Surface patterns

[firephish]

Thanks steve, Ill have to keep trying!

It makes the whole Breede situation look a lot more frightening.

That must have been hectic

I must say i float tubed the breede at bontebok national park and couldn't get the thought of those zambies out of my mind ... anyone know how far upsteam they come?

Bank of subjet those bangers look fantastic ... my favourite popper by far

[Gerrit Viljoen]

In the region of 20km if I remember correctly!!

[swsmith]

Tagged one swam 27km up river.......

Peter that's hectic man......I have swam across a channel I couldn't stand in twice......once this season(stupid) and once about 6 years ago.....crazy stuff man.

Thank goodness the way we fish the bank know we are never deeper than waist deep in quite clear water.

But the question remains......did you catch ur grunter

[poppernel]

Tagged one swam 27km up river.......

Peter that's hectic man......I have swam across a channel I couldn't stand in twice......once this season(stupid) and once about 6 years ago.....crazy stuff man.

Thank goodness the way we fish the bank know we are never deeper than waist deep in quite clear water.

But the question remains......did you catch ur grunter

Waist deep is just perfect
for a zambezi/bullshark.

Dave

[petercoetzee]

Tagged one swam 27km up river.......

Peter that's hectic man......I have swam across a channel I couldn't stand in twice......once this season(stupid) and once about 6 years ago.....crazy stuff man.

Thank goodness the way we fish the bank know we are never deeper than waist deep in quite clear water.

But the question remains......did you catch ur grunter

I keep one of those intex one man boats in my pack now just incase

and yip... affirmative on the grunter. If the weather holds out im going to fly up to Swartkops next weekend to have a go at those suicidal specimens

[MichaelS]

Seems most of the guys chatting on this subject are contributing from WP. Here is a VERY brief GP response.

The only Salt I have done was doing time and basically educating myself around Knysna, Sedgefiled and Wilderness. Basically trying to chase the impossible grunter and hoping for a Leerie but more importantly, learning how to cast properly, start building up the equippment and look at what is important in terms of conditions, tides etc. I learnt a lot and managed a small Leerie out of Knysna on a Chartruese Charlie from the back of the yacht by the yacht club midday. I was fishing an intermediate and sunk the fly a little but have learnt of better spots and got more flies to test when I am back down.

The major schooling and experience I had was in Kosi mouth where we stormed the mouth for 3 days solid. What an experience and learning curve on what true saltwater fishing is about in the waves. I am still getting to learn about the tides and when the best times where but found, and obviously so, that Kingies are very specific in terms of what they chase. We were also being VERY specific in targeting kingies. Once again, I had the intermediate line on but landed fish on a chartreuse surf candy, small salty bugger and then 3 on a bait fish pattern (2 fish on chartreuese and 1 on a tan colour). I did have a knock or two on a large semper and found I got more response out of the bait fish patterns. I didn't see any action on the surface and so didn't really try a flipper (only surface fly I had) as the action was happening just under the surface. We had fished the area on a Spring tide but apparently there was massive storm surge coming from the north which churned up the sandbanks at the back pretty badly and so the action in the mouth had apparently dropped.

I am very keen to try the bait fish patterns on Leerie but general school of thought it seems is to stick with crease flies and flippers? Have you guys also managed to explore more of the shore rather than rivers and estuaries? i.e. Geereke's point in Sedgefield or flat rock by wildderness? Lines you guys use?

Reading from all your posts, I have learnt a thing or two about the Grunter but see I have my work cut out for me to still try and land one.

Tnx for the info guys.

[swsmith]

Hi micheal......thanks for ur post.

I think that most guys who fish a surface fly do it for the visual stimulation.nothing better than watching a leeire chasing down on ur fly.however there is always time to throw a sub surgfave pattern and I have found myself fishing a brush type fly more often then not and with good success.

In a closed estuary I won't bother throwing a surface fly unless I can see visible chases.I always fish sub surface.open estuaries and reef fishing ill switch btw the 2.I don't have experience in the reef areas u mentioned so can't comment.tight lines and hope u get ur big leerie soon.

[MichaelS]

Hi Stephen,

Thanks a mil for the reply and added info, will certainly chop n change a few flies between brush, clousers, charlies and surface patterns to see what works, but I couldn't agree with you more, it must be a great sight seeing a Leerie chase down a surface pattern.

In terms of stripping and speed of the fly, do you normally use a double handed retrieve and pull as fast as you can with the sub-surface flies or is there a variable in speed? Would you normally cast across a channel, let the line and fly sink a bit and then strip it along the channel to try entice the buggers out??

Thanks again for your post, and hoping to land a decent Leerie soon!

[swsmith]

Hi micheal.

I use a single handed strip and I catch fish.my mates I fish with use an adapted 2 hand strip and they catch more fish than me.I fish that way cos I'm used to it and its comfortable to me.when I fish subsurface its a consistent fast strip but if u fish a surface fly it must speed up if you been chased.the moment u slow down they will loose interest.

I wouldn't worry with the charlies.......unless you can only target small fish on a 5w or so.....

Leeries aren't shy for a big fly.......certain wc anglers throw 9o deceivers at them,with good results.

As for the casting......apparently leeries more than often are looking up.so that's why surface flies work so well.we mainly fish intermediate lines so we can cast surface and subface flies.so when casting into a channel u can strip straight away or allow ur fly a chance to sink.best option is to fan cast and cast parallel to the dropoff.sometimes the fish cruise right up against there looking for baitfish.

Well I'm no expert but I hope this helps.maybe the guys will contribute further wrt this.

Tight lines.....Stephen