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Soft
Plastics v Lures.
Any
one living up here in the wet tropics will tell how this past six weeks
or so has been unusually blowy, this weekend was no exception. The”
Likely Lads”, James Lamen and Ashley Dansie had been round wanting to go
out in the boat chasing Barra. They had two chances “Buckley’s and
None”!
They had been giving me a hard time lately on my non use of soft
plastics, so they suggested we go fishing in Meunga Creek, they would
use plastics and I my usual popper or diving lures.
Sounds like fun to me so of we go down to our secret spot only this time
it wasn’t a secret! Local indigenous leader Phil Rist was teaching his
mob how to fish the traditional way, its amazing how many kids Phil gets
in a car ,there was about sixteen kids and only three cars! Its great to
see the leaders working with these young kids, it will only benefit them
in the future but I nearly cried when I saw a nice big Jungle Perch
hanging from the end of a wooden spear! Onya, Phil keep up the good
work!
We opted to work down stream, I was using my reliable popper and the
boys were playing around with the soft stuff. We walked about half a
klik ,working all the snags and deep hole with mot much luck, James had
a couple of lookers from some small jacks, I couldn’t raise a fish.
We eventually came to a deep hole with a nice snag and a small feeder
creek that had a trickle still running in to it, a likely spot indeed.
Ashley was the first to hook up, a nice Tarpon which he promptly lost at
the bank, it was still spending a lot of time out of the water. This
looks like Popper country, could I entice one to bite, no way. James was
working the current and bringing his lure close to the bank. We could
see Barra knocking themselves out trying to get to the lure.
Time to change lures, I put on a small pink Manns, it usually does the
trick for me. Not this time, James is hooked up into a nice fish which
is giving him a hard time on the light gear we choose to use in the
creeks (to bad if you get hooked up to a “Horse”). After a bit of work,
some ariel antics the fish is banked. A good fish, for a creek barra.
Both the boys are using small plastics with a lead head, you could see
the trail of sand it kicked up as they worked it along the bottom much
like the old “Vibrotails” used to. The fish were following the lures
right to the bank and turning away at the last minute, almost at our
feet.
Ashley by this time has also hooked up but to a smaller fish so it
didn’t last long before it was banked, it’s amazing how much fun you can
have fishing with light stuff. The bigger Sooty’s ,which can get up to
40+cm in these creeks, really make you work.
And, as you have probably worked out by now, I was still fishless
couldn’t even get a look! Both the boys had hooked and boated two fish a
piece and lost at least two more to poor hook ups. Ever had one of those
days when the bloke next to you was catching fish and you nothing even
though you were fishing in the same spot with the same bait? I had the
feeling it was going to be one of those days for me, James has offered
to give me one of his soft plastics exactly the same as he had to use.
Not quite what the day was about, but I was getting a bit frustrated and
the barra were just hammering the plastic!
The result ?Still no fish and the boys had boated two more by now! In
the end I went back to my popper and we decided to fish a small hole
further down as the “Hot”bite had shut down. I was glad to get away from
there I could tell you. We came to the small but deep hole and the boys
had graciously allowed me the first cast. Usually we only managed to get
one fish out of the smaller holes with the bigger holes holding more, So
first cast is paramount and as I’m always trudging behind I thought it
was magnanimous of them ( that little bit of sarcasm probably when
straight through to the keeper!).
I had switched to a small shallow diver and worked it passed some lily
pads, it was absolutely “monstered”as soon as it landed. The fish had to
have been watching it come in to land, either that or it landed in front
of its mouth. I didn’t even have time to move it, so subsequently its
taken of with all the slack, back in to the lily pads. A bit of pulling
and grunting from me and its out into the open. A few big deep runs and
I finally saw some colour, a beautiful well conditioned Sooty! A quick
pic and it was returned none the worst for wear, as all the fish were
for the day.
On that note we decided to call it a day, the boys reckon they won but
I’m not so sure. I think we had better have a rematch!
Jim (Jimbo)
Lee - www.un-reel-sportsfishing-adventures.com.au
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