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Northern Paddle Tales
By Justin Willmer
The title of this article may lead you to believe that I am sharing tales of paddling northern waters in the kayak or canoe, however with crocs a reality in the north my focus is more on a particular style of soft plastic and how, for many years, they have dominated the arsenal of many anglers adventuring north. Recently we headed to north Queensland to catch up with friends and family, do the tourist thing and explore some new areas, while also sneaking in a couple of fishing sessions.
I have been lucky enough to fish a selection of northern impoundments over the years, along with plenty of saltwater sessions and a few in the fresh. One style of plastic that has dominated my catches is the paddle tail plastic and it’s not surprising when you see the schools of mullet and other baitfish species cruising the shallows, holding tight to structure and showering from the water when predators attack.
Our first session was walking the banks in the fresh with a mate and he suggested that our main targets would be sooty grunter, barramundi and mangrove jack. After talking tactics, gear and lures, I checked out what he had rigged, with paddle tails the go. We geared light, with 2-4kg rods and small spin reels spooled with 10lb braid, however the leaders were bumped up to 40lb as barramundi can shred leaders in quick time.
I packed a selection of plastics, with a focus on ZMan 2.5” Slim SwimZ, 3” Slim SwimZ and 3” MinnowZ, which was his go-to for this type of fishing. The 3” MinnowZ were rigged on 1/8oz and 1/6oz TT HeadlockZ HD jigheads, along with weedless options on 1/8, 1/6 and 1/4oz TT SnakelockZ and Snake EyeZ jigheads for the gnarly stuff. I also like to rig the 3” MinnowZ on a 1/8oz 3/0 TT ChinlockZ SWS, which is a belly weighted weedless hook that allows the plastic to be rolled across the surface with a high rod tip, slowed down to swim sub-surface or allowed to slow fall deep into the snags.
The weedless rigs proved most effective as we picked the pockets, targeting laydowns, skipping under overhanging vegetation and targeting rock and timber snags. The session kicked off with a couple of sooty grunter for Robbie and Sheri, before a solid fish nailed my Slam Shady coloured ChinlockZ SWS rigged ZMan 3” MinnowZ and headed for the snags. Some quick rod work and as much hurt as I could put on it with the light gear soon had its head turned and after a fun battle, I saw red. It’s amazing how that flash of red can get the adrenalin pumping and after a few tense moments the first mangrove jack I had landed in a while was safely in the net.
The 3” MinnowZ continued to get the bites from the sooty grunter, with Slam Shady, Beer Run, Pinfish and Houdini colours getting the bites. Sooty grunter are a ball of muscle and they produce all sorts of involuntary audibles when they strike the lure, before doing everything they can to bury you in the snags. Robbie finished the session with a nice little barramundi, that did all it could to eject the lure, before being landed and released. We felt grateful that we had the opportunity to explore some new water and it was smiles and laughs as we headed home for a camp oven cook up.
Day two and the plan was to hit the salt, fishing the rivers and estuaries in two boats, Robbie and Sue in their tinny, while Sheri and I jumped in with Jeff in his tinny. Speaking to Robbie and watching him rig up for the afternoon session, talk turned to the versatility of the 3” MinnowZ and his kit for the boat session would pretty much revolve around the 3” Slim SwimZ, 3” MinnowZ and 4” DieZel MinnowZ, along with a few SwimmerZ in 4” and 6”, just in case some larger barra showed up. Again, it was paddle tails dominating the arsenal, along with a few packets of ZMan 3.5” EZ ShrimpZ, GOATs and FrogZ, just in case we needed to mix things up.
