Saltwater Flyrodders

Buoyed by recent reports of Mulloway in the Murray, and a long held desire to add this to the species list, I decided to try a location where my daughter had caught one on bait last year. It's just across and down the other side of the river from our caravan park. Second cast came up tight to a soapie sized Mulloway. Cam raced back to the caravan, grabbed the camera and took some shots before release. Beautiful colouring in the late afternoon light.
next mission...Cobbler on fly at night

Very nice Gav - well done!

Great stuff Gav,
Them new club hats have some fish mojo

Don't you look bloody stoked! Nice work Gav!

Interested in trying for cobbler at night too, would certainly be interesting fishing some of the skinny water in the swan.

Well done Gav nice soapy.

Awesome Gav, love the light in that photo mate, I presume you caught it on an olive over white clouser ?

Well done Gavin!!!

...and so the story continued....
the following day thought I might head across to the same snag for a quick fish before dinner.
First cast - Mulloway - great I thought - still there! Next cast - another hookup - but this fish pulled me into the snag and the fly line came belting back towards me with fly still attached. Continued to cast at the snag for another 20 minutes and was getting loads of hits but no hookups. At the time I thought they were just being fussy. It wasn't till I returned back to the caravan, and de-rigging, that I realised the hook had been broken just below the eye! Thoughts of what could have been??
The following day we returned back from a day trip to the Ferguson Valley just before sunset and naturally I headed across to the snag again to fish the evening twilight.
First cast...Mulloway...headed back to the van for a quick photo (per below) then back to the snag - what followed was pure magic - managed to catch and release eleven Mulloway in an hour from that snag - and the only reason I stopped fishing was it was so dark I literally couldn't see the snag anymore. Nearly every cast had resulted in a hookup.
The following morning I returned before sunrise and pulled another four - once the sun came up it shut down.
Then the weekend came - the boat traffic increased, the water quality deteriorated with the wash, the water movement was non-existent at the crucial times - and not a single bite!
Learnt a lot from the experience - The darker it got the more veracious the bite; they like some run in the water; I like my TCX 6wt again; check your fly regularly !
That one amazing night it all came together - the clear water quality, the gentle runout tide that created the perfect drift, no wind and the fish taking cover on that snag - sometimes the planets line up perfectly and that night was one that I will never forget.

Sound likes really great experience mate! I had a similar one last weekend watching HUGE pink snapper tailing in the wash in a protected bay in Denmark. Massive hump headed buggers in water barely deep enough to cover their backs, never seen anything like it! They didn't like any of my flies unfortunately but I'll be back for another go before too long

Great stuff Gav,
Must be the "Yunderup Tux" that you are wearing, combined with the club hat and you just oooze Fish MOJO mate
cheers