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Short Notice Trip
By Warren ‘Wazza’ Smith
Simmisy rang late Monday arvo and asked if I was interested in a fish the next morning. His boat hadn’t been run for quite a while, as a new trailer had taken a bit longer to be built than anticipated, so he wanted to give it a run. “No worries”, was my response! We were going to fish Shoal Bay, which is located on the eastern side of Darwin, and it can produce some great fishing for barramundi and threadfin.
It is also probably the best mud crabbing area that we have close to Darwin, however being early December, we didn’t have high hopes on the crabbing front. The biggest thing about Shoal Bay is that it’s extremely shallow and most of the productive spots can only be reached around high tide. We normally fish the neap tides, with a low happening early morning to around midday, as this allows us to get to one of the areas that will have enough water left in there to fish at low tide.
You’re then locked in there until the tide returns, about three hours later, allowing you to head back to the ramp. We departed the boat ramp at first light, with my young bloke Jamie and Simmisy’s young fella Oscar also along for the trip. With the tide already half out, it took quite a while to find our way across the shallow sand and mud flats, to reach the mouth of one of Shoal Bay’s arms.
The first job was to bait a few crab pots and get them in the water. That done we then motored up the creek to a known bend that holds threadfin on occasion. It did not take long and Simmisy was hooked up to what turned out to be a nice thready of around 75cm. We spent another thirty minutes or so there, before heading back down to check the crab pots. The tide was still running out and the water was getting very shallow, to the point that we started bumping the bottom on the way back to the start of the creek.
The two young fellas pulled the first crab trap, which held a big buck crab. Unfortunately, after a quick check it felt soft, so we let it go. No luck with the next few pots but we left them in the water as the incoming tide can produce better than the outgoing at times. We were now stuck in a stretch of water that was no longer than two hundred metres and about fifty metres wide, with the deepest section going maybe two metres. There were a few fallen trees laying in the water and if there was going to be any fish in the hole with us, that is where they should be holding.
The four of us rigged up with ZMan 3” MinnowZ and ZMan 4” DieZel MinnowZ, weedless rigged on TT ChinlockZ hooks so that we could cast them right in amongst timber, without getting snagged up very often. Jamie was the first to hook up to what turned out to be a small estuary cod, followed closely by Oscar with a golden snapper. Simmisy hooked the first barramundi of the day and, although undersize, it was good to see one.
The tide was now slowly making its way back in, so we slowly fished our way back up the creek, casting at any snags that we came across. When fishing such shallow water its pretty easy to pick good looking spots and most of them produced a fish of some sort for us. A few more barra and 8 or 9 more estuary cod, along with a lonely pikey bream, were picked up on the way back to the deep bend, where we wanted to try for some more threadys.
We tied up to a tree, on the inside of the bend, and Simmisy soon hooked up to something that was pulling hard. Unfortunately, the hook pulled. Jamie got his ZMan stuck right under the boat and while giving it a flick with his hand, a barramundi around 55cm grabbed the lure and gave him a good tussle. It’s not that easy hand lining a barra on braided line, however he managed to get it into the boat. We all had a laugh as it all unfolded.
The tide really started pushing back in now and we decided to run back down and pick our crab pots up and head for home. A nice little bonus as we scored two full muddies to take home with us, that were going to be turned into chili mud crab for that night’s dinner. We had a quick count up and reckon we landed close to 15 fish. Although none were big, it was a great way to spend a morning with the kids, who really enjoyed the trip.
Jamie and I used Okuma Komodo baitcast reels (Komodo 273). I’ve had a pair of these for a while now and they have been faultless. Love them. Both reels were attached to Cerros rods and loaded with Platypus P8 Braid and Super Braid, 40lb Hard Armour Tough Leader. We ran TT ChinlockZ hooks in size 2/0 and 3/0, rigged with ever-reliable ZMan MinnowZ. A fun short session with the boys and I’m looking forward to the nest one.
Cheers, Wazza
Gearing Up:
Okuma Komodo Baitcast Reels – KDS-273
Okuma Cerros Baitcast Rods
Platypus P8 Braid
Platypus Super Braid
Platypus Hard Armour Leader – 40lb Tough
ZMan 4” DieZel MinnowZ
ZMan 3” MinnowZ
TT Lures ChinlockZ Jigheads – 2/0 & 3/0