Just a quick post to share couple of pictures I’ve taken this year while exploring the Snowy and the Blue Mountains. Didn’t get to land too many fish, or anything of a decent size worth taking photos of, during the period from February up until end of May. Just did not have much luck on
This year I didn’t get out to chase bass as much as I would have liked to, and ended up doing more exploring than actual fishing. I did find a couple of new access points for the next year when I would bring my packraft along for an overnight hike. Also managed to find a pretty decent camping
Managed to put together a quick video from the bass fishing trip we did to the Mid North Coast couple of months ago. Just before things got quiet and bass moved all the way downstream to their spawning grounds. We were still able to get occasional hits off the top but most of the fish were already sitting deep in the water column and much more keen on hitting a bass vampire or a clouser type of fly.
Had an awesome Saturday morning flyfishing the beautiful Sydney Harbour. Big thanks and a shoutout to a local guide Ben Foster from the Endless Session that took us out on the water despite the poor weather forecast. It got quite windy and rainy at times, but we managed to find couple sheltered bays
My old mate Dal (Dalius) was in town visiting for a week. So we had a plan to do a trip somewhere outside of the city. Because it being a peak of the summer and the temperatures scorching way into 40s we thought it’s better to spend some time camping somewhere on the coast rather than going
The first fly I would like to share - is the good old Stimulator. It's a well know fly pattern and there's no magic to it. It's super popular in the States probably because of how well it imitates a larger stonefly that they have over there. I guess in Australia this fly would be a better representation of a grasshopper, which meadows along the rivers are full of. The colour spectrum of those things is incredible - varying from deep red to bright yellow.
Mark Knopfler – the former lead guitar player and singer of the Dire Straits. Probably he needs no introduction to the most people who are into 80-90s rock. His solo albums have been on top my to play list when flytying or driving down to my next fishing destination. His 2015 year album called Tracker is one of my favorites so far.. The whole setlist just brings such a cool vibe from the Scottish Country inspired tune “Laughs and Jokes and Drinks And Smokes” , to the more uptempo solo guitar driven song “Beryl”. And the highlight for me – such a sweet mellow song called “River Towns” about a tugboat mate who gets to spend every day at the different river town. How good is that? Have a listen, even if you’re feeling doubtful about it.
Had a pleasure to meet and get some tips and advices from one of the biggest legends in fly casting world – Simon Gawesworth. Simon is mostly known for being a Sage, Redington and Rio ambassador. Flyshops all over the world are full of his books and DVDs, Youtube is loaded with his casting videos and demonstrations. But from all the videos that I’ve watched, the one that stood out for me was his Single Handed Spey Casting series. And that’s what I was trying to bother him the most on as seen from the photos. I think Australian and New Zealand rivers are perfect for this kind of casting, but for some reason haven’t got that much of attention as elsewhere in the world. Anyway, an afternoon well spent – some new gear tried and some new people met. Always great when that kind of personality arrives to your local park, 15minutes away from home. Happy days.
