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We are very lucky in Central Queensland (AKA "CQ) to have an extensive range of big fish that we can target. That includes but is not limited to the species listed below.

Barramundi (both freshwater & saltwater)
Kingfish (Yellowtail and Cobia)
Lutjanids (Mangrove Jack & Fingermark)
Javelin fish (Barred Grunter and Silver Grunter)
Flathead (Dusky and Bartail)
Trevally (including Giant Trevally and Golden Trevally and many other trevally)
Queenfish
Reef fish such as Coral Trout, Grouper, various Cod etc
Mackerel (including Spanish, Grey, School & Spotted Mackerel)
 

It’s not always practical to fishonfly … strong winds and fast tidal runs can just stop it being fun or mates that I want to fish with are not into “swoofing”. I use those times to indulge my second fishing passion which is to fishonlure particularly of the soft plastic kind.

Surprisingly much of what I experience and learn when fishing on that “dark side” with lures of various kinds finds its way into my fly designs and how I tie and fish flies … and visa versa ... things that I know from my fly tying and fly fishing experience helps me with my dark side fishing, my lure selections, how I make and modify various lures and in particular soft plastics.

The motivation behind this post is to outline the gear that I use when targeting these species when I Fishonfly or when I Fishonlure.

Fishonlure: covering soft plastics, hard body lures, swim baits, vibes etc.

Over the last ten years by necessity ,as explained above, I have put a ;lot of time targeting Fishonlure.I started with spin reels but progressively added overhead reels to my arsenal ... each has its application as described below.
 

Fishonlure rods and reels

Overhead outfits

These are quite different to spin outfits and consist of rods with line guides and the reel mount on the top of the rod.

The reels are very different to the spinning reels mentioned above and the spools have a central axle that runs across the reels rather than in line with the rod. The mechanics of the spools are very different also and the axle in the reel is set up so that it can be set to run freely, depending on the weight of the lure, or the axle can be locked to allow the line to be wound back on the axle. The drag which is typically mounted at one end of the axle, can also be adjusted down to let fish take some line or can be set harder to allow the angler to keep enough pressure on the line to either let the fish run, and therefor not break, or to tension up to wind the line, and hopefully a hooked fish, in and back to the boat.

They are a little harder to cast and if the tension on the axle is not set correctly, and the angler doesn't have control of the cast, which takes plenty of practice to master, the line can over run and tangles can occur. These tangles are aptly described a birds nests.

I enjoy fishing with soft plastics and vibes and particularly in deeper water I find it easier to fish with overhead reels. I can then give line with the press of the thumb on the overhead real line release, and control the speed of the fall of the bait by using my thumb on the spool. Then when I get to the desired depth with just a touch of the handle rather than the manipulating the bail arm on a spin reel.the overhead reel retrieve and drag systems come back into play.

More often than not a large part of success in these fisheries relates to accurate casting in to tight positions around an behind mangroves and other structure and in being able to flick a lure under overhanging structure. With practice overhead outfits are much better at this than spin outfits.

At this stage I have accumulated quite a few rod and reel outfits that are dedicated to my Fishonlure (A.K.A fishing on the dark side) activities. Some of those are spin outfits or combos and others are overhead (a.k.a overhead) outfits or combos. Almost exclusively I target the types of "big fish" mentioned from boats with one of my fishing partners and and in that type of situation we are able to take generally around 6 to 8 rods between us.

My fishing partners generally take spin outfits but I typically take a combination of 2 spin outfits and two overhead outfits.
 

My overhead outfits set ups
 

The lighter of my two overhead outfits is made up of:

My heavier overhead outfit is made up of:

Spinning outfits

Spin outfits are those that have a spinning reel and the line guides mounted under the rod. The spool which holds the line on a spinning reel runs in line with the rod and has a mechanism called a bail arm that folds over the front end of the spool that allows line to run off the spool when open and facilitates the retrieval of line back onto the spool when closed. They also have an effective drag system controlled by tightening or loosing the mounting mechanism generally at the front of the horizontal spool that hold the line. They are the most popular type of fishing rod system at the moment.

