For anyone born or living in the years from 1977 through to 1981, you may remember an American comedy-drama which aired on ABC called, strangely enough, Eight is Enough. While I would not class this as a fishing show, it is somehow strangely related to this article on fly fishing!
A recent trip out from Maningrida with good mate, Chris Nelson, highlighted this. And no he doesn’t have a family of eight!
I help set Chris up with a rod that in his words ‘had to do everything’. Chris was initially wanting something like a #10 weight outfit. While I am a fan of the #7 weight rods, I knew that Chris may be asking for a little more so I opted for a fly rod in the #8 weight range and went straight for a 4-piece TFO #8.
While it may not sound like there is much of a difference between a #7 and #8 rod, it is surprising just how these two vary. The #7 is considered to be at the top end of the ‘lighter’ fly rods while the #8 is at the bottom of the ‘heavier’ range. In short, the #8 has that little bit extra that is sometimes needed, particularly if you are going to fish the blue-water for fish like giant trevally, longtail tuna, Spanish mackerel and the like. All these species are on the ‘hit list’ for Chris so it was only natural that he use a rod that would stand up to these fish.
While we are on the subject of the choice of equipment For Chris’s outfit, for this session I matched the rod up to a Hayden Anti-Reverse FlyReel and ran a Scientific Angler ‘Tropic Express’ line through the guides. What a combo! The Tropic Express is an intermediate shooting line with a fast sinking tip, which is perfect for off shore work and is also well suited for the majority of the estuary situations. A great all round line.
Chris with a little golden snapper (fingermark) that took a liking to the fly as it drifted a little deeper in the water column. We managed three of these for the morning on fly.
Now, the fishing up here of late has been nothing short of red-hot and while the barra have been going nuts in the estuary and headlands, we opted to hit the open water in search of some large queenfish and giant trevally. Lets just say that we weren’t disappointed.
The first cast of the morning had Chris come up tight with a smaller trevally that was pretty quickly subdued and released. After a few more of the smaller fish coming aboard, we moved to another location featuring some exposed rocks on a rising tide. I had fished this spot a week earlier and got ‘humbled’ quite a few times on my #7 weight so I was keen to see if the fish were still there and whether I could actually get some of them to the boat.
Again, we weren’t to be disappointed and it didn’t take long to locate the fish. Chris opted to anchor on a back eddy caused from the tide and came up tight to a good fish on the second cast. Fly line jumped from the deck of the boat as the fish ran hard and straight for the rocks. Yep, giant trevally!
Chris applied some sideways pressure on the rod and used a firm drag to finally turn the fish and lead it out into safer water. Having an anti reverse reel certainly helped as he didn’t have to concentrate on trying not to loose any fingers in the process. A little later and the fish was boat-side for me to net. Thankfully I managed to land the fish on the first attempt and it wasn’t long until the camera was out and the fish was released to swim away. This was the scenario for the next few hours with some good giant trevally being landed.
I was also able to put some runs on the board and land a few on the #7 myself.
Chris with a beautiful little coral trout. Again on a green fly. We managed four of these for the morning.
Reflecting on this later, I do acknowledge that it took a slightly longer time for me to land a fish in the same class as what Chris was able to do on the #8 weight.
Being at anchor was something new to me, as I prefer to go in search of the fish either by drifting or using the electric motor. What I did notice however was that by anchoring in one position we were able to see just how things changed with the tide. I noticed that the fish moved through in schools and the species differed with the change of the tide. Once the giant trevally moved through, they were quickly replaced by queenfish and we then got onto some bottom feeders by letting the fly sink a little deeper in the water column as the run in the tide started to ease.
The species list for the morning included giant trevally, brassy trevally, queenfish, coral trout, cod, golden snapper (fingermark), barracouda and stripey seaperch.
Not bad for a morning in Maningrida and I think I have shown Chris that eight really is enough!
This nice giant trevally certainly raised a sweat on Chris’s brow during the build up to the wet. This was the average size of the trevally that were landed on the TFO 4-piece #8 weight matched to the Anti Reverse Hayden fly reel. A combo well suited to the area.
