Mates Coight out in North
Intrepid fishermen reel in a lone barra as wind plays havoc on trip
It was an All Aussie Adventure of the Russell Coight kind for three mates from the bush in southwestern NSW.
They’d landed in tropical Townsville late last week with notions of palm fronds gently caressed by a slight breeze, the calmest of seas, pina coladas and fishing that demanded they hide their lures.
The artificial baits would be stowed until they were ready to tangle with finned beasts they’d read so much about.
Granted, the pina coladas are a bit of an embellishment, yet the keen cod, yellowbelly and trout fishermen had done their due diligence and had sorted the best tides and their tackle for their very own northern safari.
In fact, Steve Thomas and Jim Muirhead were both All Aussie Adventure extras and staff during the Russell Coight reign of comedic Australian television, Thomas most famously remembered for tutoring Coight with a bushman’s boot-scootin’ veranda jig.
There was little doubt that there was a little Coight in each of the mates and they were necessarily chaperoned by great friend, Steve Fox, a man with a love of flyfishing and large enough to offset the larrikin in his pals.
Given the collective CV of the trio, it was understandable that a strong wind warning had been issued immediately as their plane found the tarmac at Townsville Airport and remained in play for the best part of their four-day fishing junket.
The offshore aspirations of the visitors had been dashed before they’d even cast a line, but spirits remained high according to Thomas, the men happy to stick a hook in anything salty.
The New South Welshmen bounced around Cleveland Bay shallows and the mouths of creeks to find few fish of any size willing to brave the wind.
Those that did play were
mostly small trevally and queenfish, while a lonely salmon pulled a bit of string.
Barramundi were occasionally found in numbers, yet regardless of lure choice, all but a few showed enthusiasm for the lures, although Thomas was unlucky to pull a lure free of a solid fish hooked near Crocodile Creek.
Stiff winds blew the tops off a short but sharp fetch around the entire perimeter of Maggie Island and among a catch of more junior-size trevally, nannygai, school mackerel and golden trevally, the mates marvelled at a ferocious school of large barracuda, fish to better than four-old-fashionedfeet long.
Meanwhile, Fox could hardly believe the speed of a larger hammerhead shark that nailed a live bait.
Winds did ease momentarily – though, just the once – and Muirhead wasted little time sampling just a taste of what was on offer in waters that proved just out of reach for the travelling fishos.
He’d hooked a beast of a fish on light 15-pound barra tackle, a Samaki vibe drawing a savage strike when worked close to the smallest structure wide of the shipping channel.
Muirhead was dragged
round the boat on multiple occasions and while fielding wellmeaning but unprintable advice from his crew, the earthmoving contractor eventually led the perpetrator to the boat, but the calamity was not over.
With the line touching the boat, more advice to avoid a lost fish was heeded, yet lifting the rod higher than he should have, was not one of those suggestions.
The little rod parted in two and the tip section joined the fish in the drink.
It was just one of many Coight moments on the trip, similar happening to Thomas when a monster barracuda wrapped the line not once, but several times around the electric motor.
In each case though, the fish were landed and Muirhead had ticked a priority fish off his bucket list.
He heaved a wonderful GT or giant trevally for the camera before happily spearing it back into Cleveland Bay.
Licking their windswept wounds, Thomas, Muirhead and Fox were agreeable to having a poke around the Ross River’s Black Weir where the chance of an oversized barra was always a possibility.
It was very possible, but didn’t quite happen when one
of the beasts molested Fox’s lure, a Horny Toad, but failed to find the hook.
The soft plastic surface lure momentarily disappeared in a bucket-mouthed strike near the edge of a weed bed but returned all misshapen, twisted and fishless.
Barras of all sizes teased the blokes as they swam around the boat with fins and tails breaking the surface.
They seemed curious enough but hardly in hunting mode as they occasionally traced the path of the lures for a short while.
But it wasn’t until nearing the end of their trip that the lads unlocked the secret of fishing in Townsville.
Muirhead had rubbed the salt from his iphone and swiped a Youtube rendition of Sesame Street’s Burt and Ernie’s Fish Call.
All three admitted that the skit was funnier after the consumption of a few ales, but lo and behold, within 30 or so seconds of the mates each doing their best “Here fishy, fishy, fishy,” chant, Thomas’ rod bucked and he claimed the first and only barra of the trip.
The smallish 60cm-long fish was cloaked in hues of gold and its eyes glowed ruby red in the overcast conditions, but it was
a most welcome catch.
WIND WOES
Stronger-than-liked winds are not pleasing anyone but kitesurfers and are forecast to annoy anglers throughout the weekend and into next week.
Sadly the Black Weir barras will not be an option for fishstarved anglers beginning Tuesday, April 30.
The Ross River, between Black Weir and Gollogly Lane, will be closed to all users until and including Friday, May 10.
Townsville City Council advises that the closure allows for temporary pump testing, the testing conducted for 24 hours each day for the 10-day closure’s duration.
WEATHERING WEATHER
Expert lurecaster David Hodge described this week’s windy conditions as ridiculous.
Known as ‘Hodgie’, to mates and fans of his Barefoot Fisherman Youtube channel, the big man said winds that continuously changed direction and combined with Wednesday’s full moon were to blame for poor catches.
Hodgie showed me some pics from another recent trip though, when he and son Tannhym scored well on shallowwater jacks and barra.
One was of a sizeable barra that ate a metallic gold Halco Laser Pro 120 lure.
He said that particular fish was fooled when he dragged the lure into a shallow snag, forcing the bait to bump the structure before allowing it to float back towards the surface.
Another was of Tannhym with a solid mangrove jack that ate a weedless-rigged paddletail plastic fished near a creek drain at low tide.
And Hodgie tied on an Atomic Jerk Minnow, 80mm model, to fool a dinner-sized barramundi near a shallow mangrove line on a flood tide.
Like most anglers in the greater Townsville footprint, Hodgie is hoping the weather gods come good sometime very soon.