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Sandy Straits Houseboat Adventure
Aidan Robertson
The school I go to was having a houseboat trip for our Marine class, so I jumped at the opportunity to get out fishing with the ZMan / TT Lures gear! We arrived at Tin Can Bay Monday morning, boarded the houseboats and headed to Kaurie Creek in the Great Sandy Straits, inside Fraser Island.?
On the way I rigged up my rods, the lure of choice being the ZMan 4" StreakZ Curly TailZ in Motor Oil colour rigged on a TT 1/4oz Jighead.? We arrived at Kaurie creek, anchored up and put out the pots in search of a feed of crabs. The fishing was very slow because of the dirty water from the outgoing tide, although we did find some awesome looking creeks that I was keen to fish the next morning on the incoming tide.
The morning came around and it was perfect weather! Greeted with glassed out conditions and plenty of fish life moving actively on the surface, we set off in the tinnies and headed up a few creeks we had discovered the previous day. The creeks were alive with fish life, spooking bream and flathead as we came into the creek.? We cut the engine and set up for a drift.? After a couple of casts with the ZMan Curly TailZ the fish came to the party with a few flathead around 45cm caught, along with a couple of small bream.
After reaching the end of the creek we made a move to another good looking creek nearby.? We set up for another drift at the mouth of the creek and the slow incoming tide took as up the creek at a perfect speed.? It wasn't long before we were hooked up to more fish, in fact for about a thirty minute period it was a fish a cast! Casting out the Curly Tail plastic in Motor Oil and letting it sink to the bottom, before giving it two short sharp flicks, was enough to entice the bream and flathead to bite.
We reached one really nice corner in the creek where I cast out the ZMan 4" StreakZ Curly TailZ plastic, let it sink to the bottom, gave it two short flicks and BANG! I was on. The fish screamed back to the bottom and it was definitely not a flathead or a bream. As it came up to the surface to my surprise it was a mangrove jack and there was a bigger one with it! After a cracker fight the jack was landed and this was my first lure caught jack, measuring in at around 30cm on the Swivel's Fish Measure. After a few photos it was slid back into the water to fight another day.?
After re-rigging we headed back up past the hole to give it another go. This time I cast out along the mangrove lined creek and let the plastic sink to the bottom and before I could even give it a flick the line pulled tight and I was on again. The culprit this time turned out to be a better size flathead.? After some rod bending action I landed the flathead of around 55cm, which after a few quick photos was also released.? The day went on and the fishing action didn't seem to stop, but we had other work to do so we left a hot bite and headed back to the houseboat.?
After having such a good session at Kaurie I was keener than ever to see what the other two spots we were visiting had to offer. We pulled up anchor on the houseboats and set off again, this time for Garrys Anchorage. After doing some sightseeing on the way up, including spotting some dolphins and a seal, we arrived at Garrys. We set out again in the boats and fished some nearby mudflats for dusky flathead, landing a couple of around 45cm and losing a couple of bigger ones. It was another great spot to fish, not as many fish as Kaurie but still a great experience. The flathead were caught on mud / sand flats in 0.5m to 3m of water. When chasing flathead around spots like this I like to look for bait, drop offs, weed, shelly bottoms, drains and water movement pushing off the flats.? ?
The next day rolled around and we arrived at our final stop for the trip, Teebar Creek. The fishing wasn't too bad, still landing a few bream and flathead on the plastics.? A beautiful sunset on the last day ended a perfect four days living aboard the houseboat. It was a great experience, I had an awesome time and the fishing was a bonus... not to mention I used one plastic and one jighead for the four days! The ZMan 4" StreakZ Curly TailZ in Motor Oil rigged on a TT Lures 1/4oz Jighead doing the job. Luckily the ZMan plastics are 10X Tough!?
Cheers Aidan