If you’ve not heard of the blue bastard until reading the blog this week, I’m certain you’re not alone. This burly flats dweller is not widespread and unique to the northern reaches of Australia – far from where most saltwater fly anglers ever go. But here in Australia, the blue bastard (Plectorhinchus caeruleonothus) is one of the iconic Australian saltwater game fish.
I’m knowledgeable of fish species from around the world, however I only learned about the blue bastard five or so years ago. The reason, plain and simple, the blue bastard, a member of the family of fishes known as the sweetlips, wasn’t scientifically classified officially until 2015. A species of any kind this new to the world is hard to find these days.
The blue bastard inhabits the shallow waters and is often found on the flats – the same kind of water you may find a permit. They live in the rocks and coral so though they may be found on sand, but there’s always rocks nearby. That’s their home. That’s where they’re going head like a freight train when you’re lucky enough to hook one.
This trip here in the Wessel Islands of Australia I’m fishing to blue bastards with my 9-weight Winston and the Scientific Anglers Grand Slam Clear Tip fly line. Being its mandatory you stop a hooked fish or they’ll break you off in the rocks every time, I’m fishing a 10 foot level leader of 30lb Fluoro.
Bastards aren’t as finicky as say Mr. permit, but they can still be tricky. They prefer crab patterns or shrimp and sizes 2-3/0. What matters is your cast and how you move your fly. Unlike permit where it’s usually good to land your fly on their nose, a cast this close will spook a bastard most of the time. I’ve learned that leading them by about 5 feet is ideal and let your fly sink right to the bottom. Once it settles, strip your line tight but don’t move your fly an inch. First watch for the reaction from the bastard. If you made a good cast, chances are he made a beeline to your fly. Let the fish tail on your fly then barely strip it. If you feel tension, strip set. If not, watch the fish again. If he’s following wait again.
The past few days the bastards have toyed with us. I guess you could say they gave us the tail. They either showed zero interest in our presentations or followed our flies to the rod tip and never ate. They were cooperative early in our trip but perhaps our super high tides the last few days had them off. The good news is here in northern Australia there seems to be lots of bastards so you should have the opportunity to move on to another. And today is a different day.
In fact it’s a totally different day. We made a huge move on the Wildcard last night. We traveled about four hours between 8 PM and midnight and left the Wessel Islands for the English Company Islands. These islands are closer to Nhulunbuy where we pushed off a week ago. This makes sense to get closer being tomorrow is our last day of fishing.
I finally got to fish with Jeff Smith and our guide Chris today. Remember, Jeff had the misfortune of catching the flu on the way over from the US and missed the first three days of fishing. I’m happy to say he’s now feeling 100% and it was an absolutely gorgeous day on the flats together. The only challenge I could see when we left this morning was that it was way too calm.
So far, the two days Jeff has fished have been the tough high tides I mentioned above. He hadn’t landed that memorable trip fish yet. Chris and I wanted nothing more than for Jeff to land a fish, and particularly a blue bastard.
Well, Jeff landed not one. Not two. Jeff landed three blue bastards which I can promise you, very few anglers can claim such a feat! Jeff had an all-star caliber day with perfect casts and delivered unrefusable presentations despite the calm flats conditions. And I’ll add, he didn’t lose a single one. Jeff hooked three and kept all three from the rocks. In fact, we were four for four today in bastards because I got lucky and landed one also. Spectacular!
In between Jeff landing his first and second bastard, I officially added the yellowspotted trevally, known locally as the gold dot trevally (Carangoides fulvoguttatus) to my species list. You may remember yesterday when I pulled one from the depths during a dredge only to learn it was snagged in the side. This one was a legit crab eat on the flats. This species by the way isn’t often found on the flats. It was my lucky day.
There was one other highlight flats fish today as well. After Jeff landed his second blue bastard I took the bow. Chris was getting me set up on a bastard when a different fish cut our bow moving very fast. I don’t wait in these situations; I just cast and cast fast. I made a lucky shot and my Alphlexo crab fly landed three feet ahead of the speeding fish. It ended up being this stud of a brassy trevally that measured 81cm. Big boy!
Jeff and I had six great fish landed by 4 PM. It would have been easy to call it a day – especially because we were out of cold Australian beer. But Chris suggested spending the last hour bashing a nearby rocky shoreline with Clouser’s. Of course we were 100% in. The white dot is us courtesy of Chris’s drone photography.
When we got there, I can tell you fishing took second stage. The rocky cliffs we were casting to were larger than the ones we fished yesterday on the east side of the Wessels. The rock was a mix of blacks and browns with jungle vegetation hanging from the sides. There was also a very deep cave that Chris eased us in on the boat. It was pretty cool and full of bats, but no hidden monster fish.
The fishing was back on today for most of the group. Mike Lodge and Neuman each landed one blue bastard and Therese landed a beautiful blackspot tuskfish. After cocktails and snacks on the bow we enjoyed yet another delicious meal here on the Wildcard.
After dinner, I broke out my sharpies and drew up a permit for Tiger to commemorate the one he guided me too earlier in the trip. I’m sorry to say, tomorrow is our last day of fishing.