mulloway?

[nicmorris]

was thinking of giving mullas a crack on fly any fly suggestions?

[Doug Gasmier]

In the Words of a previous Club president,

"If it aint Chartreuse it aint no use"

Doug

[Rohan]

Nic,
I did a bit of this a few years ago, admittedly in a year when there were a lot of 5-11 kg Mulloway hanging around, mand had some success. I would suggest tying clousers on a 3/0 hook, big game light , sl12 ( 4/0 in that one) or S70S. Use only medium size eyes and tie from the fromt of the eye's only using white or shrimp slinky fibre under and chartruese or yellow over ( i think in hindsight i prefer the yellow ), medium long length and dont be scared to bush it up a bit. The reason for the slinky is that you get a large profile yet is still is light. So from there , once you have the profile you want, shroud the whole thing in regular size shimmerflash , pearl, pearl yellow or pearl green. I like the pearl yellow best for the river. Dont hold back on the amount and make it longer for the most part than the slinky. This fly has lots of flash and profile for use at night, stripped very slowly or drifted WITH THE TIDE from the light strip beside bridges, into the dark under the bridge, which is where Mulloway often sit in ambush. The flash picks up the light from sideon so it is highly visible to the fish in what looks like pitch blackness to us. Best tide is the first hour of the outgoing tide so if you don't have hours and hours to fish , just concentrate on this period regularly. Patience is a must, but this system will work if you stick at it.

Good Luck.

[nicmorris]

cheers rohan very helpful

[Hirdy]

Rohan,

Were you running a floating or an intermediate line when drifting/slow retrieving? At what depth were you aiming to have the fly during the drift or strip?

cheers,
Graeme

[Rohan]

A floating or sink tip would probably work, the water is 5metres or less in most bof the suitable locations and getting to the bottom is not needed, but fishing 3/4 the water depth without getting snagged is the aim, remembering that the fly is usually being moved slowly, and with stops between, a full intermediate seems to work best, even then it snags occasionally. I always used the intermediate for this and remember dredging up quite a few flathead so i must have been getting deep enough. I caught one fish on a 2 sink rate line, that was o.k, tried heavier sinking lines and they proved to be a disaster, could not work the fly slowly enough without getting caught on the bottom, although i did land a few water filled withches hats !

[Hirdy]

Thanks for the info Rohan.

Cheers,
Graeme

[Rohan]

This fly is typical of what caught a lot of mulloway a few years ago....This one is on a 4/0 hook and is around 4-5inches long.

[nicmorris]

feels sinful to tie a fly that heavily dressed would this work during the day as that will be my main hunting period?

[Rohan]

Yes, it will work during daylight, but i personally would probably go down to a 2/0 and slightly lighter dressed, but still with plenty of flash. All depends on what the fish are feeding on really, that fly immitatesc a bony herring pretty well which is no 1 food for mulloway. Sometimes if ther's lots of hardy heads around or anchovies, the fish will take lighter dressed flies. Either way, the only way to guarentee success is to just keep casting until you get one and be patient, cover all the likely spots over and over.