of naturals they are targeting. In smaller sizes, particularly in pink, they are a handy fly for targeting flathead and bream in estuary waters.

I developed this fly to fish both the snaggy rock and coral waters but more recently have found a place for it when fishing the open blue waters and estuary waters of Central Queensland.

My first fish on fly fell to the magic of a Woolly Bugger and many have gone the same way since then. Tied predominately as a prospecting fly for barra in Awoonga this fly also gets a swim in estuary and coastal waters when I am looking for grunter and fingermark.

This fly is designed as a bait to jig along the muddy and sandy bottom of local rivers and estuary bays when targeting fingermark, grunter and and flathead in particular.

This is the biggest version of my Mud Prawn Fly and the one that I use when chasing barramundi in relatively clear salt water around structure such as drowned timber. It’s a very durable fly that swims hook point up so that it’s fairly snag resistant. It is designed not only to provide a representation of a prawn that is readily taken by barra of all sizes but it can be crept slowly over logs and other structure giving the maximum time for fish to respond, can be fished like a soft plastic or can be fished as a faster moving fleeing prawn.

This bigger pregnant prawn fly is one of my goto flies here in Central Queensland estuary waters. I often fish it when targeting barra, grunter, jacks and flathead in estuary and harbour waters but it’s not unusual to hook up on queenfish, travally or other fish that eat prawns.