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s a novice fly fisher, I had very little experience and no real preference for target species. So, when the weather lined up with an available day, Andy had a plan in place to show me a few different techniques in varied environments. We left the ramp and headed out into the bay at sunrise to join a gathering of locals fishing a small exposed rock in around 8 meters. As the sun began to peak through the clouds, a few mackerel were falling victim to dead baits on hand lines nearby. With no surface action to be seen, we counted to 30 waiting for our lines to sink before stripping the fly’s quickly toward the surface, a technique known as “dredging”. Andy managed to get one Mackerel aboard to show me how it was done. No matter how uncoordinated at the time, the technique has since worked for me pulling some great fish from deeper waters. As the cloud overhead gave way to a little sunshine, we moved onto a coastal mudflat with prominent rocky features. At the time the flat was a little challenging to find feeding fish, however pushing up into the mangroves along the coast was an absolute eye opener. Andy standing high on the poling platform started to spot a few Barra within the root systems of the mangrove’s. The Barra did show a little interest, yet not enough to set a hook. However, as the tide dropped and the sun became more prominent, it was as if we were in an aquarium. A school of Barra pushed around us in the shallow water from shadow to shadow, whilst a massive Jack lay just out of reach watching from the protection of the dense mangroves root systems. A few blind casts between prominent trees brought my first fish of the day. From what seemed like nowhere came a solid “whack” on the 8wt Redington combo. A solid Grunter (Javelin Fish) was soon aboard, followed by one of its companions not long after. I thoroughly enjoyed the short fights with the Grunter on the edge of the mangroves, and seeing such a large group of Barra schooled together was an absolute thrill, there may have been 20 fish! With the water level decreasing quickly, it was time to check another habitat off the list. So off we motored over to a nearby rocky headland chasing Jack’s. We may not have managed to pull any Jack off the headland on that day, however I did have a ball pulling cod from the rocks. The techniques were very simple and similar between the flats and the rocky headland, two short strips followed
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