David Hodge shares some of his top tips for exploring tropical waters where an abundant list of species resides.
It’s been four years since my family and I made the move to Townsville. I had spent a lot of time in the area in the past, and at the time, it seemed like as good a place as any to start a fresh chapter of our lives. It also meant I had to learn the local waters and the species that inhabited them.
Obviously, barra were high on the agenda, and for the first 12 months they were the focus of around 90 per cent of our efforts with jacks running a very close second.
I have learned a lot about the bet fishing tactics and strategies, but more importantly, I’ve learned a lot about the conditions and how best to plan around tides.
One of the lesser considered aspects of boating around the northern rivers and estuaries is navigating the sand and rock bars safely. Then there’s the important aspect of retrieving the boat at days’ end. Many ramps in the local area are virtually unusable during low tides, and with the lack of wet seasons over the last few years; the increase in shallow sand bars has been quite dramatic. These can stop you in your tracks very abruptly, so being able to identify obstacles plays a very big role in boating around the north.
A big part of finding less pressured fish is to leave one river and head out through the mouth, along the coast before entering another system on a rising tide. This will typically give you at least a few hours of serious fishing before having to boost it back to the original ramp prior to the tide dropping out too far, which could mean hours of sitting on a sand bar, getting cooked by the tropical sun and eaten alive by sand flies and mosquitos. Serious dehydration is possible in these circumstances and an Esky stocked with more than enough drinking water than expected is a wise move.
One of the most highly sought after soft plastic and Jig species, the Fingermark are tough fishing members of the Jack family, and are awesome table fare.
FISHING OPTIONS
Finding the fish isn’t so much the trouble up here but more the fishable water, and it may take a bit of lateral thinking and planning to make the best of a trip to the area. For instance, the lesser the run or tidal flow, the clearer the water. More importantly though, with less water movement, you can better work traditional barra snags. Casting hard bodies and weedless soft plastics around fallen timber in rivers is what most people envisage when they think of lure fishing for barra. Unfortunately tides and wind don’t always make this a viable option and other barrahaunts need to be explored.
The shallow flats that lead up to the high tide mangrove line are often the best option during bigger tides and the average size of the barra can be substantially bigger than those encountered in the rivers and creeks. Basically, when the tides are around the three-metre mark or higher, at high, these areas are well worth a look. Tightly congested and overhanging mangrove roots seem pretty daunting at first sight and can be frustrating and time consuming if your casting is not quite up to scratch as snags will be plentiful. Casting a treble armed lure into the tangle of roots and branches often requires more good luck than management if you’re to get your lure back out, let alone a fish.
This is where the latest generation of soft plastics and weedless rigs come into their own. Weedless or snagless rigs are very effective tools for targeting fish in otherwise unreachable areas. Many fish are tucked so far up in the sticks and drains that a cast into that environment almost always ends in frustration. Attempting to go in and retrieve a lure also spooks any available fish, and neutralises opportunities, so again is inconvenient.
Perfecting the skipping of a stone is almost a right of passage for a child, and there aren’t too many kids that haven’t tried it. The skipping of a plastic is achieved by the exact same principles, and low brisk casting actions can launch and easily skip a plastic 10m when practiced. It is quite simply the only way to deliver a lure way back in the shadows of overhanging structure. As the skipping momentum slows and the lure bites into the surface be prepared for that wrist jarring bite that jacks are so renowned for. It is assumed they can hear it as it approaches and mistake it for a skipping prawn, which they simply can’t resist.
Now I’m not saying that weedless set ups are the be all and end all here, I’m just suggesting they are the way to go when snags are plentiful and when throwing anything else would end in the wrong kind of hook up.
Structured environments need to be assessed before deciding on the best option. For example, more sparse timber such as fallen or broken mangroves are prime hardbody country when the tide isn’t near peak. This is the time that fish are either working their way up and into the small drains and inlets, or exiting them and sitting at the mouths of drains and under horizontal structure, waiting for the bait to come to them.
GEARING UP
It is for this reason I have several setups rigged with a variety of lures that can be quickly exchanged in preparation for an approaching situation. It’s not uncommon for me to swap between them four or five times over a 100 m stretch either.
