I have since spent many mornings on this fantastic fishery chasing pelagics of all sizes with my beloved fly rods (yes I am hopelessly biased towards the long wand) and I will hereafter share some of my thoughts with regards to tactics, tackle, flies and favourite spots.
Successfully targeting pelagics on fly involves a number of factors like the choice of fly line, choice of fly, casting and the retrieval speed, but none of these are more important than finding fish breaking the surface as, once this is achieved, even a half decent cast will in most instances be rewarded.
While there are occasionally some obscure species on Pittwater and Broken Bay at different times of year, the main ones are Kingfish, Salmon, Striped Tuna, Mac Tuna, Bonito, Tailor, and Frigate Mackerel and I will concentrate on these.
The season normally starts in early September with the arrival of Salmon in numbers on their way South to cooler waters. Small pods of the early arrivals make their way up Pittwater and the Hawkesbury/Cowan and are regularly captured off Church Point and Cottage Point early in the season. The main body of fish, however, takes up residence in large schools off Lion Island, Box Head and the Reefs (West and East Reef) providing acres of frothing surface action and some sensational fly fishing for experienced and novice fly fishos alike.
I have often thought Salmon to be the perfect fish for a fly rod. They are mostly of a reasonable size (2 to 3 kg), they don’t have teeth, they pull hard, jump, and best of all, they love Felty’s flies!! Most small minnow patterns will work on Salmon but my personal favourites are #2 Cotton Candies in olive/white, #4 and #1 Clouser Minnows in Chartreuse/White, small Polar Fibre Minnows and a variety of “eyes” imitations for those difficult days when the Salmon are feeding on the tiny bait which we call “eyes”.
Salmon are normally relatively easy to catch on fly given their sheer numbers, but when feeding on eyes they can be exceptionally frustrating. Eyes are tiny baitfish which are essentially transparent except for their silver eyes and hence their name. The difficulty when Salmon are feeding on eyes is the that they actually feed a lot slower than normal with far less aggression which can make them difficult to catch. In these circumstances you need to change to a small fly such as my eyes pattern which you fish with a very slow retrieve using an intermediate (slow) sinking line. By doing this you keep the fly near the surface and in the strike zone for as long as possible thereby substantially improving your odds and its only a matter of time until the line goes taut and a glistening 3kg Salmon burst through the surface on its first run.
The Salmon have normally left for cooler Southern waters by late January but their replacements are certainly worthwhile adversaries.
The first of the Kingfish actually arrive in late September and generally first show up in Pittwater boiling in amongst the moorings on the Eastern side of Pittwater and feeding on eyes off Long Nose Point and in its adjacent Bays. Using “eyes” imitation can be successful but the Kings are far tougher than the Salmon purely due to lower concentrations of fish in each shoal, the lower intensity of the shoal as a whole and the fact that they do not stay up for as long. If you are not having success with an eyes imitation then it is always worth changing to a popper on a floating or inter-mediate line and blooping that across the surface at various speeds. Another idea is to sink a larger fly beneath the shoal to entice one of the larger fish which are inevitably sitting beneath the main shoal. While the Kings may be difficult at this time of year, perseverance is normally rewarded.
In early December things become a whole lot easier when the kings switch onto larger bait and appear to feed with greater intensity. This is probably due to the arrival of the Tailor and Bonito which often feed on the fringes of the Kings creating some healthy competition. Some of the best fishing for Kings I have had has been when they are feeding with larger Tailor and Bonito, as their level of aggression appears to be significantly raised and they take flies quite readily. A wide range of patterns will work on them but my favourites include Clouser Minnows in Chartreuse/White and plain white, white Deceivers, Cotton Candies in Olive/White and plain white, Polar Fibre Minnows in various colours and a few Eyes imitations.
A lot of the action can be found in Pittwater along the Western shores and particularly on the North Eastern side of Scotland Island just off Tennis Wharf which is a favourite spot for the Kings. But the Kings in December and January are also quite prevalent off the front of Barrenjoey and West and East Reef. They don’t show themselves as freely as they do in Pittwater but an early morning cast of a Clouser Minnow on a sinking line near structure can provide some spectacular results and a few burn marks from that unmistakable first run. For best results allow the fly to get to a reasonable depth and then retrieve at speed - you will soon know whether or not it has worked!
In late October the Salmon and Kings are joined by the Striped Tuna and the inevitable Mutton birds that seem to follow them. While the action is initially quite wide it doesn’t take long before the first shoals start to show up between Barrenjoey, Box Head and the reefs on an incoming tide.
