Bumble Bugger - Fly Tying Video

Well, trout season is upon us here in WA so I thought I'd divert away from the bream and post up a woolly bugger pattern that has been a killer for me on the dams here in SW WA. Enjoy.

Bream Clouser - Fly Tying Video

Hey guys. Sorry for the delay in my next blog. I've been busy with a few things, including trying to get my camera and PC to talk to each other. We're now back on track and have the first 2 videos up and available. The first of these is the Bream Clouser. While it's a very basic fly and a great fly to refine your skills on, it's also deadly on bream. The beauty of this fly is that it's also easy to play around with colours with to target fish in different systems. Enjoy.

A Taste of Exmouth on Fly

Why is it that anglers seem hell bent on alienating different forms of fishing? Spin vs. cast, fly vs. everything else. It just seems very strange that we want to cut ourselves off from certain styles of fishing without really giving it a go. I've been very lucky to have done a large variety of fishing and while some of it isn't for me, my philosophy is 'try it all, you never know what you're going to miss.'

Over the past few years I've slowly, but surely, eased my way into fly fishing. First starting out on the dams within a few hours of Perth, then something a little closer to home by chasing flatties on the Swan. As my passion for breamin' grew, so did the need to target them on fly, and while I haven't really cracked it yet the feeling of getting any fish on fly is something you really have to experience.

One piece of advice here. Don’t fool yourself, spend a little time and money and get some casting lessons from someone who knows what they are doing. You’ll thank yourself in the long run and save yourself hours of frustration.

Practising Casting in the Park is a Great Way to Hone Your Casting Skills.

Casting Lessons are Well Worth the Money

The past couple of years I've also been venturing back to the north of the state to rekindle some of the lost passion I had for what the north has to offer in terms of piscatorial pursuits having lived there for many years. It's easy to get locked into a groove and while I love targeting species such as spangled emperor, doing the same thing every day soon has me stale. With fly on my mind, I spent a lot of time on the net and forums keeping an eye out for a few bargains. Don't fool yourself though, as with any area of fishing, good gear is going to cost you and if you do fall for the addiction, the bling is numerous and can cost you a pretty penny. In Perth, check out the range at Bluewater Tackle Myaree. they stock sage, TFO and Innovator and have a good number of guys on staff who are experienced fly anglers and more than willing to help.

I planned to travel with a 10wt and 8wt rod for this trip. The 8wt is an ideal rod for use from shore and will stop a lot of things you're likely to encounter. It's also a good size to cast with without getting to heavy, great for beginners such as myself and a rod you can stay with you for many years to come. The 10wt I had in mind for off the boat as we usually came across larger species and stopping them is much harder. If you hunt around you can find a few reels that come in the range of  line weights and you can set up spare spools for each weight type. This means you don't have to spend too much to get you going and gives you some flexibility while you're away.

Having a few trips under our belt now, we’ve  added a 6 and 7wt to the quiver, but you will always have the chance of hooking something too big and snapping a rod or losing a fly line so be careful. You may need to break off quickly to save one or both. Still, the smaller trevs, bream and other species that inhabit the creeks mean the lighter weights still have their place and there are many anglers who use 6 and 7wt lines for chasing bone fish, something I’m yet to crack.

As for lines.... Well, there is a mine field for sure and I won't really bother getting into brands, but a little research will give you some idea on the vast and growing variety of what is available. Sufficed to say a floating line and an intermediate line is a good place to start and will get you into most situations. The theory here is that the floating line will keep the line on the surface and reduce the depth to which the fly will sink, where the intermediate will sink slowly so you can get some depth if need be. The thing here is the more the line sinks, the heavier it is and does take some getting used to when casting. Don't discount the sinking line if you feel confident enough in your casting to give it a go as a good sinking line is ideal for off the boat in deeper water.

Lastly, flies. As with any sort of fishing, there are more styles of flies than you can poke a stick at and they are not going to be cheap. We're lucky enough to have a few good stores in Perth, such as Fly World, which also has an online store, but don't discount some of the Oz based eBay sellers who have some good product for very competitive prices. In a short word, clousers are the way to go without getting into it too much. Without doubt, if you get the bug, there are fly patterns for every situation that look like just about anything you want and many have their place. I don't doubt the permit we saw would have been more interested in a crab pattern than our clousers, but more on that later.

If you’re also the creative type, have a go at tying your own flies. You don’t have to spend a fortune on an expensive vice. My Dan Vice was only $90 off eBay and have helped me tie hundreds of flies and saved me a fortune. It will cost a bit to get you going with materials, but these will tie a lot of flies and means you can play around a bit with colours, styles and there is nothing more satisfying than catching a fish on a fly you’ve tied yourself.  I’ve heard it said ‘if it ain’t chartreuse, it’s no use’ and while our chartreuse and white clousers did count for a lot of the fish we caught, so did other combinations like red\white, tan white and so on. A little bit of flash doesn’t hurt either.

