New Flytying Websites and techniques

I came across this website the other day and they had some really god info on trying saltwater flies. the link takes you to the newsletters which has some great stuff and if you sign up you get some great tips come through your mail. I have also added another link which is to a fly developed by guy who does this website and the technique is broken down into a very detailed step by step.

http://www.saltyflytying.com/newsletters-archive.html

http://www.frontrangeanglers.info/newsletter/oct12/New-Directions-in-baitfish-construction.html

I have been busy tying some new flies so as soon as I get some decent pictures I will post them with instructions.

Kahawai bust up

wow had the most amazing days fishing yesterday. went out fishing in Whangaparoa where i was fishing the rocks, fishing was slow to start until i got chatting to an old fella who came down fishing and we noticed some birds coming around in big numbers further round the rocks and realised there was a work up. I tore off round the rocks and managed to put a bungled cast in close proximity and i was into my first kahawai. I quickly bled it and put another cast in and was into another one but unfortunately i got broken off. by now the work up had gone but i noticed it back where i had started so tore off back to the start. i quickly got my line in and within minutes had another 2 fish including one horse of a kahawai. i had a yak to the old guy again and found he had gotten a couple of snapper. seems the snapper sit under the kahawai and hoover up the leftovers coming down. I was almost going to go home when i noticed it was moving towards the beach so i tore off round and the action was all on again with a massive bust up that was just boiling with fish. a few of the locals had now come down with kids and some were fishing soft baits and catching nothing and i was straight into fish after fish. i gave a few away and got one of the kids to play one of the fish i had. the action just never stopped and by 4pm i had to go and pick up my wife from work. there were dead anchovies galore littering the shore from being washed up and i am sure it would have come round again.

here's a link to something similar to what i saw although not quite as hard out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V62ccbLY604


here is a photo of the fly i was using

Whangaparoa

well I finally managed to land my first snapper in the middle of the day. all my fish so far have been in the dusk part of the day as this seemed to be when the fish go on the feed but on Friday I was out fishing around 9am and managed to get busted off on one fish then landed another snapper of about 32cm.

one of the issues with going for a days fishing is keeping it fresh until the time you get home. i managed to go buy some salted ice which you can only buy in large bags.(bit overkill for one fish) i am thinking maybe i will have to start making my own salted ice and take it with me.

also of  note that i changed up the weight of my fly and after these two hits in this spot i got nothing more. part of it i think is that when you catch a couple of fish it puts the others down much the same as fresh water fishing so either you need to get the fly closer to where the fish are or rest the area up a bit before trying again. this may not be possible if the area you have is only a small stretch.

I had some visitors while I was there including one stingray and one bronze whaler shark. it gave me a heck of a fright as I had just jumped off a rock into water thigh high and it came swirling around only 2metres from me and then took off.

I am now starting to build up some good spots and I would now like to explore some more of this area so that I can move around a bit more and keep fishing fresh water

Snapper Taps

Well last saturday nights fishing was interesting. i have been getting into leaving my fly to settle more in between retrieves and keeping the retrieve to a few small strips and found that i have been getting strikes while the fly is stationary but i have also had a few where i felt the fish on so i struck and nothing.

One thing that i have a bad habbit of is the old trout strike where i lift the rod up and pull the line. When there is nothing on you then have a situation where you have taken the fly out of the zone and away from the fish. on making some enquiries on the saltwater blog there is a consensus that leaving the fly in the zone and then a small twitch will bring the fish back on the fly again and what i am feeling is the fish nipping at the tail.

Thus the best thing I can do is not to strike and let the fish take the fly on its own and once this has happened strike by pointing the rod at the fish and pulling on the line. if the fish doesn't take off wait and after few seconds give the fly a small twitch.

sounds easy but years of trout strike in competitions gives you a gut reaction to movement on the line and it may take a while to wean me off this.

Pt Chev

well this was an interesting night. turns out that an incoming tide and north westers turn the water so murky i don't think the fish would ever see the fly even if it was right in front of them. would have been better to try somewhere other than the harbour

Whangamata

I had the opportunity to got to Whangamata for new years and was keen to have a go salt water fly in the estuary. i had not been here since i was a kid and had no idea about the area and how to fish it. As we were staying with friends that didn't have kids we decided that we would get out of the house early each morning to hang out at the estuary have breakfast and entertain our 14 month old son.
The mornings were the best part of the day and the beach was stunning first thing as the sun came up.

I fished my way to the mouth and found the kahawai were sitting in the wash and were keen to have a go at my fly. I managed to get 10 kahawai on the first day and 4 on the second. some small kids were interested in what i was doing and got all excited when they were able to touch a small kahawai that i had caught.

For anyone wanting to go to Whangamata and fish the area here is a quick low down on what i found while i was there.
 

















1. There is a pippy bed right in the middle were the boy is if you can cast as close to it as possible.
2. On the incoming tide there is a current line that carries on past the tip of the sand point in picture that holds fish but this changes when tide starts going out.
3. the was at the mouth has fish sitting just behind it.
4.i saw some fish jumping right on the far side so if you can manage to get across there you could fish all round the rocks to the point
5. i didn't manage to fish in the surf at the mouth but i am sure kahwai would be there cruising along picking food out of the surf.
6. i have had read that the harbour inlet at the northern part of Whangamata is good but will have to try this next time.

Even though i only had a small amount of time to fish this and learn as much as i can much more time is required to fully learn the whole area and the best spots.

Auckland Flats fishing

went out at high tide to a spot that i had fished plenty of times before but had not had much luck. I went there this time with some of the guys from the fishing club. I now know the easy way to get across to where to fish.
I managed to get one small kahawai on the mirror image interceptor pink and noticed there were loads of kahawai following my fly when i retrieved so i switched to a crease fly and had a great time catching 20cm kahawai. got 5 in total before switching to polar flash clouser and got another 5 on a fast retrieve.

one of the other guys managed a couple of snapper and something really large that managed to bust him off.

interesting i think what is possible from this spot.

i think from this experience what i have learned is that it is best to fish a couple of spots continuously until you know them really well and know how to fish than fish different spots all the time and never really get to know how it fishes. i now have 3 good spots that i now know like this.