Once again myself, Rodney and Co have been thwarted in our attempts to go fly-fishing up North. Myself to join son Craig in Darwin and Rodney and Co. to Hinchinbrook. All thanks to Delta – No not the airline.

Queensland and the Territory have shut us out. It must be very frustrating for guides having their bookings cancelled again and again. But if this is all we have to complain about were are so lucky!
In this issue we are excited to bring you Part 1 of an article featuring Australian fly-fishing, namely in the Wessel Islands out of Gove NT.

Ok, so once again it is from an American magazine, Flylords, and the prose is colourful American, but it is a great article if a trifle long and features many of those species that Rodney and I had hoped to be catching right now.
The Flylords team came down to Oz courtesy of Tourism Australia to do a 3 episode feature on fishing down-under.

Episodes 1 & 2 feature Fly-fishing in Sydney Harbour and the Snowy Mountains, so I am a little out of order but will include these and part two of The Wessel’s in coming issues.

And while I and probably most of our club members could not afford to fly-fish in quite their very comfortable style, Flylords is a popular fly fishing magazine, with many followers, who travel across continents in search of exotic destinations and species. We hope this encourages them to come and try their luck “down-under”.

I was fortunate to fish the Wessels and the English Company Islands in the ‘70s but this was before I discovered fly fishing. There were no charters operating in those days and Elcho Island (Galiwinku) was the only permanent settlement in the area and was serviced three times a week by an old DC3.

Things have changed in almost fifty years but I’m glad to see the fishing re-mains as good as ever. Incidentally I’m sure a lot of the slatey bream we caught were what are now known as “Blue Bastards”. These fish were amongst the first to benefit from the practice of catch and release on my be-half. Not because of some early glimmer of enlightenment but that their eating quality was such that they were not worth filleting when so many other better reef fish were readily available. I never thought that they would be-come a desirable and eagerly sought species.

Iain

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View/download September 2021.pdf

Volume 14, No. 2, September 2021

President's Message	2
Editor's Desk	3
Executive & Committee Members	4
Diary Dates	5
New Auction!	6
Izzy's Words of Wisdom	9
Know Your Fish	10
Fly Tying Bench	12
The Wessel Islands	13
Mount Isa Visit	17
Social Welfare Report	28
Members' For Sale Page	29
Competition	30
Our Supporters	31
Membership Forms	32