I first came across the Blue Bastard in the Gulf of Carpenteria. It was a fairly common catch on bait and was then known as “Slatey Bream” because of their colour which was thought to be slightly bluer if they inhabited shallower water.

In the past couple of decades this fish became known principally to fly fishers as the “blue bastard” referring to its blue sheen in life, reluctance to take a fly and difficulty to land once hooked. It was only when fly fishers found this species to be a challenging target that it received the publicity that raised the interest of Queensland Museum ichthyologist Jeff Johnson who carried out research and formally identified the blue bastard as a new species of sweetlip in 2015. His research revealed that although similar to the sombre sweetlip (Plectorhinchus schotaf) and the painted sweetlip (Plectorhinchus unicolor), the bastard can be distinguished by colouration, modal dorsal and pectoral-fin ray counts and DNA barcoding (something beyond the capability of your average fly fisher).

The scientific name given is Plectorhinchus caeruleonothus. Caeruleo means blue and nothus means bastard. As the name implies, these fish glow blue in the water, and they are bastards to catch being very spooky and fickle.

The Blue Bastard is found over sand, rubble and reef substrates, although it prefers intertidal areas or reefs in shallow water. They are a uniformly silvery-grey sweetlip with the cheek and gill cover bluish-grey. They can grow to over a metre and feed mainly on crustaceans. A As for flies, Mr Johnson says that it’s best to use artificial crab flies and “things that look vaguely like crustaceans”. But he warns that the fish tend to ignore them most of the time – they’re called “bastard” for a reason. In his 2010 book ”A few great flies and how to fish them” Peter Morse, who was one of the writers who brought this fish to the attention of the world, recommends the “Squimp” fly.

Johnson said it was amazing that the blue bastard had remained elusive for so long, given its reputation in the fly-fishing community. If it was not for fly fishers the bastard may have remained the slatey bream for some time to come.

Take a bow, gentlemen