Clousers are an Essential Saltwater Fly

Variance on the Pink Thing

Having exercised the spanglie demons at Exxy, it was time for the wands to come out and see what it was all about. We’d always had in mind walking the drop offs at Pilgramunna after heading down there the year before by boat. If the sand isn’t too badly chewed up and the tide is right you can launch a boat there, but the sand wasn’t great this time so the boat stayed and we hit the beach. The first kilometre or so south of the ramp can be a little rocky, even pebble beach at times, but don’t let this fool you into thinking it’s not worth a go. The shallow reef just out of sight of the ramp is where we found some blue bone and while we didn’t land one, blue bone - 1 Bear 0, it was amazing to sight cast to a school of around 30 fish in about 150mm of water. Further along the beach were sandy fingers in amongst the reef and we could see queenies and small dart swimming in amongst them. Trying to get them to hit the fly was another matter and while we had many follows, that was about the extent of our luck.

Wading the Pilgs Drop Off

Once past the reef we were immediately greeted by more schools of dart. As close as a few metres to the beach, they were well within casting range, but once again we just couldn’t get them to take a fly. Several pattern, size and weight changes later we gave up and moved on. The blood was pumping now though. Moving around to the point we could easily make out the drop off and very quickly made out some likely shapes in the water. A number of queenies, to 1m, were chasing the bait schools that were hanging along the line of the drop off. Again, getting them to take a fly was another story. We continued further on spotting other fish and then hit frustration city. Just in casting range we spotted 2 very large permit, head down and feeding. Creeping up slowly we put out a cast each and despite them being well place, we couldn’t raise much more than a cursory glance and while we didn’t hook one of these beasts, simply sighting them and being able to cast to them was a major buzz.

Sandy Bay was our next stop and again we were greeted by a large school of dart and salmon right in the shallows. Dropping down to a lighter 6wt rod we had a ball catching the salmon and around the edge of the salmon school, the dart occasionally managed to get in for a hit as well. These guys go hard for smaller fish. Once we’d had enough of these we started to cast around the smaller bombies close to shore, hoping these many hold fish as they do out deeper. We weren’t disappointed with a few nice spanglies landed. Be prepared to shed some blood with these if you don’t have stripping gloves. They hit hard and run a mile in the first few bursts, something we encountered again fishing the inside reef area over the next few days.

Sandy Bay Shallows

Sandy Bay Dart

Sandy Bay Spanglie

Our last land based spot was new to us, but one we’ll be back to for sure. Using the tracks near the airport you can head down to the bottom of the gulf and access some great shore based locations, including some of the creeks. It really is 4WD access only as there is one good sand dune, but there are plenty who get over and if you have a small boat or dinghy you can beach launch from some of the creeks as well. The creeks were a lot of fun giving us access to deep channels and lots of fish. It’s a great location for surface flies such as gurglers with regular surface action from queenies and trevs.

Don’t be surprised if you end up with a visit from a friendly local either. We had a sizeable turtle buzz us for a few hours in the Gulf and they are always popping up around the inshore area off Tantabiddi. They don’t seem too scared of us either as one big guy proved as he swam within just a few metres of us on many occasions. A real buzz to see these gentle creatures swimming in the wild.

Small Goldens can be in Plague Numbers at Times

Another Golden on Clouser

Another Trev Variety to Tick Off

A Curious Local

Even Small Queenies are Fun

Add to our land based travels another couple of days hitting the structures of the inside reef out from Tantabiddi. We’d fished this quite a bit on spin and were really curious to see how it would compare on fly, we weren’t disappointed with over 50 fish landed on the first day. This included some nice trevs and a spanglie that went 83cm. My hand still twitches just thinking about that one, part of the reason I now wear gloves. Lesson learnt. One thing that really had us going were the amount of squid that will follow a fly. Now we’ve seen them chase the odd popper and hard body lure, but at times our fly was being mauled by squid. Time to play with a squid jig pattern I think. Might be a bit of fun.

Hooked up to Another Trev

Spanglies Go Hard in the Shallows, Wear Gloves

Great Colours

Inshore at Tantabiddi

You could spend a life time making your way around somewhere like the waters around Exmouth. There are just so many creeks, islands, beaches and reefs that can be explored. I hope this has just given you a taste of what you can get out and do on fly or spin gear. Until next time, stay safe.