The Mataura, especially around Gore, has been the happy stomping ground for many in the CAA. For those who’ve not been, here is a few notes to tempt your bucket list.
(the photo above is the Mataura high upstream above Nokomai Station near Athol in Apr 2016. River is pretty low after a good flush the week before)
I’m really embarrassed on two counts. First, that my photo is on the front page of the May 2018 newsletter (I didn’t choose it folks) and second, that my photo is on the front page of the May 2018 newsletter (I’m sure more of you are getting out fishing than just me – for sure I was with Ian and Lyall so I know at least two others are out and about! I’ll get some photos of them into next Burley Line).
Meanwhile, in my absence JQ and Luke have put together the May newsletter for which I am very grateful. As so often happens with feast and famine, contribution level was a bit low. I’m sure there are plenty of other stories that you lot have tucked away, I look forward to receiving them in the next few weeks. Meantime, there is some good reading here.
Minutes have been provided by Steve Samuels.
Some interesting discussion about the Snowy lakes and associated feeder rivers.
Oops … it was pointed out that there was a typo attributing a 31cm Brown to Mark S. Mark doesn’t catch 31cm fish 😀. It should have read “3 fish to 51cm”. Now fixed. Apologies Mark.
Another month where I had feared there would be limited material, but then it arrives. I particularly appreciate the support of Leon who is a regular contributor and this time shares some of his knowledge on innovative ways to use fly tackle. There has been a number of angling related ‘political’ meetings including Snowy Hydro 2.0 and the Koi Herpes virus initiative. Canberra Anglers Association has been engaged and representing the views of our membership.
Our co-editor Luke is off jetsetting at the moment so you’ll have to settle for the old format. Hopefully the next issue will be back to Luke’s best.
A simple straight forward tie… the thorax is the scruffy piece and the collar gives it a ‘lock on’ feature for the fish.
•Hooks – types various(jig, straight, caddis etc) sizes 12-18
•Bead – suit hook size – colour various
•Thread – colours various – 8/0 or 6/0 uni thread
•Wire – colours various – small (.6mm)
•Body – Various – stripped peacock quills, Hends body quills or tinsel mylar etc
•Thorax – colours and dub various. Hends Ice, Hends hares ear, seal-prism blend etc
•Collar – colour various but recommend a uv reflect (fluro orange, hot pink/ yellow, lime etc) size 3/0
•Sally Hansen clear top coat or a uv resin to lock down and bring shine to the collar.
Nothing special in this tie. Every fly we’ve covered in the past has a piece of material suitable to build this fly, nothing more to buy or hunt at a shop.
keyword wetfly nymphyfly
Leon continues his search for carp on fly experimenting with interesting rigs. Here he discusses using Skagit heads in innovative ways including on single handed rods. We apologise but the yellow mono running line is a bit hard to see in the photo above,.
Steve Samuels on page 2 of the Australian 12 Mar 2018. Well done mate. Brings home to a wide audience the potential threat of redfin to the high country trout fishery. Not such a bad photo of you!
For CAA members, check with Bill to read the article if you didn’t buy it.
Our nearest one was on 17 May at Rydges Jindabyne.
http://us4.forward-to-friend.com/forward/preview?u=8ee287affb9dbb289b12fbd77&id=9bd8b0b1b6
I’ve received an email from Steve Samuels promoting attendance:
I encourage as many anglers as possible to attend these workshops. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for anglers to have an influential say in how our trout fishery is revitalized and secured for the future. To attend one of the workshops you must register, so please do it – don’t be complacent and leave it to others. We need good representation from all fishing disciplines – fly, spin, troll and bait – come along and help make our trout fishing future better.
Post workshop report in Jun Burley Line.
Claude has stepped up to instruct on his variants of the Royal Humpy style fly.
Claude has recently tied and tried a couple of versions of the Royal Humpy dry fly on one of Canberra’s local rivers. It proved successful for him and one of his fishing mates…who was considerably more skilled and consequently successful. A number of the fish were caught during blind casts rather than to rises. His mate has caught fish using it on a couple of occasions so hopefully the fish catchability of the fly was not a fluke!
The interweb tells us: “the Humpy trout fly comes in a range of patterns and colours: green, peacock, red and yellow. It represents a beetle or large flying insect and is a good all-purpose fly to prospect waters with. It is a useful indicator fly in the larger sizes. They are great summer time dry flies and produce fish consistently.”
Another site advised: “if you fish mountain streams that are bordered by forest, the trout will be used to seeing a multitude of terrestrial insects that continually rain from the trees. Ants, beetles and bees are often the staple trout foods in this situation. The Humpy is a great searching pattern.”
The traditional humpy, deer/elk hair and red thread takes Claude about 20-30 minutes to tie (he’s still a bit slow) so it may be a bit long to tie on one of our nights. The foam back, red dubbing body and aero wing (below) takes about 5-10 minutes less. The royal humpy can be tied in a variety of body colours using dubbing or thread.
Recipe:
keyword dryfly