Available here. Key items:
During his 2022 travels up north, Jason M had a session at the Daintree Saltwater Barramundi Farm with some success. Here is his report and images.
Lots of stuff here including a report on that impressive barra on our photo of the month. Seems there has been a number of our members up north enjoying the warmth and testing themselves against the local species. This one cheekily including “Presidents of CAA” in the title. BJ and Jason M have submitted reports – BJ’s respect to our first outing of the new season and JM just trying to make me envious of his wanderings north of the Tweed. Thanks also to Mark S and Owen for slipping me two notes.
Some very impressive and colourful flies tied last month – the output from our bunch of merry tiers are on show here. I look forward to hearing how they performed. Thanks again to Boss Outdoors for packaging up taster packs of the material.
Don’t forget our annual fly casting is coming up this month. A slight change in location but pretty close by. Going to be good to see how the new rods perform.
We have a report on our AGM including positions appointed and trophies awarded. Congratulations to the ‘new’ committee and much appreciation for all the good work last year. The official program is here plus on our website.
The AGM also marks the time that members should pony up their annual fees – unchanged from last year. You can choose to come to a meeting of casting day with the cash – or even card now that BJ has set us up for tap and go. Also the time honoured Electronic Funds transfer (BSB 032727, A/C Number 233821. Please ensure your name is included in the transfer comment information). If you have changed contact details, then you can use the webform here.
As always, would appreciate any and all contributions – many thanks to those who prepared articles this month. Copy to me by 22 Sep would be appreciated.
Arrived and available here. Some interesting items this month:
As we start to see the yellow flowers of the wattle bloom, we know that native fishing around Canberra is just about to start. Please join some of your fellow CAA members, to tie or just chat, on Wednesday 24 August at 7:30 PM on Zoom. Invite sent separately to members.
Our mates at Boss Outdoors/previously known as Compleat Angler (ie Nathan) have assembled material kit. The kits have all the materials required to tie 4 flies in 2 colour variations.
The kits are $20 each to purchase for members.
There are 12 kits available, but more can be made on request.
Notes from Claude:
If you love fly fishing for Australian native fish and are looking for a good fly this spring, look no further than the Donnie Brasco Fly. This is a great all-rounder fly for species such as golden perch, bass and the ever prized target Murray Cod (yet to catch one on the fly).
This fly can be tied in a variety of sizes. A good starting point for bass and golden perch would be to tie on a 1/0 hook. Larger hooks up to 4/0 would be ideal for Murray cod when summer rolls around. Both the body and tail of the Donnie Brasco Fly consist of rabbit fur. This material is well known for its fish enticing action. Cast these into the weed pockets, weed facing , rocky points and standing timber. When retrieving the fly with short sharp strips, rabbit fur tends to pulsate in the water, closely resembling the movement of a fishes fins.
Black and purple are proven colours when it comes to attracting Australian native fish. By tying on a purple tail and a black body you have a very versatile fly for both clear and turbid water. The fly can include a weed guard too. By tying a double loop weed guard you can work the fly right in among the structure without snagging up too often. The weed guard shown in the video offers good snag resistance whilst collapsing easily when a fish bites.
(Source: Ozfish)
Recipe:
Hook: 1/0 Gamakatsu O’Shaughnessy hook (or equivalent)
Thread: Veevus 6/0 thread (or equivalent)
Body:
Purple (other colour) rabbit strip
Black (other colour) crosscut rabbit strip
Red (other colour) crystal flash
Craft fur for body (optional)
Eyes: Lead or other of your choice
Weed Guard: 40lb monofilament nylon
Extra Tools (optional): Small hair clip
keyword wetfly streamerfly
Found this on YouTube.
Peter and I should aspire to get drone vid like this. At 3min 25sec I thought he would hit the drone with his fly 🙂
In terms of Claude’s rating scheme
Entertaining [4]
Education [5]
Locality [4]
Length [3 x ~ 13 min]
Quality? [5]
Download here.
Key points:
I got an email the other day that reassured me that my efforts here in Burley Line have some value, but perhaps that some other aspects of the CAA communications might need revisiting: “the Burley Line is the most touched aspect of the club….I’ve never been to the beginner part of the website…but I read every BL.” Burley Line comes out monthly but our on-line presence is much more than that. Our website hosts a number of resources – much of it is embodied in our Blog …. hmm, that’s just a fancy name for a collection of snippets (posts) which we’ve uploaded onto the Internet (you’ve seen ‘posts’ before when you went to download Burley Line, but we post up lots more informative material). The ‘Beginner’ section referred to is one, though it has now been renamed ‘Tips’, but there a number of different segments that you can browse or search (Places to Fish and Cooking are two in particular that I reckon are well worth cruising through). The posts idea also offer you an opportunity to upload comments and questions. Plus, you can (like around 50 have done already) register to get an email notification when new posts are uploaded. Read about how to use our blog here.
For this issue, thank to Claude for his EuroNymphing tip. Not sure I’ll be using it mate, 🙂 but I’m sure many in the club will benefit. Jason continues to have us jealously looking north, this time some fish photos. Talking about fish – Stuart seems to travel even more than Lyall, currently in the USA. Nathan and Compleat Angler may have been re-branded but his support for CAA and fly fishing generally is unchanged. I’ve put in two articles in relation to two organisations that CAA are affiliated with.
Here we are in August, which means our AGM is just around the corner. This is a ‘must-come’ event. Get along and acknowledge those folk who have earnt the various trophies. Of course an AGM also means hearing how the club has fared over the year and the election of a new Committee. Don’t be worried that you’d be shanghaied for a job, I’m sure the Committee have identified at least one person for each job, but everyone is encouraged to put their hand up for a position. Being on the Committee is a rewarding experience and new ideas are always welcome.
About the Klink n Dink Trout Fly
Thank you Shaun for bringing this interesting design to our attention. This fly is particularly useful for those of us that use barbless hooks and get frustrated when we lose our droppers.
The Klink n Dink is one of the Klinkhammer patterns that are excellent at bringing fish up, designed to be used as a dropper fly to be fished in conjunction with additional patterns on the same rig. The ring tied securely to the curve on the hook makes this easy to tie a tippet to, keeping the tippet away from the hook itself, thus preventing problems when hooking fish.
When fishing in tandem, this dry fly can be used as an indicator when fishing alongside a weighted or beaded nymph, and has the ability to catch fish on either of the fishing flies used, making it an increasingly popular method of fishing on either rivers or still water fisheries.
This is a great way to tempt fish that are feeding on nymphs higher in the water to rise to a dry fishing fly.
Creator of this trout fly: Malcom Anderson (?)
Country of origin for this trout fly: Scotland
This trout fly is designed to be fished on Dams & Reservoirs, Rivers & Streams, Still Water
Recipe:
keyword dryfly emergerfly
Mike Kirkpatrick is a Kiwi guide and movie maker. He recently posted a brief video on YouTube on how to handle fish.
In terms of Claude’s rating scheme
Excellent drone footage of fighting the fish. Pretty good demonstrations of best practices. I think the only admission was no mention of the benefits of barbless hooks.