Flying For Sooties

[Colo77]

I've decided to actively target sooties with lures & flies. I can get amongst a few with the lures, but not going so well with the long wand. I know a spot where I havn't failed to get at least a couple of sooties each session on lures but I can't seem to get 1 of the buggers to nail a fly.

For the record, I've been casting purple & green bass vampires & similar with no sucess (not even a touch). Retrieve style has been 2-3 short sharp rips, pause, repeat (trying to replicate what I'm doing with the hard bodies). I'm using floating line (don't have intermediate or sinking) & I'm fishing for em mostly in a river (occcasionally impoundments).

An early morning session last wednesday resulted in 5 sooties in the boat , 3 of which hit the lure right on the edge of the bank a couple of seconds after touch down b4 i commenced my retrieve, so I will be tieing on some liitle poppers next time I fish there early morning to see how I go. Retrieve styles for poppers are a no brainer, it's the sub surface lures I need some guidance with.

Just wondering if anyone can give me a couple of gentle nudges in the right direction when it comes to flies & retrieve styles. I am very much a novice & have only ever landed 1 fish at a barra farm, & had a few strikes by kamakaze tarpon that never seem to find the pointy bit.

I'm gonna hit the sooties pretty hard with the fly & gain some confidence with them b4 I move on to other species (barra, jacks etc). I assume similar principles will apply for different species as with lures. Any tips offered will be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Colo

[Kelvin Williams]

Try heavy eyes painted red.
You do need a sinking line, to deliver the fly into the strike zone.
Regards
Kelvin

[Dick Pasfield]

G'day Colo

Personally don't fish fly but my young fella does and he's not bad on the sootys. So I can relate to you what works for him.

Kelvin's right you need to get the fly down to the fish, although they can just as easily be just under the surface when there's a bit of cover around. When young fella only had a floating line we added a couple of metres of nylon leader and used weighted flies like clousers to get down to the fish. That worked a treat. He now used an intermediate line.

Have posted some pics of some flies that have worked, must admit black with a touch of red or green seems to be deadly across here.

Sootys are a great choice to learn on they require accurate casts and will take most things you have to offer, fight's not bad either. Good luck with them you wont be disappointed

I'm sure that others on this site with more experience could add to this.

[Macfly]

I did well on Pink Things in Northern WA a few months ago.Short fast strips did the trick.

Good luck.

[Colo77]

Try heavy eyes painted red.
You do need a sinking line, to deliver the fly into the strike zone.
Regards
Kelvin

Been without a computer for a couple of weeks but I'm back

Early morning they were taking floating lures off the surface (i always pause after casting b4 I start the retrieve) & they were smashing it just as I was about to give it that first twitch . But through the day I assume getting that fly (or lure) down deeper would be a good idea. 2.5 - 3 metres will probably be ample .

I'm using a floating line (weight forward 8wt) but I guess a long leader & a heavy fly would be the goods. I twist my own tapered leaders so can easily make them up at different lengths to suit prevailing conditions.

The longer the leader the more difficult to get it to roll over nicely????

Colo

[fghjkl]

Hi mate, ive only got a couple on fly in impoundments, im usin weight forward line and long 2.5m 16lb leader. Flys are fairly simple olive or green clousers with heavy eyes to get down to em, bass vampires in green and for shallow presentation black and barred or pink thing. Early morn or late arvo, throw ya lil poppers round.

Cheers,
Joel