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Freshwater GOAT Fishing
By Robbie Wells
Geez... where do I start. What I thought was going to be a normal wild toga hunt for a few days, became a ridiculously insane grind to even get a fish to look at a lure. This was something that I'd never really experienced to this degree in all of my wild saratoga fishing and especially when seeing free swimming fish doing their thing. Enter the Baby GOAT...
With the reality being that we would no doubt encounter dirty water, with all of the recent rains falling upstream, we arrived at our spot on the main river to find a lovely choc brown flow, running faster than normal. Hmmm... less than ideal, lol. However, after quite a few hours in the truck from our take off point, we were more than keen to suss it out.
I grabbed my go-to kit for the area, S/B, ZMan 3" MinnowZ, Slim SwimZ, ZMan 2.75" Finesse FrogZ and so forth. I initially tied on a Space Guppy coloured ZMan 3" Slim SwimZ on a 1/6oz 3/0 TT Lures HeadlockZ jighead. Sue opted for a Pinfish coloured 3" MinnowZ and 1/4oz TT Lures DemonZ jighead combo. As we walked the high tree lined banks, looking for free swimming fish, I annoyingly scared a saratoga that was under a big paperbark, hiding in the shadow line. It was annoying because I should know better in such conditions.
A few fish rolled where the paperbark trees met the water. We fired a few casts out and immediately spooked them. Cast after cast this happened and what was even more frustrating was that even the line whizzing through the air was scaring the fish. Long casts, some ten metres away, would still spook them. I tried everything in my kit that afternoon, for a couple of sooty grunter landed in the tight timber. It gets quite frustrating when you see fish rolling and slurping on the surface.
We camped that night and made the decision that, after a quick walk, we'd head a few hours north to some headwaters or maybe a smaller creek. We were hoping that these waters would be less affected by the rain and may offer some cleaner water.
After bush bashing the truck to as close as possible, we hiked to the main river and up to a smaller tributary. It was still quite discoloured, so we pushed on further to a point where the main flow was back eddying around and trickling into a backwater that only fills with the higher water flow. As we moved along the tree lined bank the water cleared up and I was excited that it even had that slight green tinge to it, a deep edge and heaps of timber, finishing in a shallow bay.
We snuck along the shadow line, on the high banks, opting to view the free swimming saratoga before taking any casting opportunities. It took about thirty minutes, then the shadows appeared on the surface. The toga didn't have a worry in the world, with groups of two and three free swimming in the middle. Larger fish patrolled their timber snags, cruising the shadow lines of the trees and then across to the shadows again, periodically slurping something off the surface. They were methodical and exact with every circuit they completed.
We decided to strategically pick certain fish to cast to, ensuring that we avoided spooking other fish along further. The sun was opposite us, so we had perfect cover among the trees. This would be a no brainer. I cast a 1/6oz jighead and Space Guppy coloured Slim SwimZ on my new little 2-4kg Okuma Helios SX rod and Epixor XT reel. Sue was on the Pinfish coloured ZMan 3" MinnowZ and the ever-reliable Okuma Helios combo.
We both made ideal casts, just past and in front of the the cruising fish, slow rolled the plastics within inches of their mouth and... not even a look. It was as if my plastic didn't exist. At least they weren't spooked at all by the lure, the splash or the line laying over the water, which was a slight relief. This continued for the next few hours, before finally landing a little toga that was hooked from more of a reaction bite after the lure was dropped on its head.
After a quick bite to eat and a drink, we continued along the shadows. Unbeknownst to me, Sue had rummaged through our plastics and rigged a new ZMan 3" Baby GOAT in Hot Snakes colour on a 1/12oz 2/0 TT Lures ChinlockZ SWS jighead. She's always loved the new ZMan creatures as they have appeared in the range, including the 3.5" Pro CrawZ, 4" Turbo CrawZ, 2" CrusteaZ and so on. I'm always saying "You can't get better than a Finesse FrogZ for surface on Aussie natives" and "Use my tried and true kit".
As the trees thinned out we came to some shallow water in a small bay, with a big log jam. Ahead of us was another cruising saratoga. Sue was ahead and fired a cast... as with the hundreds made before, however it landed super soft and Sue commenced a slow burn on the surface. The toga immediately chased it and fish on!
I immediately thought Finesse FrogZ, which I had rigged and cast again and again. A couple of jumps later, I grabbed the leader and I noticed the 3" Baby GOAT, lol. I kept to my normal program by changing it up on the two rods I carried with me, fishing a spinnerbait, MinnowZ, Slim SwimZ, FrogZ and more, in a bunch of colours and weights.
In the meantime Sue yells out again, "another toga", which she lost at the bank. This was a real solid fish. After the fourth fish and sixth or seventh strike it was getting ridiculous and there was definitely a pattern forming as Sue was slaying the saratoga.
The most noticeable change was the immediate change in their behaviour as they went from refusing and sniggling at our presentations, to actively chasing and hunting down the Baby GOAT. They were actively feeding only on the Baby GOAT! I cast a 2.75" Finesse FrogZ side by side... and you guessed it... only the GOAT got the bites on the day.
Now this blew my mind as the process of elimination kept going back to the ZMan 3" Baby GOAT. I don't know... the combination of a soft landing and subtle leg pulse really turned these fish on. I finally tied one on and had instant hook ups, although I couldn't keep the hooks in.
Mind blown. Our camping trip had finally become a fishing trip and it was a turnaround in two hours from virtually no fish to twenty plus hook ups. I really thought that I knew a lot about the characteristics of saratoga and what works and doesn't work, especially with surface plastics. As mentioned, we haven't experienced a lure change that has been so dramatic on the day.
We also had a rattle in some rainforest streams in North QLD, with great success on jungle perch and sooty grunter. I never thought I'd say this... but the Finesse FrogZ may have a new contender. It's early days, however there is definitely another lure that I can't leave home without. An excellent option or extra in your Aussie native box of tricks.
How Goods Australia...
Robbie Wells