Salt Water – Baha Fly Fishing

30Sep 2018 by Warren Prior 1 Comment

My First Session in Australia – Toowoon Bay

According to my blog the last time I flicked a fly was at the 2017 Xplorer UHTFC Festival, which was way back on the 24 September 2017. WOW! I'm truly embarrassed. How can it be that for well over a year I never flicked a fly?! Putting the embarrassment aside for a second, I was massively excited to step out onto the beach, fly rod in hand, with the only 6 flies I own in my pocket. My target? Tailor (that's shad for my South African friends)? Luderick? I wasn't really sure to be honest. I just wanted to wet a fly. My family and I were in Toowoon Bay on camping trip, and I'd managed to sneak away for an hour in the early afternoon. The wind was howling,…

26Sep 2018 by Warren Prior No Comments

Buying My First Flies in Australia

Randoms, Salt Water

[caption id="attachment_2981" align="alignnone" width="1600"] My first 6 salt water flies bought in Australia[/caption] Back in February I sadly got rid of all of my flies, as well as all of my tying material, when immigrating from South Africa to Australia. It was perhaps a little drastic, but considering the volume of natural fibre in both, it seemed like the most logical and simple thing to do. After all, I didn't want to be the next victim of "Border Security." Now while this may have made the packing process easier, it was perhaps little short sighted. With a weekend planned at Toowoon Bay, I headed down to a local fly fishing shop on my lunch-break. Much to my dismay each of the flies I purchased cost around $10 (R100). Considering these…

18May 2018 by Warren Prior No Comments

Bonito in the Bay (and Mackerel)

Bait, Salt Water

[caption id="attachment_2969" align="alignright" width="267"] Nick with a mackerel caught on lure[/caption] A family wedding meant that Sharon, the kids, and I boarded a plane and headed to Brisbane. Nick picked us up from the airport and, much to my wife's dismay, immediately started discussing the day's fishing plans. We dropped the family off at Nick's place, had a quick cup of coffee, hitched up the boat, and headed for Moreton Bay. Conditions on the bay were near perfect - well, for us humans. A warm autumn day with sunny, blue skies and not a breath of wind. The water looked like glass as we skimmed across, it heading for some structure between Peel Island and North Stradbroke. We started the day with some bottom fishing, using squid and pilchards as…

02Jun 2017 by Warren Prior No Comments

Durban Showing Off

Salt Water

[caption id="attachment_2860" align="alignnone" width="1600"] Neill fishing the Durban beachfront[/caption] On Friday morning Neill and I took to the Durban beachfront for a pre-work fish. Despite being winter the water was warm and conditions looked promising for a few wavies. Consistent offshore winds in the preceding days had flattened the swell, other than a rather large shore-break which did hinder fishing slightly. Durban itself put on a great show with a beautiful orange sunrise illuminating the glass-like surface on the ocean. We fished for between an hour and an hour and a half, with not so much as a bump from the smallest wave garrick. This was irrelevant though, as it was great to just be out there with the sand between our toes before a tough day's graft. Fishing was followed by a…

22Dec 2016 by Warren Prior No Comments

Wavies and Cappuccinos

Salt Water

Back before I had 2 children, in the days when my job was less time consuming, I used to often fish before (and after) work along the beaches of KwaZulu-Natal or in the Durban harbour. Those days now seem like a distant memory, although in truth it wasn't all that long ago. This morning I got to relive those days and realised that perhaps they're not out of my grasp, and reminded me that I'm getting a little lazy and that I can still wake up at 4:30am on a work day to get to the water. The fishing itself was very much a non event in terms of size and numbers. We fished a pushing, neap tide for an hour and got maybe five fish between the three of us. They…

25Nov 2016 by Warren Prior No Comments

Fun on Fly at Umngazi River Bungalows

Salt Water, Trip Report

[caption id="attachment_2780" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Sunset at Umngazi River Bungalows[/caption] We recently headed to Umngazi River Bungalows for a week long family holiday. The weather was sadly not ideal (for a family holiday) with most days being overcast and drizzly, with the added benefit of a few spectacular evening storms. On the up side it generally only rained in the afternoons and, despite the clouds, it was still warm enough to enjoy the beach and the pool. Conditions were also good enough to grab the fly rod and head for a quick fish (but then when are conditions not right for fishing?). The water was dirty from recent rains and chats with other anglers weren’t promising as nobody had caught a fish. But you can’t catch without a fly in the water…

10Apr 2016 by Warren Prior No Comments

Back To The Harbour

Salt Water

[caption id="attachment_2543" align="alignright" width="225"] Leo with a nice gurnard[/caption] It's been a while since I've fly fished the harbour. In fact, according to this blog, the last time was back in January 2013 when we got some nice pompano and kingies. News was that it was fishing well so Keegan, Leo, Amy and I headed down for a quick flick. Spring lows were at around midday so we arrived at the harbour at 10:30am. The not uncommon first challenge was that Leo forgot his basket. This was (relatively) easily solved by lurking behind the restaurants and hunting down an old beer crate. This combined with a piece of soggy harbour rope made a great stripping basket and we were back in action. We started fishing near the concrete block and I quickly…

12Feb 2016 by Warren Prior No Comments

A Quick Casino Outing

Salt Water

At one stage Casino beach was probably my most fished venue, being en route to work and close to home. However for some reason this seems to have come to an end and I've barely fished this stretch over the last couple of years. It's never produced large fish, but I've picked up a variety of species here from wavies to African pompano, and shad to thornfish. Even the odd garrick has been known to come out. And since it's sometimes just about getting out there Neill and I decided to have a quick pre-work flick in the waves. Fishing was tough as it was spring highs and the water was dirty from recent rains. Despite this we put in an hour or two and were rewarded with a few small…

26Sep 2015 by Warren Prior No Comments

Over Overlining Fly Rods

Salt Water

While there may be occasions where overlining a fly rod is a worthwhile endeavour, this isn't always the case. I recently made the mistake of packing my gear far too quickly for a family trip to Ifafa beach. While the wife wasn't watching I grabbed my rod, reel, and flybox, and hid them cunningly in the back of the car. I should however mention that when fishing the salt I often bounce between a 5 weight and a 9 weight rod, depending on my target species and the conditions. This chain of events led to a very interesting experience. One evening, when Emma was relaxed and Sharon was enjoying a glass of wine, I grabbed my rod and headed down to the beach to try for a few shad, or whatever…

23Nov 2014 by Warren Prior No Comments

Cape Vidal Trip Report, November 2014

Salt Water, Trip Report

With the windy months having passed us by, and the water warming through the spring months, it was time for another trip to Cape Vidal. Sadly however we battled with booking and managed to secure just a single campsite, meaning that just 6 fishermen could join us on this adventure. I picked up Graeme at 4:30am and we headed to Durban where we met up with Bruce and Laurence. After quickly packing the trailer we hit the road at 5am with Vidal set firmly in our sights. We stopped just twice on route, once for the maditory cup of coffee, and then again for the even more mandatory Wimpy breakfast. The other two adventurers, Neill and Arthur, were already on route from the South Coast Fly Anglers and had agreed to meet us on…