Singapore Peacock Bass & Tilapia on Fly , June 2005.

On this particular trip Singapore was a few day stop over on the way to a holiday in Bali with friends. First thing I did when I got into the hotel was check the yellow pages for tackle shops and was stoked to find a dedicated fly fishing shop COHO Fishing tackle,Bali Lane. After a few hours and a few dollars later I'd arranged to go flyfishing for Peacock Bass the next afternoon at the Lower Pierce spillway with Michael the director of COHO. I think Michael was fishing with a #4 weight flyrod whilst I used Michaels #2 weight Winston 5 piece. The 2 weight was a little hard to get use to as I had only fished with 6,7/8 & 8 weight outfits.The flyline was a SA clear intermediate,the leader 7-8 foot tapered 6lb tippet and flies used were size #4 Gotchas,bead chain Clousers mostly in white/pearl,tan/white and pearl. P.S.the fishing took place after "work hours" for the Public Utilities Board (PUB) ranger that police these public areas. The above photo is myself with Henry(middle) & Michael in Coho Fishing tackle,Singapore. As far as the fishing went I landed 8 bass all around the 28cm mark although not big fish they were fun on the #2 weight .

Thailand Fly fishing with BKKGUY ,October 2010 Part 2 photo's

After the Boon Ma ponds John aka BKKguy suggested catching a couple of new species Snakehead and Pacu at Pilot 111 fishing park with the snakehead turning out to be the highlight of the day - Thanks John what an awesome experience.Check out John's blogspot http://www.bkkguy.blogspot.com/ for other guided fishing trips which I highly recommend. Next time I go I want to do some wild fishing with John for maybe Snakehead and Sebaru (jungle perch) and maybe go up north to fish for Thai Mahseer with John's friend Bobby but that's another time Pat.

Thailand Fly fishing with BKKGUY ,October 2010

If you are a keen fisho and are visiting Thailand for any reason you must look up John of Bkkguy fishing and hook into some great fish and even better professional,friendly and knowledgeable guided fishing. John not only is a great guy he is most unassuming and is constantly working for you to ensure you have every chance at catching personal bests or new species whether it be on fly or lures. John's personal favourites are surface lures and popper flies which means very visual fishing- Awesome he might add. Here are some highlights of Barra fishing at Boon Ma ponds and Toman (Giant Snakehead) and Pacu at Pilot 111 fishing park all caught on self tied flies by myself ,bar one fly the wiggle minnow that accounted for two snakehead. ---All fish were caught on Johns 7/8 flyrod using my Scientific Angler LA 678 reel on a tropical Clouser line with a straight 1.5 m 50lb leader.50LB may seem excessive but one barra managed to cut it clean with it's gill plate and a snakehead had no problem biting clean through it. Flies used were 3/0 Flashtail Whistlers (black/grey-gold flash),#1 cupface poppers (black/red hackle,brown foxtail ), #2/0 Mega hair "things" (black-rainbow flash),#3/0 Bucktail Deceivers (black/grey)with homemade rattles,#2 deerhair Venison flies(black/purple and red),#1/0 Gartside Gurgler(white foam/blue estaz chenille),#1/0 Wiggle Minnow (all white) and #1 Mega hair/rabbit zonker Sculpin pattern(aka V-mans destroyer style). more pics next blog Pat                 

getting started in blogsville

This is my first attempt at blogging to share some of my fishing experiences.I almost exclusively fish using a flyrod now although I use to use soft plastics back in South Australia to mainly target Black Bream,Salmon Trout & school Mulloway. I got into fishing the flyrod to again chase the Bream in SA but found this was alot harder than it looked.Since then alot of water, with fish in it no doubt, has gone under the bridge and I now live in SE Qld where the fishing opportunities are greater. I have now clocked up some 25 different species of fish on fly ranging from Bream,Barra,Flathead,Trevally to more exotics such as Peacock Bass,Giant Snakehead and the Amazonian fruit eater the Pacu touted as the fresh water Permit (see FishingWild magazine issue 10 ,2010.) I most enjoy catching fish on flies I have tied, particularly if I have tweeked an existing pattern with a different material to suit local fish and thier feeding behaviour. A simple example is tying bread flies for mullet that hang in the surface film rather than on top of it with the hook hanging vertically to reduce the flies being pushed and improving hook up rates.This tying method was inspired by trout emerger fly "types" and their adaptions e.g.the wooly bugger emerger and Andrew Grabhams take on the Jack Gartside gartside gurgler where the "bum" of the flies hang at 45 degrees or near vertical to improve hook up rates.see pic of my emerger bread fly and "victims"