Hinchenbrook happiness

HI all,

Thought I would share my experienace fishing the hichenbrook channel on sat with some visiting mates from the N.T. On a promise I would take them fishing and a weather report boasting winds of 30knt and a servere wind warning current I spent the night before studing google earth to find a way to fish some creeks without venturing out in the main channel itself.

Early morning greeted us with light winds but after launching at lucinder I stuck to the game plan of cutting through small feeder creeks and making my way up to a main creek system that caught my eye the night before. After dropping in a few pots to satisfy my wifes order of some muddies we preceeded down a creek to start and flick lures.

Bait was on every snag and up in the creeks the wind was not a issue althought the local sandflies to a liking to us.The electric was deployed and a 90mm scorpion +4m was clipped on to find me a fish. The pressure was on as i had never fished the area and I wanted the vistors to nail a jack or barra.

First fish was a eastury cod caught by one of the visitors ona lipless crankbait cast into the snags. The tide was dropping and the water was coming out of from the mangrove roots making the bait and predators move back into the main channel of the creeks.

Soon later my scorpion stopped dead in its tracks and drag started peeling of my reel.After a short spirited fight a nice jack was netted and on the boat. Things then went quiet so another creek was found and things improved. A few more cod and a picky bream were caught before another encounter with a red bream. The next jack also fell to the scorpion but was 1 cm undersized and released to terrorize the local bait populations.

A few big queenies were spotted smashing some bait but unfortunately were not intrested in our lures.The tidal flow started to slow and I decided to try a texas rigged slick rig that had worked well on the impoundment barra. My mates had never seen a texas rigged plastic and wondered if it would work. 20min or so later a large snag apeared as I moved the boat around the corner on the electric. First cast right in the back of snag , the squidgy dropped from veiw with its paddle tail fluttering. I clicked the reel into gear and before i could wind the slack line up my line started to travel out to the side of the snag. Line taught i proceded to wrestle a nice jack out from the timber and into the creek and into the waiting net.

I was really happy that the new presentation worked and the weedless hook firmly embedded into the jacks cheek.Soon after everyone is flicking a texas style plastic. By lunch and up another creek I deceided to fish a hardbody again so i put on my fav B52. The boys continued to fish weedless. I saw a small drain which looked like it wasn't very deep at all, siting in the shade of the mangoves above. The b52 touched down and after a few twiches a barra head apeared and inhaled the lure in full veiw of me. A few minute fight ensued with plenty of arials before the nice little barra of 60cm slipped into the net.

After that I decided to play guide and let the visitors fish. In the next hour or so we had got a few more cod and archer fish. It was time to go as they had to go to work lateshift so back to the pots for a few large gennies that where returned. The boys had a ball as I did and really enjoyed fishing a new location. The run home was a little ruffer due to the winds kicking in. A good day by all and a fresh feed of fish to boot:D

Cheers

Aaron

Ps sorry the pics are not great as I used my phone as i left the camera home.

Good report Aaron! The Creeks around the Island are littered with nice Jacks like that... awesome fun.

Yep... the Sandflies got a hold of me too mate. Also learnt that March Fly's also like Red just as much as Blue clothing... Green is definetely the way to go!

Cheers

Theo.

Aaron,

That is a great read and terrific you got stuck into the iconic barra and jacks.

The Hinchinbrook area is such a incredible fishery and sounds like you got to indulge in what it has to offer.

Nice work and good pics (especially for a camera phone).

Cheers - Ben.

That's some prime action there. Nicely done on the barra and jacks.

Sounds like a nice way to spend a morning.:) Nice fish, and pics turned out pretty good too.
Danny.

Had a great day. The boys want me to take them out before I start work on late shift. At least the winds will be down.

Cheers

Aaron