Australian Fishing Blog

Ryan & I hit the Trinity Inlet with plans of fishing deep on a strange neap tide with no run from 5am until 12 noon. Just near the boat ramp I made the call to start casting some snags and we entered a small creek. Getting used to the electric was taking some effort and before we knew it a pro crabber sped past, way too fast for this small creek, so I shook my head at him and got out of there fast. We made the call to just keep casting at the edges along the main waterway as there were a few mullet around.

I’d just been telling Ryan which snags to target and how long it has been since I caught a decent jack since I mainly target barra these days. Then I put a decent cast in along side a nice looking snag and started a slow constant roll retrieve on a big paddle tailed plastic (Jackall 5.5″ Ammonite Shad) when suddenly a few winds in the lure was jammed. I knew it was a jack by the way it hit and was very fast in turning him away from home and ‘guiding’ him my way a bit. However the fish felt a little too big to be a jack and I started to think it might be a really fired up barra. It soon became a tug of war and I patiently played him out thinking large barra, but it took another sizzling powerful run falling just short of cover. Each run became shorter and eventually I noticed the size of the fish in the water. I was quite disappointed (still thinking barra) until I noticed a broad silver gold mangrove jack. Happy would be an understatement and I’m surprised I turned him on light gear and got him out of the snag as he was quite a brute of a jack.

We continued along the same stretch and the mullet started thinning out, water temperature rose to 25 degrees and Ryan had a couple of follows from jacks on his fav little hardbody. Around the corner we noticed a very nice drop off from 2m out into 7-8m of water with a good set of snags at one end. We changed to weighted weedless plastics and Ryan caught a Toadfish (opsanus tau) which didn’t even warrant a photo – he was U-G-L-Y ! Ryan dropped a decent fish that put out a screaming run to nothing right beside the boat which was a shame because it was a good fish and I think we both would have liked to know what it was. I dropped two fish that felt fairly small like little estuary cod.

As we headed up past the snags on the electric, to come back and drift the snags we both noticed a commotion on a timber snag and saw some fins. Then the same fish flapped around on the surface again as if it was pinned somehow. Ryan made the call to go and check it out as the fins did look red. So we drifted over and sure enough, here’s a decent sized jack that had clearly won it’s freedom from another angler, only to become trapped in a snag with full leader and about 20 metres of braid attached to him. He was in good condition, so I netted him and Ryan took care of the lines and he came home in the esky for Ryan’s dinner. What a fluke of a find. The jack had a good set of shoulders and was in very good condition.

So all plans of fishing deep were abandoned and we made our way up another typical Trinity Inlet creek. I was fishing another unweighted Jackall Ammonite Shad rigged weedless and Ryan threw on a 3″ gulp shrimp. While we were rigging up I was focusing on the electric and as my back was turned I felt a solid hit and turned to see a small barra swim off with the tail of my plastic. Bugger, dropped him. We continued on and I caught a little jack deep in a snag and put the brakes on fairly hard and pulled him out on the baitcast set up and Ryan caught a little archer fish.

So what was expected to be a slow day took a nice turn and the weather was amazing. Looks like we’ll be heading back Thursday for a quick hit and run session.

What started as a frustrating morning in the salty mangroves turned out to be a fun day catching the world’s smallest barra and jacks in the brackish waters of the Barron River.

We arrived bright and early to a local creek to find a lack of bait and not much action. After what felt like 50 casts of the castnet, we scrounged up enough bait to at least get some lines out. First action of the day was a great take on a little mullet I had out, then a small jump as a barra spat the mullet back out. It was just before the run started to slow and I had called it for a bite window not less than 60 seconds before.

Before long the tide turned, started to run out and all the bait was gone. Ryan was persisting as I’d just been giving him a few tips on how to cast a net and while he practiced he hauled in a decent nets worth of herring. Then before long he was onto some decent prawns, exactly what I’d hoped to see.

So I got back on the net and we filled the bucket and headed to the Barron River to drop some live prawns down into likely snags for a barra or two. Not less than 10 minutes in I’d pulled two little barra of one snag and they were good fun and better than sitting around a sandfly ridden creek you couldn’t have bought a bite in.

Ryan got in on the action third fish with a cute little jack, then possibly the worlds smallest barra (which he clearly didn’t want a photo of) then the worlds smallest jack right at the end. It’s just luck of the draw as to what size you’ll find around these snags but they are usually just frustratingly shy of legal, sometimes a larger barra is lurking. One thing is for sure though, barramundi go nuts for a live prawn, some of these little guys can really hit hard and fight better than some bigger models I’ve caught.

