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Fly fishing has unfortunately diminished in popularity over the past years with the big push of new and innovative tackle that captures the minds of most fisherman abroad. However, I can see a new wave of swoffers merging and the popularity increasing as fisherman search for the ultimate experience to fool their chosen adversary.

It has been some 15 years since my first experience with fly fishing but, I must confess, I have not picked up a fly rod for a couple years, mainly due to a shoulder injury. But, I have recently been re-acquainted with fly fishing after meeting a Darwin local who is as mad as a cut snake and loves his fly fishing. Read more…

One of the first things that really stands’ out with fly fishing is the length of the rod used. As discussed before, the nine-foot length is needed mainly for better casting. For the past ten years I have only used standard nine-foot fly rods for all my fly fishing, however I have noticed a gap in my fishing and a slight disadvantage in some areas due to using a nine-foot fly rod.

The main example is fly fishing from a boat. While casting and fighting a fish on fly from a boat is an easy job, it is when the fish gets closer to the boat that you start to wish for a shorter rod. Read more…

In this first part of our series on fly fishing, our author takes us through some of the basics of fly fishing and helps to dispel some of the myths associated with this great way of fishing. After fishing both the fresh and salt water on the fly for more than ten years, I think he is sufficiently qualified to have some opinion on the sport of the ‘long wand’.

Let’s face it, fly fishing has been around since Moses was a kid, yet, there are many people out there (maybe even you reading this article) that still don’t know much about it.

Maybe because you think it is too hard, or too expensive, or even because you think it is only for catching baitfish or fish in the freshwater. There are even some people that think fly fishing is only for top-water fish like trout – and I am not referring to the coral trout either.

For all the reasons mentioned above (and I am sure there are more), fly fishing really isn’t that hard or that expensive. In the simplest of terms, fly fishing really is just another way of fishing and is not that different to lure fishing. In fact, I would argue that the only noticeable difference between lure and fly is the actual delivery of the lure/fly.

Sure, you can argue that is it a ‘specialist’ form of fishing, but so is lure fishing in comparison to bait fishing. Read more…