Upon arriving and loading our gear in Jeff’s boat we noted that he was rigged with paddle tails, his go-to plastics being the 3” MinnowZ and 4” DieZel MinnowZ when he wanted a bit more presence in the water. The session started slow as the tide bottomed out, so I switched things up and put on my southern estuary favourite, a ZMan 2.5” Slim SwimZ on a 1/4oz 1/0 TT DemonZ, hoping to trigger a bite from a jack in the shallows. A few casts later a rattle and to Jeff’s surprise I soon boated a flounder, followed by a pikey bream. It was obvious that the smaller presentation had appealed to these species, however once Jeff hooked a nice jack, I was straight back over to the ZMan 3” MinnowZ.
We were fishing 7’ 3-6kg rods and 30 size reels, spooled with 10lb braid and 40lb leader, and the technique was simple, a long cast to the shallows and ahead of the drift, followed by a slow rolling (slow winding) retrieve. This retrieve can then be mixed up with a few pauses or twitches if the bite is slow. We all missed a few fish, before landing a few barramundi and mangrove jack on the flat, with 3” MinnowZ and Jeff’s 4” DieZel MinnowZ getting the bites as he gave us a lesson in fishing the north. I managed to shake all my barra off before the boat, including one keyring size 30cm model, taking it pretty easy after hooking them and watching them jump around. After hooking them I wasn’t worried if they made the boat as they were all to be released anyway.
From here we moved to a deeper weed point that had the wind blowing onto it, nailing a couple of grunter (javelin fish) and a trevally, before wind drifting along the weed edge and scoring more barra and jacks. Finally, a creek mouth for a couple more trevally, a flathead, wolf herring and a couple more fun size GTs, all landed on paddle tail plastics. That baitfish profile and tail swimming on the drop (sink) and working aggressively even on a slow retrieve is a winner on such a wide range of species in the north and a great starting point for anglers venturing up this way. For the afternoon session we landed eight species on the paddle tails… along with Sheri hooking multiple mud crabs and apologising to them as she retrieved a couple of legs in the process.
When fishing more open water a TT HeadlockZ HD jighead is the go, in a 3/0 for the 3” plastics and 4/0 for the 4” a good starting point, in 1/8oz or 1/6oz weights. If fishing heavily weeded or snaggy areas, then a TT SnakelockZ or Snake EyeZ weedless jighead is the go, again in a 3/0 and 4/0 hook. I also landed a couple of fish on a Mood Ring coloured 3” Slim SwimZ on a 1/4oz 3/0 HeadlockZ HD and lost a nice barra on this presentation after a few runs and jumps in the strong current. Favourite colours for the northern crew included pearls, such as Beer Run, Slam Shady and Pearl, reds such as Red Shad and Calico Candy, natural colours such as Houdini and Pinfish, and a fluoro, such as Sexy Penny.
If the northern impoundments are on your hitlist for a barramundi then the paddle tail is again a proven performer, stepping up to favourites, the ZMan 6” SwimmerZ and DieZel MinnowZ in 5” and 7”, rigged with 1/4oz – 1oz, 6/0 – 8/0 HeadlockZ HD jigheads and 8/0 SnakelockZ or Snake EyeZ weedless jigheads. Common strategies include targeting weed edges, timber and windblown banks and points. The ZMan HerculeZ pre-rigged swimbait is also another popular option, available in 4”, 5” and 6” (Nov 2022) models.
Hopefully this article has reinforced the effectiveness of paddle tail plastics for fishing the north, encouraged you to plan an adventure and given you a starting point in terms of gear, presentations, rigging and proven colours. When I’m packing for any inshore adventure paddle tails always get a large representation in my kit and these two sessions just reinforced to me why… fish on!
See you on the water…
Justin Willmer
Gearing Up:
TT Rods Red Belly Spin Rods - RBS702ML 7' 2-4kg
Okuma Epixor XT Spin Reel - EPXT-20
Platypus Pulse X8 Braid - 10lb
Platypus Hard Armour Leader - 40lb Supple
TT Rods Red Belly Spin Rods - RBS702M 7' 3-6kg
Okuma Epixor XT Spin Reel - EPXT-30
Platypus Pulse X4 Braid - 10lb
Platypus Hard Armour Leader - 40lb Supple