Swoffa - Saltwater Flyfishing Australia saltwater fly fishing australia
Australia's best flyfishing
Bonefish albula forsteri
aka: Australian Bonefish, Longjaw Bonefish, Bone

 Photo: © Jono Shales

Bonefish have been occasional captures at various locations across Australia for a number of years now. Bait fishermen and the soft plastics brigade have caught bones in various locations around Australia, however mainly in deeper water.

Exmouth in Western Australia has, for a number of years now, been one of the only places in Australia where consistent numbers of bones can be targeted with the fly.

 

As with bonefish all over the world, they are challenging to see, but once hooked you expect blistering fast runs way into the backing.

On the whole, bonefishing in Australia is still realtively unexplored and it's an elite group of anglers who can lay claim to have landed an Aussie bonefish on fly.

For the species hunter, the Aussie bonefish ranks high on the piscatorial bucket list.

 


 
Tackle and methods for Bonefish

What tackle to use
6 - 9 wt outfits, reels holding at least 150m of backing with smooth and reliable drags. Leaders should be slightly longer than usual to get the fly down, tapered down to 12 - 15lb tippet

What flies to use
Crazy Charlies; Gotchas; Clousers; Small Crab Patterns

Fishing strategy
Depending on where you fish and the depth of water being fished, fly sink rate is important.

Deeper water requires slightly heavier flies and longer than leaders than the traditional skinny water approach.

Sink the fly to the bottom and then retrieve in short strips and pauses. Small puffs of sand as the fly touches down on the bottom help to attract the attention of Bones.

Depends where you're fishing. There are very few skinny water flats in Australia where one can wade and cast at tailing bones so most of the fishing for bones in WA is from a boat as the fish are found in slightly deeper water.


 
Target Bonefish in the following locations:

Target Bonefish with the following guide:


Exmouth Fly Fishing
Links to more information

http://www.fishbase.org/summary/speciessummary.php?id=61658
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