Stinky Tilapia on the Green

Last night I went for a fish with the NQ fly fishers club. We hit up the local golf course targeting Tilapia and tarpon. The ponds are also home to legal sized barra but the season doesn't open for another couple days. No tarpon or barra were landed to my knowledge but another angler caught a fresh water eel. Acouple other anglers including my self were able to land afew Tilapia. Tilapia are a pest fish that are invading the waters of Queensland killing of the native species so the are killed and discarded after they are caught. Tilapia can be caught with almost any small fly tripped slowly and usually strike near the bottom where as tarpon strike closer to the surface. A Tilapia strike feels much like a tug similar to a Rock Bass or Bluegill where as tarpon hit and take off  hard. 

Tilapia fly

In acouple days my inflatable kayak should arrive and I am defiantly looking forward to test out all the cool spots I have been looking over with google maps.

Shallow water sand bottom structure near reefs and rubble!!! 

I have also been looking into acouple diy projects including a stripping basket, push pole and floating gopro platform for filming underwater barra strike!!  I'll be posting about these when they are finished.

The First Steps: My First Couple Weeks Down Under

So I've been living in Townsville for acouple weeks now and am really enjoying the place. Quite, ocean, rum, and awesome fishing potential is how I can summarize the last couple weeks. I am here to attend James Cook University Marine Biology program, hopefully it will help my fishing, but that is rather irrelevant since this is a blog about fly fishing.

Coming to Townsville I was fresh meat when it comes to saltwater fishing and I only really started fly fishing acouple months before. I have learnt tons over the last couple weeks even though I have had rather crap luck at catching fish. I will use this post to jot down some of the things I have learnt so I can check and see if they hold true.


-its all about the tides. fish the very top and very bottom
-look for holes in the sand on low tide caused by goldens digging for yabbies and crabs. also look for flat head lies
-always cast at bait
-too much bait is a bad sign, often means nothing is eating them, no bait is also crap
-full moon=shit fishing
-bigger tides means hotter shorter feeding times
-neap tides offer clearer water but less activity
-clouser, shrimps and crabs are what works on the flats for most species, also match colours to suit bottom and when fishing for bottem feeding fish, choose a fly that hits the bottom in 3 seconds
-watchout for crocs, stingers, and sharks. wear long pants when wading and tuck into socks
-fishing the snags and pressure points when targeting barra. they are lazy so you need to really get your fly in there
-most goldens on the flats can be found in 1-3 feet of water
-wade slow and do the stingray shuffle
-lead, sink, pause-strip-pause, when going for goldies
-casting behind large rays can often be rewarding


Armed with this basic knowledge I have have been hitting the local flats around Pallarenda with minimal success however I do know that the fish are there. I have heard from local gurus that the fishing has been very slow the last couple weeks and that I need to keep trying and hitting up the same location. I the weather is supposed to be crap the next couple days so I will be using this time to devise a plan to start catching more fishing.