{"id":1424,"date":"2020-09-07T11:21:04","date_gmt":"2020-09-07T10:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/?p=1424"},"modified":"2020-09-07T11:21:06","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T10:21:06","slug":"ht-travels-north-finally-tim-kempton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/2020\/09\/07\/ht-travels-north-finally-tim-kempton\/","title":{"rendered":"HT travels North \u2013 Finally. Tim Kempton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For someone who is fortunate to get the opportunity to travel the world fly fishing, Covid brought things to a sudden stop. Seven months not flying anywhere.  All borders closed. Netflix a new experience. I found a woman sitting on our couch. She said she was my wife…she seems like a nice person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally\u00a0we were allowed to travel around our state…Queensland in Australia. The weather and tides looked good I booked a trip to Weipa in far North Queensland\u00a0with Ben Bright from Last Cast\u2026Weipa\u00a0is fly fishing paradise for a large variety of salt and freshwater species.\u00a0
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I packed my family of HT 8,10 and 12 and headed North (The HT 4 and 6 stayed home).  The sailfish had been there in large numbers so I packed my new HT12 (#1), but the packs had moved by the time I arrived. We raised one, had a shot but the fish did not stay connected. 1\/1\/0. Things did not look good for sailfish, so the HT12 was packed away and replaced by the HT8 and HT 10<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next day we\u00a0explored the flats and reefs hunting for the elusive Blue Bastards (Plectorhinchuscaeruleonothus<\/em>) ..yes this is actually a fish\u00a0so named because they are incredibly spooky and bastards to get to eat the fly, hook up, and get a photo. They fight dirty. \u00a0I fished a shrimp pattern and landed a variety of saltwater\u00a0species..Pacific\u00a0Tarpon, Diamond Trevally, Spotted dart, Queenfish and a Striped Threadfin Salmon (Polydactylus\u00a0plebeius<\/em>)\u00a0which had never been seen before in those waters. There were plenty of shots at\u00a0BB\u2019s..one\u00a0busted off, one fell off and one stayed for a photo. \u00a03\/3\/1 was not bad for BB\u2019s. The HT 10 was performing well…long casts, delicate presentations, and plenty of fighting power. I was\u00a0elated.
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For the next few\u00a0days\u00a0we camped on the beaches and fished the flats\u00a0and river mouths\u00a0north of Weipa. The weather was glamour, no wind and plenty of sun\u2026perfect conditions. \u00a0There were permit (Anak) at the river mouths, but try as we may they would not eat a\u00a0merkin\u00a0style cab. We changed to an Alphonse\/flexocrab and\u00a0we started smiling\u2026hooked 4 and took photos of 3\u00a0on day 1. \u00a0The next day\u00a0I\u00a0hooked and landed 4. \u00a0I was hooked up to a metre plus\u00a0Queenie..aschool of permit swam into range..Notso\u00a0made the cast..5 permit in one\u00a0day..a\u00a0new boat record.\u00a0The permit gods were smiling. \u00a0There are all sorts of species on the flats. \u00a0A large Giant\u00a0Trevally \u00a0swam\u00a0by on a\u00a0ray..it\u00a0chased down the crab fly with gusto. Big (1+m) queenies, big Golden Trevally, and cobia. \u00a0One \u00a0cobia\u00a0the size of \u00a0shark ate the crab, but straitened the hook on the first run\u2026probably lucky because we would have been there for hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The last\u00a0day..the\u00a0permit must not\u00a0have read the Permit\u00a0Times..we\u00a0hunted all day until finally we found some late in the afternoon. \u00a0Another 2 from 2 giving a total of 9\u00a0permit\u00a0landed from 10 hooked(10,10,9)\u00a0\u2026a truly amazing experience and an absolute privilege.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The weather.  Ideally neap tides with and early morning low, no wind and sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gear. \u00a0I was fishing a HT10, with a WF10Int line on a\u00a0Sage 6010\u00a0reel,\u00a0with\u00a0a\u00a09\u2019 40\/20lb\u00a0Galis\u00a0FCleader. \u00a0 The HT10 was\u00a0amazing..all\u00a0the fish hooked were incredibly strong, they put in long runs (some 200+m). \u00a0There was plenty of power on the butt. As the number of fish increased, I became more confident with the 20lb tipped and had the drag wound up to 10. There was plenty of fighting power in the butt. The rod is a pleasure to cast and suited me\u00a0and my style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Technique. \u00a0Having good eyes\u00a0makes the day. Ben the guide\u00a0from Last Cast\u00a0has exceptional eyes and together there were not many fish we did not see. There are big tides in this part of the world, and the current can be quite strong on the run out\u00a0and run in tides. The fish feed into the current, and\u00a0so at times\u00a0long casts\u00a0so that the fly can travel past the fish are an advantage. Being able to cast both right and\u00a0left handed\u00a0is one of the best skills I have learnt\u2026it makes everything so much easier for both the angler and the boatman and gives greater control and maximising\u00a0opportunity to fish the angles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Line management is critical\u2026once hooked all saltwater species take off for the sunset at speed.  Are you standing on the line, is it wrapped around something, has a loop forward around the reel handle or some part of your clothing. Is the reel handle likely to jam on your clothing?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although strip strike is essential, more important is staying in touch with the fly. \u00a0In most cases once the permit came onto the fly, they would follow it, and the \u201cstrip strike\u201d became more\u00a0like \u00a0\u201cfeeding the fly to the fish\u201d. Great stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For someone who is fortunate to get the opportunity to travel the world fly fishing, Covid brought things to a sudden stop. Seven months not flying anywhere.  All borders closed. Netflix a new experience. I found a woman sitting on our couch. She said she was my wife…she seems like a nice person. Finally\u00a0we were allowed to travel around … Continue reading “HT travels North \u2013 Finally. Tim Kempton”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1424"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1433,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424\/revisions\/1433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}