North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

I and a group of four other boats are heading to Channel Point in a few weeks to spend five days targetting sails and other good stuff with fly gear. We are all fairly accomplishede fly anglers but have never done the Billfish thing. Any advice (including pics) of how to set tup the bird/squid/pusher/bait teasers would be much appreciated. We plan to fish 10-12wt rods, with large pink squid fly patterns, also Flashy Profile Fly patterns and FatBoys. Are there particular spots or areas we should be concentrating on? What are we looking for on the sounder or GPS, drop offs, trenches, pinnacles, confluence of currents...?

Keep us up to date with this 1 mate, im looking at haveing a crack at this myself. I was thinking of running 2 witchdoctors n only 1 chain with no birds n maybe 3 to 6 squid with a belly flap stiched on the end to keep em intrested. I took the wand along last year but never got it out.

Try using tuna belly flaps for teasers, they are very tough and allow the billies to grap the bait and not destroy it.
I have made up a teaser rod that is a beach rod blank about 3.5 metres in length and it is designed like a Diawa interline rod. this allows for the line to go through the centre of the blank and out the tip, so you do not have any guides to tangle the line. This rod has a penn 950 reel attached. This rod is basically used like a fly rod. The teaser bait is trolled behind the boat and when a billie raises to the teaser it can be brought in very close to the back of the boat. When the billie is close enough for a cast, you can whip the rod forward of the boat and present your fly. If you miss your shot, the teaser rod can be whipped back out behind the boat with no tangles in the guides.
The person on the teaser rod really has to be on the ball, once the billie has a taste of the belly flap he will do anything to eat it. it must be retrieved slowing but quick enough so the billie doesn't swallow the belly flap. Once the billie is at the back of the boat it will be lite up like a xmas tree and will eat anything when the belly flap disappears. The most important thing to remember when you present your fly is that the cast must be behind the fish. This allows for the fish to turn and the hook-up rate is far greater because the billies mouth is at 90 degrees to your line and the fly can penetrate the side of its mouth.
The billies tend to wear out fairly quickly compared to conventional tackle because they have to drag the flyline through the water. Mind you, they are mind blowing on fly gear.
I've found that flyfishing for billies is a real team effort, the skippers effort, the teaser mans effort and the flyfishermans effort.
Have fun!

Bill Collector wrote:Try using tuna belly flaps for teasers, they are very tough and allow the billies to grap the bait and not destroy it.
I have made up a teaser rod that is a beach rod blank about 3.5 metres in length and it is designed like a Diawa interline rod. this allows for the line to go through the centre of the blank and out the tip, so you do not have any guides to tangle the line. This rod has a penn 950 reel attached. This rod is basically used like a fly rod. The teaser bait is trolled behind the boat and when a billie raises to the teaser it can be brought in very close to the back of the boat. When the billie is close enough for a cast, you can whip the rod forward of the boat and present your fly. If you miss your shot, the teaser rod can be whipped back out behind the boat with no tangles in the guides.
The person on the teaser rod really has to be on the ball, once the billie has a taste of the belly flap he will do anything to eat it. it must be retrieved slowing but quick enough so the billie doesn't swallow the belly flap. Once the billie is at the back of the boat it will be lite up like a xmas tree and will eat anything when the belly flap disappears. The most important thing to remember when you present your fly is that the cast must be behind the fish. This allows for the fish to turn and the hook-up rate is far greater because the billies mouth is at 90 degrees to your line and the fly can penetrate the side of its mouth.
The billies tend to wear out fairly quickly compared to conventional tackle because they have to drag the flyline through the water. Mind you, they are mind blowing on fly gear.
I've found that flyfishing for billies is a real team effort, the skippers effort, the teaser mans effort and the flyfishermans effort.
Have fun!

Never done it, probably never will but you painted a pretty good picture there. Nice work