Townsville

TOWNSVILLE Dave Hodge

It’s always exciting to see what a new season will deliver in the North, and the shift from the humid, hot days to cool nights and perfect daytime temps has made being on the water a pleasure.

The offshore fishing has not showed signs of slowing in the slightest, and everything from fingermark and grunter to mackerel, tuna and marlin have been caught in good numbers by anglers knowing

On this day the water was quite turbid, and a standout colour was needed to get the fish’s attention. The Radioactive Rooster and Protec’d Head are a great combination for this scenario.

where and what to look for. Bait schools are the main ingredient in a plan coming together. However, it’s also important to have a quality sounder as well as knowing how to read and tune it to the environment, to ensure that no opportunities go unnoticed.

Birds are our eyes in the skies, and are another indicator that should never be ignored. If bait is being pushed to the surface, it’s obvious that something is doing that. Reacting quickly to this often brief phenomenon will help you to capitalise on the most opportunities possible.

Dropping 60-80g Halco Twisties and Outcasts has accounted for many Spanish in recent weeks, as the schools have often been picked up deep on the sounder. A piece of wire is recommended if you’re to keep lure losses to a minimum. Wire doesn’t have to be too long, with just 150mm usually being enough. Around 86-105lb wire is generally enough for the standard types of tackle used for the Spanish, but if you’re trying to beat the sharks and going hard on the heaviest of gear then you’re going to need to up the wire, swivels and hook class to make the best of every hook-up.

Trolled gar and wolf herring are the go-to for bait fishing specialists, and even though some people find it hard to rig these baits so that they swim well, practice makes perfect, and sometimes it’s better to have them rigged at home ready to clip or tie on instead of trying to do it on the water.

The current controversy over the Spanish mackerel biomass is another example of anglers being railroaded into complying with someone else’s biased opinion of stock levels. Reality doesn’t seem to come into the equation anymore, with the government all but ignoring the input of fishers. The low biomass estimate presented by advocates of closures fly in the

face of other recent Spanish mackerel studies (these earlier studies found that the fishery was sustainable). One of the decision-makers for the proposed closure to Spanish mackerel fishing is high up in the WWF, which seems like a conflict of interest, given the WWF’s agenda.

Back to the fishing. Small billfish have been showing up in recent weeks, and (apart from trolling small skirted lures) the best option is to troll small baits like gar or even small mullet. Obviously if you’re competent at rigging small live baits on circle hooks, that is going to get you some serious action as well. It’s very much a specialist pursuit though, and if you haven’t done it before, I recommend becoming a member of the Townsville Game Fishing Club or other body made up of knowledgeable fishers. That way, you’ll be able to access some incredibly useful tips by those who know a lot more about the billfish sportfishing scene than myself.

CREEKS AND RIVERS

It’s often believed that barra aren’t a viable option to target during the cooler months, but this isn’t always the case. Yes, they can be

harder to find and tempt into taking a lure or bait, but they’re still catchable, that’s for sure. Downsizing lures to a tiny 3” will get you more action with old bucket mouth – just remember that your tackle needs to be downsized too so you can cast and fish the lures properly. 10-15lb mainline braid and 20-25lb leaders are often needed to get the required results though, and while this can end with the odd ‘rub off’ you’ll land more than enough to keep you happy if you take your time and try not to bully them.

As far as soft plastics go, I recommend using a soft plastic prawn imitation. I often opt for the 3-4” Atomic Prongs, and while there may only be a 1” difference in length, the actual size and bulk of them is significantly reduced. So too are the hooks and head weights required to fish them effectively.

The other soft plastic we use a lot is the 4” Halco Paddle Prawn. It’s a slim profiled lure that can be fished deep in relatively light line, but still catch seemingly oversized fish for the profile at this time of year. The colour totally depends on water clarity; the bright orange and pink are great when there’s a bigger tidal flow and the waters are

more turbid, while the raw prawn and white pattern is usually a clearer water option.

As always, the jighead or lead weight on the weedless hooks we use is treated with powder paint to add UV highlights to the presentation.

TIMES AND TIDES

Tides that only have a metre or so of variation between them are my favourites, and this is when the waters clear and fish travel further to intercept a lure. One particular characteristic of winter jacks and barra is that they will often sit a bit deeper, and instead of waiting, say, three seconds for the lure to sink you often have to double that to get the bite.

Afternoon low tides that have had the whole day to warm up is when we usually target the shallower areas with a surface presentation. 90mm Bassday Sugapen are a perfect lure for this and their subtle little water spit as you walk them at the correct speed is a subtlety that produces results when the fish are a little shy. When they’re in the mood for something a little

more noisy, the Halco Roosta Popper 60mm is as good as little poppers get. Multiple 2-3 second pauses are often required to allow a fish to gain the confidence in clear water to finish off a perceived injured baitfish. However, there are times when a fastmoving pop, pop, pop gets better results depending on the fish’s aggression levels. You have to mix it up on the day to find out which is working best.

Apart from that, things are going as expected in the north. With a longer, drawn-out rainy season this year it’s probably just delayed some of the normal seasonal phenomena, but it will all come back into line again, that’s for sure.

Every legal-sized barra landed in winter is a fish to be happy with. Fish of this size are still catchable with the right approach.

A quality leader is needed to withstand the winter lockjaw fight tactics that are common in the cooler months. As you can tell, an inferior leader would have had no chance of landing this barra.