My "Big Fish" Spin Outfits set ups
 
 

Fishonfly

At this stage I have caught and landed 38 different species of fishonfly.

Fly rods

Choice of fly rods is important.

If you use your freshwater trout gear and hook up to a Barramundi your gear will in most cases probability 'explode'.

I suggest rods in the #9 or #10 weight range are best suited to fly fishing in CQ. If your targeting Bream or Flathead using your #6 to #8 weight gear don't assume that you want get a Barra, big trevally or a Mangrove Jack as I have been surprised by big fish taking flies just 50mm long.

My main fly outfit (and the one I would carry if I could only carry one outfit) is a relatively short #10 weight rod with a powerful butt section but a tip that has enough give to load easily with relatively short casts and is soft enough to add a cushioning effect when fighting stoic fish. The reason for leaning toward a shorter rod is that firstly they are easier to handle in a boat, being short they make it easier to fish into structure such as overhanging trees and finally because its easier to keep your line below the wind with a short rod.

With these criteria in mind my first choice is a Redington Predator series #10 weight 8 foot 3 inch fly rod. Whilst this is one of the Sage brands these rods are relatively inexpensive and the last one I purchased was just US$249. They are available widely in America and because they are so good I have progressively purchased 2 #10 weight, two #8 weight and one #6 from this series of fly rods.

Reels

Think about the reel carefully.

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

I like modular reels and mine allows me to carry intermediate, floating and fast sinking lines each set up on modular spools that can easily be swapped over onto the reel. As well as the line each spool has room for around 200 meters of 50lb braided backing. Each line has a 3 to 4cm loop nail knotted to it with a loop at the business end.

The reel is less important if your only fishing for river fish including smaller barramundi, jacks, tarpon and the size of GT's and queen fish that you can play of the hand and with a little palm pressure if you do choose to play them off the reel.

In that situation you can opt for a relatively inexpensive reel and that what I did when I first started salt water fly fishing many years ago. it was not long before I realized that the drag on my relatively inexpensive reel was not up to the mark and I decided to upgrade the reels that I still use in my salt water fishing.

A little on-line research and a few discussions with trusted friends gave me some good options to follow. What I finally settled on is the Hardy Ultralight SDS 10,000 reels. This reel jumped out at me from the start. These reels are beasts and have an impressive capacity of backing. I have gone for 70lb braid for backing and so that the backing is not the weak point in my system and even then 300 meters of backing fits easily. As well as the backing not being the weak point in the system by using 70lb backing which is considerably thicker than the regular 30lb or 50lb backing that shown when calculating line capacity for most salt water reels, this heavier backing is more resistant to tangles and of course not as likely to cut fingers. The reel also has a drag that provides up to 16lb of drag. That doesn't sound like much but get a 16lb weight and tie your leader to that and try to drag it across the floor with a bent rod ... OMG. They are also seriously large arbor and at 4.7 inches in diameter retrieve up to 14 inches of line for each turn of the spool. If a fish is running toward you that can be a big advantage.

I started by purchasing one Hardy Ultralight SDS 10,000 reel but it has been so good that I have purchased two more reels as well as a spare spool. This was a big investment as the reels were $480 each and the spare spool was $192 and then of course there was the 1,000 meters of backing.

When targeting big fish on fly I take all three rods and all 4 spools with me. The spools are set up as follows.

• Floating line
• Intermediate sink
• Second Intermediate sink line
• Fast sink.

Fly lines

The intermediate line is my goto line and it has helped me land most of these 38 species of local fish since we moved to CQ in 2013.

I do very occasionally use a floating line when there is close-by surface action and occasionally I do tie a fast sink line on but I must say that comes to grief on the rocky and reef bottoms more often than not so it is a very expensive choice.

These are my favourite fly lines for Central Queensland.

