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Cattle Creek or Tarpon City

 
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Cattle Creek or Tarpon City.

Anybody driving south out of Ingham to Townsville must have driven over Cattle Creek. It only runs during the wet season but west to the hills is a series of lagoons and wetlands; it was these I had hoped to fish. I had talked my good mate Chris Jones into coming with me our idea was to put in at the Bruce Highway Bridge and work our way up in the leaky punt using the electric.

Anyway one Saturday it was blowing its ring out and we were keen to fish so off we went. Well putting in at the bridge was alright in theory but a little bit difficult in practice as the water was very low but after a bit of dragging and lifting under fences we got there. What an evil looking creek it was, jet black water, half eaten turtle shells etc, green slime, thick weed but it was a creek and would hold fish, of which sort we weren’t to sure.

I was keen to use some new small poppers I had bought and duly gave one to Chris who flicked it in from the bank as I was setting up, (can’t help his self that boy!). First cast and his hooked up a nice Tarpon, which he duly dropped at the bank; serve’s him right for jumping the gun. We decide to work the lower reach’s as the creek disappears into the sand after about half a kilometer as we approached the shallows a small Taipan about 1m long decided he wanted to get in the boat with us! Obviously Chris and I weren’t having any of it and gave the electric full throttle! Well I didn’t know snakes could swim that fast he’s off after us and only after a prolonged chase did it give up! Scary stuff, I’m not sure what I would have done if it had managed to get in the boat, the water didn’t look that inviting especially as every body driving past kept shouting out ”Croc’s”!

After it settled down we started to flick the small poppers near the weed beds or in the quieter bends, I was soon on as my small popper was smashed as only a Tarpon can, and soon had a nice fish leaping all over the small creek but it soon de-hooked itself. Next cast same deal but I managed to get this one to the boat for a pic, lovely fish and good fun on the light gear we were using. Chris mean while was having plenty of hook ups but no fish in the boat and was getting a bit frustrated; finally switching lures to his old favorite a “Micro Mullet”.

This paid dividends as he is soon on again but this time managed to get one to the boat for a pic. Smiles all round from Chris with a “finally”, it really doesn’t matter to us whether its catching Barra on baitcasters or hooking up Tarpon on light spinning gear its all fishing and all fun. This was the scenario for the morning plenty of rolls grabs and light hook ups but not many captures, we had worked our way up under the bridge after have to just about lay down in the boat and being swooped by the mobs of birds that had built there nests under the bridge, they looked like Martins to me.

We were soon to have a disappointment as the creek was blocked with weed and we couldn’t get through to fish the massive wetlands that we had planned. We managed to push through to a wed locked lagoon where we could see plenty of Tarpon rolling and sporting in the shallows. A couple of casts and we were both hooked up but couldn’t managed to boat any, a bit annoying really. It was obvious we would have to have a change of plan if we were to catch any fish, poppers are fun but the end of the day you really need to catch them not just have them on for a short time.

“You’re the guide, what do you reckon we should do” asks Chris. No pressure in our boat! Pigs bum! Ok it was time to get out the secret weapon, a rubber spider with a single hooked jig head. Chris gave me that ” I’ll wait and see look”, Oh Yee of little faith! We decided to work our way back to the shallow end and call it a day. I flicked the rubber spider out, let it sink a couple of twitch’s and its hammered and more to the point its hooking the fish firmly in the lip.

Chris was soon rummaging through his tackle box looking for something similar but could only come up with a small bit of tail rubber of a “Sqidgee”. No worries says Chris putting a small hook through it and putting a split shot near the eye of the hook, this’ll work. And work it did soon we were hooking up on what seemed like every third cast.

We had a ball the rest of the morning, had a great time small fish on light gear, nothing better. As they say on TV  “you gotta get out of the square you live in”

Talking of TV and Mega TV stars, I had occasion to fish with Lumpy Milson just recently and would like to add postscript to the “PrawnStar” story. We were fishing up a creek in the Missionary Bay area, working medium sized “Prawn stars” over a rocky bottom (secret spot 13) chasing Fingermark Bream, just drifting along with the tide. Not a lot happening, when Lumpy’s on to a useful fish and was giving him a good work out, ”feels like a choppers” says the big fella. Yeah right! Thinks I, not having a lot of faith in his secret spots, we soon saw color not a Fingermark but a Small Mouthed Nannygai! This far up a creek! You never know what you’ll hook up to in the bay area. A beautiful fish to look at and probably the most meritorious catch of the day, I bet you could have some fun on the reef with the “Prawnstar”

Jim (Jimbo) Lee  -  www.un-reel-sportsfishing-adventures.com.au