Steffen 9wt glass gets bent down under. Day 2 added.

In the midst of an Australian family vacation. There is, however, fish to be had. I booked a trip on the 7th with a well known fly fishing guide in Sydney. We were initially worried about the rains that dumped a fair bit the week prior. The morning of, we were greeted with beautifully clear skies and once we made it out into the harbor, found a number of bait balls getting absolutely annihilated by birds above and fish below. Wasn't long before this happened....


Which produced this (and dozens of it's cousins)


Ultimately we found ourselves in front of the famed Opera House (a touch blurry in the background) where I found a token bonito.


Absolutely wide open bite for ~3 hrs before a cold front rolled in and everything completely shut off. I learned a couple of new stripping techniques and a couple of new casting techniques that my guide Justin taught me during that time plus a good history lesson on parts of the harbor from WWII. Pretty rad if you ask me....

From here on out it'll be more diy.

 

[Vagabond]

Good on ya mate!

 

[Florida Man]

Awesome. Curious what reel is that?

 

[clarkman]

Thanks!

Awesome. Curious what reel is that?

It's an older Alpen Stone reel. I think Alpen went out of business several years ago. Even though I'm moving mostly to Danielsson, I've held onto this because the drag is so incredibly smooth.

 

[Merle]

Very Cool! What species is the first fish?

 

[clarkman]

Very Cool! What species is the first fish?

They call them Australian salmon (not a salmon obviously). They're some sort of sea perch & incredibly hard fighters. In three successive fish, I had one just jump and wear itself out doing that, another ran straight out away from the boat deep into my backing, and the third went straight down and fought dirty under the boat.

And, as a bonus, often eat top water.

 

[Jim F.]

Wow! Have fun, Randy!

 

[Vagabond]

Updates? Hope you’re enjoying the heck out of it. Aussies are great people, except maybe that wench that cooked a dinner for four and the other three died from the gravy.

If you come across a lonesome jar of Vegemite and can smuggle it home let me know.

We can work out a deal

 

[clarkman]

Updates? Hope you’re enjoying the heck out of it. Aussies are great people, except maybe that wench that cooked a dinner for four and the other three died from the gravy.

If you come across a lonesome jar of Vegemite and can smuggle it home let me know.

We can work out a deal

Mostly boring family shit....

Been working an area for a couple of hours a few mornings targeting kingfish. I've seen several bust bait most mornings and I'd really like to hook one of those brutes from shore.

 

[clarkman]

If you come across a lonesome jar of Vegemite and can smuggle it home let me know.

We can work out a deal

I may or may not have a lonesome jar of that crap that'll make it home....

 

[SSPey]

. I learned a couple of new stripping techniques

Can you divulge?

 

[clarkman]

Can you divulge?

Yeah, but I'm gonna butcher the explanation. A lot was just little things here and there for better line control which comes in especially handy in the salt. But the big thing was when stripping a surface pattern where you don't want it to pop, but you want it to still throw some good water. TH retrieve with a standard hand over hand. But with every other (e.g. every time line is stripped with the left hand for example), the upper hand pulls line up and out, giving you both a longer strip and more speed within that half of your stripping. It really animated a crease fly or gurgler nicely.

 

[clarkman]

Told ya I'd butcher that! Lol

It should be noted though, that the above is best with an intermediate line. Floaters jump around too much and make hookups even more difficult.

 

[clarkman]

I ended up booking a second day. We started out chasing bait balls with Aussie salmon on them...


We then went in search of some estuary perch. They don't get too big, basically fight like a bluegill, and fishing for them is incredibly technical (you've heard of putting the fly on the dinner plate for carp, this was more akin to putting the fly on a dinner saucer while accounting for tidal movement in structure with a very specific type of retrieve and incredibly soft takes). A nice break from cast/strip fast. We found a pretty decent number of these little buggers.

 

[clarkman]

I'll try to add a couple of short videos once I get home.

 

[DimeBrite]

I'll bet those Australian Salmon fight harder than humpies. Nice report!
I would like to target Kahawai and Yellowtail in New Zealand someday.

 

[jaredoconnor]

If you come across a lonesome jar of Vegemite and can smuggle it home let me know.

World Market has Vegemite.

Just don’t go to the one in Bellevue. Someone takes all of their stock, regularly.

 

[clarkman]

I'll bet those Australian Salmon fight harder than humpies. Nice report!
I would like to target Kahawai and Yellowtail in New Zealand someday.

They definitely pull above their weight.

We also went out for Mac tuna and there were a couple schools busting the surface sporadically, but they were incredibly difficult to pattern. I had several shots, but never did get eaten.

 

[Vagabond]

World Market has Vegemite.

Just don’t go to the one in Bellevue. Someone takes all of their stock, regularly.

Wonder who that could be…..mate.

Actually found it on Amazon and they’ll deliver to my door with a double bonus as Bellevue would be a two day non-stop trip one way but the real bonus is they carry this also!



Anything with SANITARIUM in the description has been developed for people like me.

You’re off the hook (in more ways than one) Randy. Travel safe, travel light. I’m good.

 

[clarkman]

Wonder who that could be…..mate.

Actually found it on Amazon and they’ll deliver to my door with a double bonus as Bellevue would be a two day non-stop trip one way but the real bonus is they carry this also!

View attachment 160590

Anything with SANITARIUM in the description has been developed for people like me.

You’re off the hook (in more ways than one) Randy. Travel safe, travel light. I’m good.

Sorry man, but I already have a jar in hand and I sure as hell am NOT eating it!