Flyfishing the Baptist club competition
I thought this week I would put down my thoughts and feelings about this weekends Townsville Baptist fishing competition.
As I am a member and on the committee my feelings are simple. I need to fish and hopefully either land 5 legal fish for catch and release or 5 legal for the main competition. In the competition we can only weigh 5 fish, no more than 2 from one species, therefore we need to find 3 different species for the weigh in. We are fishing an open competition this week so technically we can fish anywhere on the planet as long as we are back for the weigh in at 5pm on Saturday! Normally my plans are simple follow the fish! For me this means checking the local tarpon hole on Friday night to start for about an hour, and then go out on the salt on Saturday from about 5.30am till around 1pm.
Based on the weekends weather reports the chancing of going out on the blue are low. I will wait and see and make a decision in the morning at about 5.00am. For this decision I base it on the seareeze report and the BOM report. Tonight these sights are conflicting so I will have to add my own gut feelings! To be ready in the morning I need to set up the boat and the car for either land based or open water fishing. I am not into barramundi fishing yet so I tend to go out around Magnetic or Rattlesnake Island.
To the fishing
After work I decided to fish the Tarpon spot. I managed to land 5 tarpon, 4 legals and 1 undersized. I used a 5wt St. Croix 4 piece with a shooting head so I could cast against the wind. I had a heavy leader to protect the fly and the fish with my pink and black fly on a new double hook. I fished the spot for 1hr and 15 minutes. I have decided after killing 1 tarpon for my top ten last competition I will not be intentionally killing these fish. So after this afternoons fish I have 2 fish for the legal catch and release competition and 1 fish for the undersized catch and release competition. I need to now find 3 fish from 2 different species to complete the 5 fish. It is always an interesting dilemma to try to work out what to do. I will leave it there for now and let you know how it ends up tomorrow!
As I am a member and on the committee my feelings are simple. I need to fish and hopefully either land 5 legal fish for catch and release or 5 legal for the main competition. In the competition we can only weigh 5 fish, no more than 2 from one species, therefore we need to find 3 different species for the weigh in. We are fishing an open competition this week so technically we can fish anywhere on the planet as long as we are back for the weigh in at 5pm on Saturday! Normally my plans are simple follow the fish! For me this means checking the local tarpon hole on Friday night to start for about an hour, and then go out on the salt on Saturday from about 5.30am till around 1pm.
Based on the weekends weather reports the chancing of going out on the blue are low. I will wait and see and make a decision in the morning at about 5.00am. For this decision I base it on the seareeze report and the BOM report. Tonight these sights are conflicting so I will have to add my own gut feelings! To be ready in the morning I need to set up the boat and the car for either land based or open water fishing. I am not into barramundi fishing yet so I tend to go out around Magnetic or Rattlesnake Island.
To the fishing
After work I decided to fish the Tarpon spot. I managed to land 5 tarpon, 4 legals and 1 undersized. I used a 5wt St. Croix 4 piece with a shooting head so I could cast against the wind. I had a heavy leader to protect the fly and the fish with my pink and black fly on a new double hook. I fished the spot for 1hr and 15 minutes. I have decided after killing 1 tarpon for my top ten last competition I will not be intentionally killing these fish. So after this afternoons fish I have 2 fish for the legal catch and release competition and 1 fish for the undersized catch and release competition. I need to now find 3 fish from 2 different species to complete the 5 fish. It is always an interesting dilemma to try to work out what to do. I will leave it there for now and let you know how it ends up tomorrow!