Conditions set to ease for
Full service set to resume on the water
The NQ Flyfishers last night conducted their April Club meeting at an exciting new venue and one perfect for a fishing club.
The Loam Island Rowing and Scout complex on the bank of Blacks Weir could be considered the ultimate setting for monthly meetings talking all things fur and feathers.
Meanwhile, members and visitors alike would be hard pressed to find a better venue from which to conduct practical lessons and demonstrations, a barramundi catch beckoning within the weir’s stocked waters.
Last night, members discussed and demonstrated the finer points of flyfishing leaders and leader construction.
The art of fly-tying will be demonstrated at the next meeting Thursday, May 11, concoctions to fool sooty grunter or ‘black bream’ the theme while the club’s general meeting is scheduled for May 25.
“Visitors and new members are welcome,” said a club spokesperson.
“Follow Riverway drive and turn left at the ‘ Loam Island’ sign and follow the road all the way past the boat ramp until you hit the building and parking area – 7.30pm for 7.45 start.”
SYSTEM SHUTDOWN Master caster David Hodge son Tannhym
(Hodgie) and endured blustery conditions last weekend while fishing a favourite northern creek, but the trip was a short one when fish proved scarce.
Hodgie senior said plummeting water temperatures and an influx of freshwaters from recent rains were perhaps more to blame for shutting down the barra bite, rather than the strong winds that ruffled the mangroves.
“Water temp dropped from just under 32 degrees to 26.7 in just a week,” Hodgie exclaimed when I spoke to him earlier this week. “The fish just didn’t want to eat but we did manage a few small barra, jacks and bits and pieces,” he added.
Hodgie told how Tannhym was unlucky when he sizeddown to small vibe and blade style lures before hooking what was an obviously larger fish.
“Tannhym hooked up and felt a couple of enormous head shakes before the fish realised something wasn’t right and took off, but my boy was unlucky and the hooks pulled.”
The largest barra at 69cm was pinned by Hodgie when he used a small surface lure or popper to entice a strike, most fish that were encountered biting best as the rising tide began its push into the mangroves, Hodgie tipped.
JUNGLE JOY
Rollingstone Creek and neighbouring Hencamp Creek gave up a catch of jungle perch, snakehead gudgeon, small barra and mangrove jack for Matt Wilson and mate Sean Green when the pair laced up their hiking boots last weekend.
“We released them all, as we always do,” Wilson said of their combined 15 fish haul.
The experienced freshwater fishing enthusiasts always dress in camouflage clobber and stealthily trace their way along creek and river banks before delivering pinpoint accurate casts to likely fish-holding cover.
“Best hardbody lures are small poppers and floating shallow minnows and soft plastics… paddle and curly tails work well in the 2-to-4-inch range,” Wilson said.
The mates don’t measure fish with a tape these days, both having caught more than enough to have a good idea of whether or not the fish makes the ‘grade’.
When asked about the ‘grade’, Wilson responded admitting that the grade was not the legal size for a particular species, but rather whether the fish would stretch to a PB or personal best length.
“We do have a tape in our backpack, but only ever pull it out should a fish potentially beat our previous best for the species,” Wilson said.
“Sean caught a perch probably just under 40cm in Rollingstone, upstream from the bridge, but we didn’t need to measure it with his best already sitting at 47.”
Wilson said the mates agree that the best practice is to release the fish as quickly as reasonably possible, sometimes after taking a quick photograph, and not measuring each and every fish helps facilitate a healthy release.
WINDS TO SETTLE
Anglers Cardwell to Bowen will be overjoyed with forecasts predicting strong winds – those that have plagued coastal and offshore waters throughout and beyond the past week – are set to dissipate rapidly throughout the weekend.
The new week, possibly commencing Sunday, is expected to deliver significantly lighter winds and slight to modest seas, while tides building next Saturday’s full moon might excite both barra and mackerel fisho’s.
Larger Spanish mackerel made a showing at inshore hotspots including Cape Cleveland and the Rattlesnake Island group before the blow and it is likely there’ll be a small band of anglers sorting wolf herring and garfish rigs and baits this weekend.
Meanwhile, school size Spanish are expected to remain a realistic catch at shoal spots wide of the cape and Magnetic Island.
Garfish baits – drifted or trolled – and metal jigs worked a treat for experienced anglers during recent trips and not much is expected to change throughout this tide cycle.
Barra-hungry anglers might do best to concentrate their efforts within larger river and creek systems this weekend and during the first days of the making tides, the Haughton River, Morrissey’s Creek and the Bohle River all prime choices.
As tides towards the later part of the week, a handful or switched-on anglers might cast their lures within smaller nondescript creeks, drains and gutters to fool fish while those who prefer using live baits could well do their thing near the mouth of the same creeks and gutters.
Landbased anglers will also relish a drop in the winds this weekend as golden trevally, blue or Cooktown salmon and grunter forage within shallow foreshore waters.
Cape Pallarenda, the Kissing Point rockpool, the Strand jetty and casino breakwalls are perfect places to set baits and cast lures, soft plastic prawn imitations a good choice for those not wanting to do the bait thing.
Well-known angler Luke Neill stowed his lure and flycasting rods and picked up a rarely used bait fishing stick before slipping down to Pallarenda Beach early this week.
He said the choice was a good one with grunter or barred javelin fish and salmon proving suckers for fillets of wolf herring threaded onto fine gauge hooks.
Heath Kerr said landbased anglers are enjoying plenty of success when they fish the duckpond waters behind the casino.
The Fishing Warehouse staffer and reel technician said customers are telling of barramundi eating both lures and live baits, trevally, cod and flathead also keeping the same anglers busy.
“There’s still plenty of mudcrabs around too,” Kerr said.
“They’re not all entirely full but many are close enough to provide a good feed, so anglers will have to grade them and throw back the light or empty ones,” he added.
Kerr said there were plenty of landbased spots from which to set a crab trap or two and the wisest anglers will fish nearby while keeping an eye on their pot.
The big fella hinted that ‘share-farming’ or pot theft is as rampant in Townsville as anywhere else.
Warehouse boss Dale Welldon weighed-in adding that mudcrabs remain plentiful in the Burdekin creek and rivers systems with the Barrattas and Sheepstation Creek giving up quality crustaceans along with good catches of prawn.