Did not take too long and all the prawns were gone, mostly due to wise jack attacks that leave nothing but a tail, the hit and run experts. In all we caught about 7 barra and 2 jacks. Next time we are going late afternoon and into the night to see what larger fish turn up.

Just checked the statistics for this blog, well over 10,000 page views per month and over 16,000 page views in February. Who would have thought that? Certainly not me. Last month alone was 4gb of bandwidth used which is a fair amount of images and pages viewed, around 50,000 hits in the old scale.

Sounds like time for a decent competition with a real prize I reckon. Watch this space.

Yesterday in howling winds and on/off drizzle we decided it would be a good idea to go hit some tropical freshwater out of the weather. Upon getting out the car it was clear that there was no escaping the wind, but deep in the forest canopy it was not too bad. I don’t like fishing on really windy days up here because I’m almost certain it puts the fish off.

We may as well have been bushwalking photographers as it was very hard going. A group of rafters pushing down past up wasn’t a good sign either. The best strike of the day came from one of the first casts, when a rather large fish exploded on Ryan’s little fizzer somehow missing the hooks. I managed only one fish, a khaki bream that really didn’t want to come to the waters edge, putting up a great account for himself.

Even with barely a fish caught, it was still a great day in the beautiful surrounds of FNQ.

With scrawly weather around Cairns, we journeyed out west where the rain doesn’t fall (often). Ryan is a sooty grunter virgin so I though best we do something about that. After explaining how quick he will need to turn them and making sure he’s running enough drag we had reached a spot that warranted a cast or two. I cast out one of my favourite little surface lures, a Tiemco Bass Mania in Frog Pattern. I had barely turned the handle when bam I was on. Even after explaining how hard sooty grunter fight and preparing Ryan (and reminding myself) I was surprised by the fight! Took a quick pic and sent him on his way.

Just around the first bend and Ryan was onto his first sooty. There were heaps sitting in this spot and even though Ryan was keen to see me throw a lure at one of his mates, I was happy to watch and see the fish drawn up with his sooty. There were a few black beasts lurking deep.

Even though they kept hitting the lures, nothing committed and sadly this kind of summed up todays fishing. Especially for me, lots of half hearted hits.

Next stretch up I landed my second sooty and last fish of the day. I would have had at least 15 hits on the different lures I was using but no commitment. Quite unusual for sooty grunter.

Up a little further and we found an undercut bank with some serious sooty grunters lurking around, big and wise. Ryan had at least 3 hits and multiple boil ups behind his lure but they were just too smart and worked out what was happening. After persisting for a while too long, the decision was made to try another spot completely.

Ryan caught all the fish from here on out. Including this interesting little guy below, a spangled perch I assume, but the split tail has me intrigued. I saw a lot of these fish today, as well as archerfish and some others I’ve never seen before.

Didn’t take Ryan long to work out where the sooties were sitting! He cast into the same spots as me and pulled fish. Didn’t matter what lure I tried, just wasn’t my day

With no drinking water and the terrain ahead looking a tad too full on, we headed back to the car. Spotted ‘skippy’ on the way.

A squid jig I may never use but a good idea to have anyway.

6 packets of split rings for big & silly big lures I want to make.

2 x unitika leader in 40 & 50lb medium soft for live baiting and big lure throwing. Will be interested to see how this leader goes. Normally I only buy hard leader but it’s such a pain tying knots in larger breaking strains and not as natural in the water when live baiting. Just hope it doesn’t snap easily around oyster encrusted pylons. For 3-30lb leader I love super hard leader that gives superior abrasion resistance.

Unitika Aorika Super PE II 210m spool in white colour. I have heard nothing but great reports about this braid and finally found some at the right price in Japan. The 150m spools retail for $70 here + postage and I paid no where near that for a 210m spool. Will report back how it goes.

The season has changed and nice cool evenings and mornings are finally here. A nice spell of weather has accompanied the change as well. Here are a few photos of the sorts of days we have had to endure. I really need to start getting up much earlier and enjoying these mornings, some fishing wouldn’t be the worst idea either

Machans Beach sunrise

Machans Beach looking south towards Cape Grafton + False Cape

Midday Trinity Inlet