For hardbodies I employ a light to medium and a medium to heavy outfit rigged. The first is a Samurai Runoff 16 to 25 lb bait caster with a Shimano Chronarch 150HG and 30 lb braid. This outfit has a larger diving hardbody tied on, which is usually a 105 Halco Hamma. The second is a 10 to 17 lb Samurai Runoff with an ABU Premier and 25 lb braid, and most times this has a shallow diving 120mm Laser Pro three hook model ready to go.
With the hardbodies covered, my choice for the weedless soft plastics outfits is based around the rods’ action, and the need to get the most load possible through the tip at low angles to facilitate the skipping procedure that’s needed to get lures up and under structure. Fast tapered blanks with soft tips and guts down low are the best choice for this technique and can often be hard thing to find.
The Samurai Refraction range has been designed with this technique in mind, which makes it just right for the low skipping stuff. My lighter of these two outfits is a Refraction 12 to 16 lb model and I usually have a Shimano Scorpion spooled with 20 lb braid matched up to it. This is my favourite jack combo and while it’s on the light side for snag bashing, I do manage plenty of barra on it. A favourite lure of mine for the jack pursuit is the Atomic Prong, and rigged either on a Gamakatsu skipping hook with a small ball sinker added into the loop knot, or an Atomic 1/4 oz EWG in 5/0 or 6/0 depending on the possibility of a barra.
The last outfit I have rigged for the snags is also a Refraction, but in the heavier 16 to 20 lb rating. Most times this is matched to an EXO and is spooled with 30 lb braid and 40 to 50 lb Unitika fluorocarbon leader. Swinging from the tip is usually one of the new 7” MadEye Paddle Prawns on a weedless 7/0 to 8/0 hook, or a 6” Atomic shad that has been trimmed down a little to suit the hook. As far as lures go, those mentioned are just a small selection of my favourites, and cover most of the stuff that we do in the snags.
If I had to limit myself to just one of these outfits it would be the 6 ft16 to 20 lbRefraction matched to the Chronarch 150HG Ci4 with 30 lb braid.
As always, be aware that you are no longer at the top of the food chain when you up north. This big fella was just a few minutes from the heart of town.
OTHER OPTIONS
If you find yourself in this neck of the woods with a small boat, say less than 4.5m, remember there are so many more options than just barra and jacks. The fingermark and trout fishing can be absolutely mind blowing and the inshore reef and shoal areas are easy to find with a bit of research on the Internet and Google Earth. There are plenty of small reefs accessible from some of the rivers that put you within a short drive from these areas and a bit of prospecting with a plastic will give you an idea of what’s on offer at each location.
Keep an eye on your zoning though, and get yourself a free zoning map from one of the local independent tackle stores. Most independent stores are owned or run by very experienced anglers and can provide you with all the information you need to best organise your fishing sessions.
Almost any of the reefs hold Trout if you work them properly
MAN MADE STRUCTURES
Two of the biggest fishing tourist attractions for travelling anglers are the Abbot Point Jetty, accessible from Bowen, and the Lucinda loading jetty, which can be accessed from Lucinda itself. These structures are the biggest fish attracting devices imaginable and draw fish in from miles with the promise of shelter and food. Thankfully, it seems that the powers that be appreciate the amount of revenue these structures bring to the local economies and have so far rejected the attempts of some groups to have them closed to fishing access. This would have an incredibly negative impact on the local traveller-reliant businesses, of which there are many.
There have been many written pieces on jetty formations in years gone by, and it’s not hard to see how they have become a specialist pursuit, with some anglers refining their techniques to the point of becoming specialist jetty anglers. Species regularly available at these locations include fingermark, all manner of trevally, coral trout, several mackerel species and more.
Casting soft plastics around structures is a highly effective technique, as is casting stick baits around the deeper reaches. Trolling the outer edges with deep divers like the Crazy Deep 8m Scorpions is also popular, and some massive fish are taken in this fashion.
Open water barra are another specialist target species and many articles would be needed to try and describe the best ways of identifying them and fishing them effectively, so I’m not even going to touch on that method here.
So if you’re thinking of somewhere to escape to, with plenty of time spent fishing, you can’t go too wrong with the Townsville region. Needless to say, you certainly won’t get bored as piscatorial delights extend far and wide here. Who knows, like me, you might even be tempted to make the visit permanent…
Dave Hodge – or ‘Barefoot Dave’ – as he is known on the fishing show circuit has been fishing and casting his way around Australia. Dave is an expert caster that has demonstrated his skills at fishing shows for many years now. Also an expert angler, who fishes in both salt and fresh water, he is now based in Townsville.