Striped Tuna are generally one of the tougher fly captures in Broken Bay for a number of reasons. They are fast, making it hard to get into the right position, they generally don’t stay on the surface for long, and they go like hell once you’ve hooked them meaning that there is an awful amount that can go wrong before you get the fish onto the reel and into the backing.
There are a few tricks to catching Striped Tuna on fly which are worth noting. The first is to watch the Mutton birds as they will tell you where the shoal is and will quickly congregate when the fish boil up. If there are no Mutton birds then go and chase something else.
The second is to use a line that can deliver your fly efficiently and quickly to the feeding fish. I use a fast sinking Cortland 444 Type 6 shooting head attached to Gudebrod braided nylon running line. A shooting head is a third of the length of a normal fly line which is then connected to a very light running line. Unlike a full-length line where you need to get a reasonable amount of line in the air before delivering the final cast, with a shooting head you only need to get a third of a fly line into the air and you are then ready to dispatch it. The principle works in a similar way to the weight of a sinker pulling out nylon, the only difference is that you sinker is a 30ft fly line connected to braided nylon which is slightly thicker than normal. Its not always the prettiest cast in the world, and the presentation of the fly is not always perfect, but it allows you to deliver the fly quickly and efficiently to fast boiling fish which is critical with Striped Tuna.
You may be wondering why I use a fast sinking head. Well its not because I want the fly to sink but simply because it is a high density line which is thin, less wind resistant and can generate quite a bit of speed in the air allowing me to cast a good distance very quickly. The fact that it is a fast sinking fly line does not impair you in any way as you are generally stripping it back so quickly that it remains in the strike zone (top metre of water) for most of the time anyway. It also doubles up as a fast sinking line when you are looking to sink a fly down deep for Kings and other species which is handy.
The third point is to have an observant skipper that is watching the shoal and constantly placing you in its path giving you the opportunity to cast across the front of the shoal as it passes as this is when you are likely to get most of your pick ups. Sometimes you have no option but to approach Striped Tuna at pace simply to get the cast in before they disappear but if possible I try and observe which way they are traveling and then take a wide arc and position the boat in what I believe to be their path.
The final point is to deliver the fly at least 3 meters ahead of where you think the fish are otherwise they will be long gone by the time you start stripping your fly line back. This is obviously not the case if they are boiling up in one spot for a period of time as they sometimes do.
The most successful fly I have used for Striped Tuna is undoubtedly a Felty’s blue/white Cotton Candy.
In late December and early January the Striped Tuna often congregate in greater number close to the shore and feed in more controlled predictable patterns making them easier to target. Prime spots for this type of activity are the front of Palm Beach and the Reefs (West and East Reef). This type of activity can last anything from a few days to a few weeks and this year was one of the best seasons I have seen for a while, with one of our early morning sessions off Palm Beach in early January resulting in 17 takes, 14 hook ups and 11 fish ranging between 7.5lbs and 9.5lbs. And all that by 9.30am!
Striped Tuna have to be one my favourite targets on Broken Bay. They have spectacular speed and often take the fly line and a 100m of backing in seconds which is quite exhilarating.
You position the boat in the path of the oncoming fish and steady yourself for the cast. You can hear the noise of the leading fish in the shoal bursting through the surface towards you. Your heart is racing and the adrenalin is flowing as you wait for the ideal moment to deliver your fly in front and slightly adjacent to the mayhem. At last they are close enough and you release the cast…. wait for it too land….and frantically gather the line and start stripping it. At that moment a 4kg rocket lights up, changes direction ever so slightly and pounces on your fly, and you’re on.
For a split second thereafter there is a perverse pause and the world seems to go into slow motion almost in anticipation of what is to follow. The tension in those milliseconds as the fish realises that it is hooked is unbearable but is soon relieved as ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE!!
Fly line running through your fingers faster than you can imagine and your frantic efforts to keep it in some form of control as it leaves the floor and inevitably burst into the air before running through your hand and the eyes of the rod. Finally you are onto the reel with the spool now spinning in a blur of anodized aluminum and Bionic Braid with backing whistling through the eyes of your rod as the fish continues on its first blistering run.
As the fish changes direction heading for the relative safety of deeper water, the backing cuts through the water creating a rooster tail and an incredible hissing sound as the arc straightens and the line battles to keep up with the sheer pace of the speediest of our Broken Bay pelagics.
