Welcome to the August edition of Flycast. I know it’s great fun but when I fish for carp I always have a guilty feeling that somehow it is less worthy than fishing for trout or our saltwater species. Not any longer, the humble carp is gradually being recognised as a noble adversary well worth pursuing as demonstrated by the article “Who Gives a Carp?” from FFI’s Fly Fisher Magazine, Summer 2022. Reading many of the online magazines from the USA and the UK, carp are respected as a genuine challenge for the fly fisherman.

Last month’s Caption Competition was won by Fleur whose cheeky sense of humour appealed to yours truly who judged the entries.

This month’s Know Your Fish was chosen as two of our members recently became acquainted with the great barracuda at Hinchinbrook. They reminded me of tale from long, long ago and far, far away when the co-editor and myself took a weeks break at Lissenung Island near Kavieng in PNG.

Whilst I spent my days diving in Albatross passage Bonnie snorkelled the reef just off-shore from the resort. On two successive days when I returned to the island I found Bonnie excitingly telling me that she had en-countered a shy shark on one of the local Bommies. She described it as about six feet long (no exaggeration as it turned out) and difficult to get closer to than 8-10 feet. I decided to accompany her and see for myself.

The small bommie was less than a couple of hundred metres offshore and boasted a large assortment of marine life including one of the largest Barracuda I had ever seen. The barracuda immediately started opening and closing it’s mouth, showing it’s extremely impressive dentition and thus indicating it was not happy with our presence. I warned Bonnie not to go closer whereupon she informed me that this was the “shark” she had been telling me about and that she had tried to approach it several times during her previous visits to the bommie. This little incident is the reason that I write the “Know Your Fish” articles rather than my co-editor.

This month at least three of our members will be travelling to Swansea to participate in the annual Swansea Salmon Classic. I am unable to attend this year as I will be in Darwin. I hope they will be able to tell us of their success in next month’s newsletter. As for me, I hope to gain some consolation in that distant member Craig and myself will have the opportunity to join the “caught a barramundi on fly club” presently only consisting of Julian, Rodney and Don.

May your waders never leak, and you always have a tight line.

Iain

View/download August 2022 edition