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Blowy
Easter.
Every
caravan park, cabin and motels were booked out for the Easter Weekend in
Cardwell. You couldn’t move for boats of all types and descriptions,
from car toppers to barely trailer-able cruisers and it was blowing its
proverbial “ring “out! 25-35 knots and wet with it!
Now all those guys and there families come to fish the fabulous
Hinchinbrook Channel, ok theirs a window for the bigger boats but the
smaller boats have no chance and Meunga Creek can get a bit crowded. I
just wonder if they realize there are other alternatives, that is
walking the numerous creeks that run into the Channel.
The obvious one Meunga Creek comes to mind more on that later. There are
a host of accessible Creeks, Damper, Conn, Sunday and Waterfall to name
a few. Some of them have tracks down to secret spots and mud ramps all
would be a bit rough and 4WD.These Creeks come under Lumholtz National
Park or now known as Girringun due to a name change, Fishing is a no no
but walking is ok and as the Rangers are a bit thin on the ground, you
make up your own mind on that!
Any Creeks that go through pastoral land are ok to fish, Meunga Creek,
the Tully and Murray rivers are all fine to fish as is the Russell-
Mulgrave system.
Chris Jones and I were keen to go fishing but didn’t fancy getting
knocked about getting to a close creek so we decided to fish Meunga one
of our favorite Creeks and close to where we live.
The thing about creek fishing is that it changes from wet to wet and
this creek had certainly changed some of out favorite Grunter holes were
now just sand beds. It must have taken tons and tons of sand to fill
them but others had formed and the fish where somewhere there. First
cast and Chris is in to a nice but small Tarpon and didn’t give him any
trouble and was soon released. We weren’t fishing that light as we were
chasing some good size Barra. I was using a 4-6kg rod coupled to a
Shimano Bantam reel with 20kg Braid, I had opted for this outfit as I
knew we were going to fish some rocky area’s a bit later. I was using a
small, bubble like pink Manns stretch 10,Chris was staying with a bigger
lure of the same brand also in pink and fluro green.
We both worked a sunken log and got plenty of hits by some “Sooty’s” but
know hook ups. This was to be the story until we got closer to where the
fresh meets the tidal change. I worked the Manns down and slow to sandy
drop of and had it grabbed by a tiny Barra, this bloke would be lucky to
be 30cm but hey, a Barra’s a Barra I always say!
We walked on down the stream, having fun catching and releasing small
jacks hiding under the sunken trees. Not big but good fun! With the
water still a bit high and running fast both walking and fishing was bit
difficult. The walking, as you had to get into the scrub (complete with
the obligatory “Lawyer Vine”) to get round the deep parts instead of
wading which we normally do. What Croc’s! Yeah well we have never seen
any but that doesn’t mean they are not there!
The fast flowing current also meant you had to lift the rod up to keep
the line out of the current. It also goes with out saying that the lures
worked best into the current. We had rolled some nice Barra and dropped
a couple off but at this stage had failed to land one. We were soon at
the rock bars and were keen to work this are, as we knew some decent
fish would be hanging under the ledges. Chris was soon into a decent
fish and it was making for the rocky ledge again, this would have been
fatal. Chris held the fish on a tight line and soon had it to the bank,
it measured a good 77cm but before we could take a pic its flipped over
and disappeared back into the depths.
It was soon my turn to hook a Barra but it was only marginally bigger
than my other fish, so it was no trouble. My next fish however was a
decent fish and gave me quite a battle before it spat the little Manns.
Chris was into another fish not as big as the first but a legal Barra;
this fish was quite spectacular as it spent most of the time out of the
water! After a couple of deep runs trying to get to the rocks it was
soon photographed and released. And as the light was failing and the
Mosquito’s were getting thick we decided to call it a day.
Not a bad session, a Tarpon, 3/4 Jacks and 4 Barra, so the moral is if
it’s to rough to fish the Channel give the Creeks a go!
Jim (Jimbo)
Lee - www.un-reel-sportsfishing-adventures.com.au
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