After 4 such runs and a tussle under the boat, the fish is finally landed and quickly weighed on the Boga Grip at 9.5lbs before being torpedoed back into the water and released.
Just another day in pelagic paradise or “God’s Country” as its known to the locals.
Bonnies and Tailor are generally the first pelagic species that one catches on fly and they are great fun on light tackle. I have had many a day where the bigger species have been absent and I may have ended the morning without catching anything had it not been for these two. Both species are quite widely distributed and show themselves with enthusiastic surface action. Bonito and Tailor readily take a wide variety of minnow patterns including Clouser minnows, Deceivers, Cotton Candies, Electric Minnows, Glass Minnows, Epoxy Bunnies, Polar Fibre Minnows and many others. Small surface poppers can also provide some great fun on these species.
These little pocket rockets normally make their appearance in late January and normally stick around for a couple of months providing some superb fun on light gear. Small baitfish patterns work well on them and its always handy to have a few “eyes” flies as well. They generally like a fast retrieve except when using an eyes imitation when it needs to be slowed down quite considerably. I have recently come up with a new pattern which has proved to be an absolute winner on these sometimes difficult fish, and hope to have it released soon.
Mac Tuna often make their appearance in Autumn on their way north and can provide some stunning action for a few weeks while they terrorise the bait fish in Broken Bay, Pittwater and the Hawkesbury. They at times can be found right up Pittwater and the Hawkesbury and in fact some of the best local Mac fishing I have had, believe it or not, has been in the shallows in front of the Church Point car park or at the entrance to Cowan.
Rods - I carry three SAGE Rplxi (two piece) rods on board in weights #6, #8 and #9. I believe it is important to use a rod that it light, powerful and a pleasure to cast and my SAGE rods certainly fit into this category. Most of my fishing is done on the 8 weight, but I switch to the 9 weight for the Striped Tuna in order to get them in a little quicker and improve their survival rate upon release. The 6 weight comes in handy on Tailor, Bonito as well as for some light action on Salmon. But if I only carried one rod, it would certainly be the 8 weight.
Reels - I use FELTY fly reels in sizes 678, 810 and 911 on my 6, 8 and 9 weight rods respectively. It would be inappropriate for me to comment on the reels but you can visit www.felty.com.au to see what others have to say.
Lines - I generally use only two lines. The first is a shooting head set up using a Cortland 444 type 6 fast sinking shooting head on a 100ft Gudebrod running line. This is ideal for fast moving fish in that it allows you to cast quickly and accurately. I also use this line for any deep water work I do as it sinks very well. The second line I use is a Scientific Anglers Striper line (old type) which casts wonderfully and sinks at a intermediate pace making it ideal for slower retrieving that one sometimes has to do on Salmon and Kings. But if I had to choose one line then it would probably be the Striper line as it is a pleasure to cast and can be used for most applications.
Leaders - Leaders can easily be constructed using Maxima mono. My leaders have three sections of roughly 2.5 ft each resulting in an overall length of approximately 7.5 ft. On the shooting head I have a 30 lb butt section, 20 lb mid section and my tippet ranges between 8lb and 12 lbs. On the striper I increase the butt section to 40lb. The butt section ends in a perfection loop. The mid section has a bimini knot on each end which is then loop to looped to the butt section and tippet section respectively. The loop on the tippet section is created using a bimini knot as well.
While fly fishing is a prolific way to fish, it means a lot more to me than just catching fish. It’s the excitement as you prepare the night before, the expectation as you discuss the reports that have filtered through during the week, the anticipation as you head out in the crisp morning air. It’s the adrenalin rush as you see bait shower and a fish break the surface, it’s the grace of the cast, the excitement of seeing a fish follow your fly. It’s about having the line in your hands as you retrieve and literally feeling the take and the fish’s first run as the line slips through your fingers. It’s about being hopelessly outclassed by fussy Salmon one day, only to come up with a pattern that clobbers them the next. It’s about releasing the fish in the knowledge that you succeeded but without imposing too much on this wonderful fishery of ours. And finally its about sharing, sharing a morning with a mate who will have the memory for as long as you will, and sharing experiences and tactics with others to both improve your knowledge and to possibly help them to make their outings more successful and rewarding.
While there are a number of different tactics, lines, and flies that will bring success, I hope the above notes on the tactics I use will assist you.
Tight lines
Felty