Hey Stu, and anyone else out there for that matter ...
Yes, summer is warming up here, and hence, so is the fishing - thank God. All winter I've come into work every day to read what you guys are up to cos I can't get out there myself, but now revenge is on its way!!!!
Seriously though, I've only just started my flyfishing career, and am only now starting to fish the salt, so reading all the advice on this board has been invaluable ... Species wise, we don't have stripers out here, but we do have other things, like flathead, which are actually called Lizards by some cos that's what they look like, and what we call salmon, but are really just an ocean going kind of thing and not a salmonoid at all. We get what we call tailor, which are really just small blues, but then we do get bonito, and albacore, and yellowtail kingfish, and mackerel and stuff, but often you need to be offshore. Oh, and there's Dolphin fish as well, and if you really want to get keen there's Marlin not far out, and big tuna and so on. Mostly though I'll be sticking to whatever I can pick up from the shore, and am quite interested in trying out some of your techniques to see how well they work out here. Saltwater flyfishing is relatively in its infancy here, but there really a
re some inovaters around, finding new species and techniques, so all in all it's quite exciting.
Personally, I live in Canberra, which, unfortunately is inland, but the bonus to that is that some really good trout water is nearby, but I think that I'm going to try and spend more time in the salt this year - you guys have all got me hooked on it!!! (Sorry about that)
Australia generally though, and especially in the more tropical climates has an incredible array of sportfish - many of you might have heard of barramundi, but there is a lot of interesting stuff up there ...
Anyway, I shall endevour to post reports on my success, probably under the heading of "One pound blue on fly - woo hoo!!!!" or something similar, and there wil probably be a lot of questions asked as well!!! It looks like I might have to do a review of the new waders, and see how they handle those "Tough Outback Conditions"!!!! So stay tuned if you still want a fix over your winter!!!
Cheerio then all,
Shannon