Leaders

All the fly lines that I use are finished at the business initially the manufactured loop that comes with most fly lines these days. When that manufactured loop starts to wear I replace it with a 20 mm long Maxima Ultragreen monofilament nail loop knot. I like that loop connected to the fly line to be about as thick as the fly line itself but always stronger than the strongest section of my leader so that if I get snagged and loose part or all of my leader and my fly line and and loop stay intact.

For my #10 weight fly lines the monofiliment loop I use is generally made of 40lb Maxima Ultragreen monofilament line. I use these monofiliment loops as they are stronger than many of the manufactured loops that come on fly lines are less visible than braided loops, allow neat leader to line connections without introducing any hinging effect and and of course allow for easy line or leader changes.

In any case I use the same leader set up on all three types of lines. That consists of a 7 foot leader of 30lb Maxima Ultragreen monofiliment connected to the 3-4 cm loop on the fly line with a loop to loop connection. I have got into the habit of using a size #3 Mustard Fashach clip at the business end of my leaders to make fly changes easy,

Finally, indispensable if you encounter the likes of Spanish mackerel I do carry a couple of 50lb shock tippets with a swivel at one end that can be attached to the Fashach clip on the leader and with a second #4 Fastach clip at the business end to attach the fly to.

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.
 

This is the leader set up for all my #10 weight fly fishing outfits.

I do fish leader/tippet combination both heavier and lighter than this but, within reason, my advise is to stick with leader/tippet combination that is as thick as you can get away with on the day. Barramundi and other species that you encounter all seem to have the same penchant of retreating to cover once hooked and you can need every ounce of stopping power you can muster. At the other end of the spectrum don't go overboard with tippet weight ... it should still be the weak point in your set up. If it's not you run the risk of breaking a fly line or even a rod.

I generally carry with me a foam kneeling mat that I purchased from the cheap shop to store my spare leaders with their fly already attached on and also to store flies on that I have replaced on my leader during a fishing session. At the end of a outing the whole thing including the leaders with their attendant flies and the loose flies get a hose off and are then left to dry off so that they are ready for my next outing.

Fly selection

I strongly believe that flies catch more fly fishers than fish and consequently I work hard to ensure that whilst I carry flies to cover 99% of species and conditions that I target and or encounter at the end of the day all those flies have to fit into one 12 compartment fly box. OK I have had to double up in a couple of those compartments but still I am only carrying a dozen or so different flies.

In My #10 weight fly box for temperate & tropical destinations I have the flies that I recommend when fishing in Temperate and Tropical destinations and targeting “big fish” including but not limited to:

Barramundi (both freshwater & saltwater)
Kingfish (Yellowtail and Cobia)
Lutjanids (Mangrove Jack & Fingermark
Javelin fish (Barred Grunter and Silver Grunter)
Tuna (including Longtail, Mackerel Tuna, Bluefin and Yellowfin Tuna)
Flathead (Dusky and Bartail)
Trevally (including Giant Trevally and Golden Trevally)
Queenfish
Mackerel (including Spanish, Grey, School (Doggy)and Spotted Macharel)

Barramundi (both freshwater & saltwater)
Kingfish (Yellowtail and Cobia)
Lutjanids (Mangrove Jack & Fingermark
Javelin fish (Barred Grunter and Silver Grunter)
Flathead (Dusky and Bartail)
Trevally (including Giant Trevally and Golden Trevally)
Queenfish
Reef fish
Mackerel
Reef fish
Mackerel

The flies in my Big Fish Fly Box have earned their places by being what I regard as the best flies for that category and can be used in a number of ways for a number of species.

So for example the first fly in 'Big Fish Fly Box' is my Articulated bait fish. As well as being designed as a barra bait fish fly it does have a shape, form and function similar to many of the little fish that predators such as, jacks, grunter, fingermark, GT’s, trevally and queenfish target. Also it's a great fly to use as a trailing fly for my articulated popper combination that I use for teasing GT’s and other pelagics up to the surface.

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