Alex Broad – Finally, I did it!

After a long obsession with catching a cook straight sailfish (barracouta) on fly I finally managed to land one on the weekend.

This is one species that no matter what I’ve tried in the past I’ve had absolutely no luck with.

Saturday was an awesome day weather wise, Our storeman Leigh is an avid saltwater fisho and offered to take me out on his boat for a session on the gurnard in the harbour.  He was slaying the gurnard on soft baits, so I pulled out the fly rod.  The first couple casts and drifts were uneventful, but then I hooked into something, only to loose it.  The teeth marks in my leader only meant one thing.  Wire bite tippet applied and a new flashy fly, a few casts later I had one hitting the fly but my strip strikes weren’t connecting.  Finally, at my feet he took the fly on the surface in one of the most ferocious takes Ive ever had fly fishing.

He then managed to take my entire fly line in seconds, I got most of the line back almost as quickly, before we landed him in a rather unorthodox way, care of the anchor rope.

Not the biggest couta in the sea, but I was stoked to finally get one under the belt.  I will in no doubt be attempting to catch a few more over the winter.

Cheers,

Alex.