Barramundi on Fly
By Bob Ives
I’m of the opinion that fly fishing is to fishing what checkers is to
chess. It’s almost a whole different type of fishing and certainly
requires a lot of skill. If you’re going to win at chess, you need to
know a lot about it. If you’re going to win at fly fishing for
Barramundi, you need to know a lot about that, too. Here are some
pointers that may make you a better Barra fly fisherman in Australia.
Your typical Barramundi fisherman is going to be using standard fishing
gear; a heavy rod, a baitcaster or spinning reel, a fairly heavy line.
But not so for the fly fisherman. The fly fisherman after Barramundi has
quite a chore on their hands – especially if they hook one of these
overgrown fish.
When a Barra hits your fly, be ready because it’s going to run for the
snags. On its way there, it might jump as high as 1m out of the water or
more.
Recommended Barramundi Fly Fishing Gear:
- 8/9 weight saltwater rod.
- A sturdy fly fishing reel with 200m of 20kg backing - a braid is
preferred.
- Intermediate fly line and/or floating weight forward.
- Class leader 1-1.5m of 6-10kg
- Shock tippet of .5 m of 20kg mono
Recommended Flies For Barramundi:
Now that you’ve got the tackle figured out, you will need to pick out
some good flies. You can tie your own, or you can purchase some good
flies from your favorite tackle shop. Some recommended flies include
poppers and frog imitations, Clouser and Polar fiber minnows, Crazy
Charlie, Pink Things, Gold Bombers and Lefty's Deceivers.
Whenever you tie your own flies you should use saltwater hooks around
1/0 to 4/0 size. Vary up the colors by using red/white, pink/white,
blue/white and green/white with a lot of flash. You can add weight to
some of the flies.
Barramundi Techniques
Once you got all the gear and flies together, you need to understand
something very important about Barramundi fishing. They will lie in
waiting to snag a snack as it goes by. So you need to fish accordingly.
In other words, if you see fallen timber, a log, rocks, brush or a
recess in the bank, there could well be a Barra just waiting for your
tempting treat.
Cast beyond that and bring your fly back in. Once you reach the
suspected spot, pause and give the fly a little extra action. This
should inspire a strike. If you don’t get a hit within a few casts to
that spot, the fish is either not there or it doesn’t care much for your
bait. Try different baits or colors, or even a different spot. It’s
worth it because once you hook up, you will be in for the time of your
life. |
