Fly Tying

This post will be on fly tying. I recently bought a fly tying kit off eBay for $50. It came with a vice, stand, hackle pliers, whip finisher, scissors, pull through, bobbin holder, needle/half hitch tier, dubbing spinner and it all fits into a small wooden box which is very convenient. I got some thread from the local tackle shop for around $7 and some wire for about the same. I've been tying heaps of flies at school and now have enough skill to tie them from home. I needed some more materials so i ordered a heap of materials in my dad’s latest Mo tackle order. I also ordered some float-ant which you use to make your dry flies float. When my materials arrive in the mail I plan to tie heap of spinners and wet flies and maybe make some patterns of my own. Ill post a photo of my kit below.

Middle Creek

Recently on the weekend my friend and i decided to go fishing on middle creek. I decided to try my luck with a fly and my friend didn’t have a fly rod so he used one of his spin rods, a float and one of my wet flies. To get there we road bikes to a picnic site, which is along a part of the river. From there, we walked through paddocks and fences to get to the open parts of the river. I started off using a quite small dry fly which I managed to snag up and snap the hook of it in a couple of casts. I had my waders on so I could easily cross the river but my friend had to get soaked which I thought was funny. We didn’t catch any fish which was disappointing but it was all a good experience. As soon as we got there I knew we would struggle to catch fish because the water was up, running fast and was really dirty. I managed to get a few photos which I will try to upload soon.    

FlyFishing





Some flies my dad gave me



A tackle box i did use for storing
tools \for my nitro truck.

This is my fly fishing section. Below are some pictures of what I use for example rod, reel, flies and tackle box. As you may have already read in my first post I am learning fly fishing and fly tieing at school. My casting isn't too bad well according to my teacher anyway and my fly tieing always seems to amaze me. During 2011 I am hopefully going to improve my technique and start going on more fly fishing trips. I have a number of bream and trout flies which i am eager to try out on my next trip. My dad and i are planning to join Latrobe valley fly fishing club. They own a number private dams which i think is awesome because they're private and they're so close to home. Some of my friends share my passion for fishing and i will hopefully be going on a trip with them soon depending on the weather really. The places i plan to fly fish for trout are Billys creek, middle creek, Morwell river, Traralgon river and dams if i join the fly fishing club. For bream fishing on a fly which will probably be more often i will fish my normal bream spots like Gippsland lakes, Bemm river, Mallacoota and Glenelg river and will most of the time be out of a boat. Hopefully i will be able to post some trout and even bream photos of my up coming fishing trips.

       

 


My sightcast 4wt-6wt reel

I managed to dig up some older photos of the boat when it had the 115 Evinrude. I haven't really had time to get and photos of it now but i will try to upload some as soon as i can and if I get around to it even a video. Another bonus of a bigger Optimax is it looks so much better. The Evinrude just looked too small on the boat whereas the 150 fits it perfectly and it looks so much better. The boat has plenty of storage which was one of the first things we noticed when we upgraded from a 435 Top Ender which is still an awesome boat. One of the reasons we decided to get the stealth was because it has plenty of casting deck for fishing with lures but the hull is deep enough we can still go out in bays fishing for bigger fish using bait. My next blog post will be a fly fishing section which will hopefully include some photos of my new fly tieing kit and my other fly fishing gear(fly rod, reel, tackle box, flies).



Old Evinrude. Too small.





   



Rear view of boat.



Front Casting Deck. It has a really
big step up to it which can get very
annoying.

What I use for fishing

On most fishing trips my dad and I fish out of a boat unless we go to a small creek trout fishing or if we are fishing off the bank at blue rock dam which is limited to around 10hp which is really annoying because its so close to home. Almost all the time when fishing we use lures, the only time we dont is when we go fishing for bigger fish like snapper or gummy shark. We have a number of different brand rods the best ones are pfluger, g-loomis and nitro. I recently got a nitro vapour for my birthday along with a certate 2004. They are the most comfortable setup I own and I love catching fish on them. I also own a fly rod and I'm trying to catch a bream on it.
We've had a few boats over the years first we had a 3m Jabiru with a 15hp merc, we then bought a 435 Quintrex TopEnder which originally came with a 50hp Yamaha which i think is one of the best multipurpose boats you can get. We now have a 5m Southern Star Stealth which we had to pick up from Queensland so it took a while to get there but it was worth it. It originally came with a 115hp Evinrude which wasn’t too bad but when you go to top speed it would porpus. Now its upgraded to a 150hp Optimax ProXS which got rid of the porpusing and made the top speed a lot higher.
I'll try to upload some pictures when i get the chance.    

Fishing

I think fishing is one of the best sports or maybe the best sport around. I've been fishing since I was little boy. When I first started I couldn’t really do much only really reeling in and maybe an occasional fluke cast. Many years on I am a much better caster and have improved my lure fishing technique. I now catch more fish than I used to and have a heap more fun. Till this day my technique is still improving and I’m learning the awesome art of fly fishing and fly tying at school. My dad was the first person to introduce me into fishing and we still regularly go fishing having competitions seeing who can catch the most or the biggest fish. I mainly fish in Gippsland lakes and do the occasional trip to Mallacoota and Bemm River. My dad does the Victorian Bream Classics comps which are held around Victoria, hopefully when I’m older I will go into them as well.