To say Mike Neuman and I have been eagerly waiting for our first day fly fishing the flats together in the Wessel Islands of Australia is an understatement. I booked this Yellow Dog Flyfishing hosted trip 18 months ago and Neuman was one of the first to sign up. I’m happy to say, today we finally made our opening casts.
This adventure is more thrilling than just the fact that we’ve been excited about it for over a year. December 3rd will go down as Mike’s first ever day of fly fishing the flats. Not the Texas redfish flats. Not Mexico for bonefish. Not Belize. Mikes first flats cast was in the Wessel Islands for goodness’ sake!
Neuman has lots of things to learn – things like how to stay calm when the fish of your life is feeding carelessly 40 feet away, how to take directions from a saltwater guide that’s just as freaked out, develop the knack for spotting a cruising fish with clouds overhead and make an often long and accurate cast during a 27 mph gust. Mind you, connect all the above in a matter of seconds. I’m pleased to say Neuman found it easy to laugh at his mistakes and was enthusiastic to learn. And our guide, Tiger Davey, Tiger is a true pro and was happily up for the challenge.
We left our mothership, the Wildcard, at 7:50 AM. We had about a 30 minute run. The weather was delightful (unusual for Neuman and I by the way). We had mostly sunny skies and light wind. I’ve been on the bow most of my life so when we arrived at our first spot, I kicked back and watched. For me, I wanted nothing better than to watch Neuman connect with his first powerful flats fish.
If you’ve fished the flats in the western hemisphere (FL Key’s, Bahamas, Belize or Mexico), here is different. Where Americans typically flats fish, guides stand on a platform in the back of the boat and move you along with a push pole. In Australia its different. Here you share the flats with massive saltwater crocodiles. Hanging off a small flats boat isn’t advised. Instead the boats are larger and too large to pole. In Australia the guides propel and steer their boats with electric motors. The biggest difference, and something I had to get used to last year on Australia’s West Cape, is that the guide stands right behind you.
Neuman and I have been fishing together since college back in the early 80’s but fly fishing for him didn’t start until my 50th birthday celebration on the Henry’s Fork a decade ago. Since then he’s grown to love it and now its almost all he does. Mike even tied all his own flies for this expedition. While Mike was fast to catch on to seeing cruising fish and execute a quick cast, his saltwater hook setting methods need some work. When dry fly fishing for trout we set the hook with a quick upward snap – referred to as the “trout set”. In saltwater the trout set doesn’t work. Saltwater fish have hard mouths and hook sizes are typically larger and harder to drive in. It’s imperative to do a “strip set” like with streamer fishing for trout.
Mike enjoyed lots of action from the bow today. Early in the day he had a few casts at blue bastards but they refused. We’ll talk about blue bastards later this week. Mike also made some fantastic casts at Indo-Pacific permit. Tiger and I thought for sure one particular permit was going to eat Mikes crab fly. But its permit fishing. The finicky species turned at the last minute and bolted for some unknown reason.
This afternoon Neuman hooked into one of the largest golden trevally Tiger has seen all season. Unfortunately Mike’s hook set was halfway between a trout set and a strip set and the hook didn’t lodge into the rubber lips of the beautiful fish. At the time I was casting from the back of the boat and we doubled up. I lost my golden as well.
By late in our day, around 4 PM, our boat hadn’t landed much more than a few of the smaller tuskfish species. The blue tuskfish (Choerodon cyanodus) in particular. The high tide was dropping fast. This is an ideal time for finding blue bastards, a fish that wasn’t officially named until 2015. 2015! We went full on focus on the sweetlips type fish and Tiger found some. The second one we saw devoured Neuman’s fly.
I don’t know what the biggest fish Neuman’s ever caught was, but as far as a fly goes, its likely the muskellunge I put him on in 2024. While musky are a prized freshwater gamefish and truly an honor to catch on a fly, saltwater fish pull harder. Much harder in fact. Within three seconds after the blue bastard engulfed Mikes fly the stocky big shouldered fish headed for the rocks. No matter the rod, these fish are hard to stop.
Mike and I talked about salty fish at the Minneapolis airport four days ago. About how on some you must lock your drag and hang on tight. It appeared Neuman remembered and to Tigers and my delight, he leaned back and reefed hard on this bastard. A blueish gray blur screamed across the flat only to be stopped about 6 inches from the rocks. It was unreal. And the great thing about these fish is that once you stop that first run, they panic and run frantically, usually away from the rocks. Within two minutes after the sizzling run, Mike had one of Australia’s prized fish, the blue bastard (Plectorhinchus caeraleonothus).
It was an amazing catch for ones first day on the flats. Neuman and I celebrated his fantastic feat with a cold beer. There’s really nothing better under the broiling sun of a tropical flat than such a celebration. During our beers Mike stared across the ocean and said, “Holy crap (something like that), that was the hardest pulling fish I’ve ever seen in my life”.
After our beers I took the bow for few minutes but it was late and we had a long drive back to the Wildcard so we packed it in. When we returned it was a mix bag of success stories from the rest of the crew. First of all, Jeff Smith only lasted on the water about an hour before he had to return to the Wildcard. He’s very sick and may have the flu. Michael Lodge was with him and went back out. Mike said he had more shots at permit in a day than ever before in his life but couldn’t get an eat. Steve and Therese however had a slamming good day. They caught numerous species including queenfish, blackspot tuskfish and several of these beautiful barcheek coral trout to name a few.
Tonight we relaxed on the boat deck with beers and hors d’oeuvres during sunset. At 7 we enjoyed an excellent fish dinner. This should be an outstanding week. We’re back at it in the morning. Bed time!