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10 Spots to Fish

By Justin Willmer

As anglers we spend a lot of time trying to work out where others are fishing, when that time would probably be better spent trying to better understand the areas that we fish and even to work out some new areas. Over the years I have found that it is less important where others are fishing and more important to work out why fish are in particular areas and what attracts them to these areas, along with developing an arsenal of fishing techniques that you can utilise once you find some fish. If you take the time to work out what attracts and holds fish in an area, then you are more likely to be able to apply this knowledge to unlock a stack of fishing 'spots' in your area and new areas that you visit.

A lot of my fishing is done chasing bread and butter species in an estuary system that is approximately 36km long, open to the ocean at each end and fished fairly heavily. I would say that at some point in time you could catch a fish anywhere in this system, however I would also say that more than 90% of the water in this system would be fairly unproductive most of the time, so that's a lot of anglers that are fishing in unproductive water. The defining factor for me in this and any system is structure. Structure creates eddies and breaks from the flow, ambush points, shade, shelter, attracts food for larger predators and often the best structure will attract the best fish.

So in this article I'm going to give you 10 spots to fish... but not just a GPS point that may or may not fire based on season, weather, tides and so forth. These are 10 spots that exist in many systems and they are spots that have produced fish time and again. Let's have a look at 10 key pieces of structure that are available in many environments and take a look at how we might fish each of them.

Structure is available in both natural and artificial forms. It is also available in obvious and less obvious forms. Natural may include rock bars, mangrove edges and drop offs, while artificial may include canals, rock walls and jetties. When I fish a new area, the first thing that I will look for is obvious structure, such as rock walls, canals, mangroves and bridges. Once you start moving through the system and fishing this obvious structure, you can then take the time to locate less obvious structure such as ledges and drop offs, drains, snag piles, weed beds, rock bars and rubble bottom. Polarised sunglasses and a fish finder can aid in locating this less obvious structure.

Rock Walls and Concrete Walls

Concrete walls often attract marine growth, crustaceans and baitfish, while also creating shade, current breaks, pressure points and ambush points for predators. When fishing concrete walls I will often fish parallel along the walls, focussing my efforts around where the base of the wall meets the sea bed and large predators patrol. Using a sounder to look for bait and fish holding mid-water is also effective.

If land based and fishing a concrete wall you can again fish along the wall, or instead focus your attention around standout structure such as inlets, drains, steps and any visible structure in the water, such as rubble and weed beds.

Rock walls, constructed from piles of pocks are a little different as they have loads of nooks and crannies that hold bait and attract predators. In this situation it can often be more effective to sit a cast distance out from the wall, cast into the wall and work your lure down the face of the wall. This allows you to work your lure past all of these nooks and crannies in an attempt to draw predators such as bream, snapper and cod out or imitate the bait that darts in and out of these hidey holes so that a strike is triggered from a passing predator. When working my plastic down the rock wall I attempt to bump the wall occasionally, without dragging the lure down the wall, otherwise snagged and lost lures can be an issue.

Another technique when fishing rock walls is to fish parallel along them and target the base of the wall, where the rocks meet the sea floor. Many large predators hunt along the base of these rock walls and hopping a soft plastic along the base can attract strikes from snapper, mulloway, kingfish, large flathead, trevally and more.

Jetties and Boat Ramps

This structure may seem too obvious, busy and heavily fished, however if I am near either of these I will make a few casts.

It's amazing how many anglers use boat ramps but never make a cast there. Boat ramps offer structure, bait, shade and are areas where anglers often dispose of leftover bait and fish frames. When launching my kayak from or near a boat ramp I will always make a few casts on the way out fishing and a few before retrieving my kayak. It's amazing how many bream and flathead have been landed right beside the boat ramp.

Jetties are another area where unused bait is disposed of, along with fish frames from filleted fish and these areas also offer shelter, shade, eddies and ambush points. Many anglers come to fish a jetty and they set up and cast as far away from the jetty as they can, often out onto barren flats and channels. The young jetty rat then arrives and drops his bait or lure down beside the pylon and fish on! I will often drift under or beside any jetties where I am fishing and prospect the nastiest structure and shady pockets. Remember to keep out of the way of anglers and their lines.

Canals and Pontoons

Canals offer fish an almost endless array of structure, so where am I going to find the fish? I have had most success fishing the main entry walls to the canals, areas with additional structure, such as piles of rock, timber, bridges and pontoons, along with the dead ends of the canals, where you can often position the boat in the end and fish multiple flats, walls, pontoons and other structure from one position. Other things to look for when fishing canals include shade, water flow and eddies, bait and people feeding fish. It can often be a little bit of trial and error until you work out the most productive sections of a canal system, however history says that canal systems will produce, so it's worth persisting.

One of the key pieces of structure in canal systems is pontoons. Pontoons are like upside down reefs, with marine growth and crustaceans making a home on their underside. Fish, including bream, mangrove jack and trevally, in turn can often be seen cruising and feeding tight up underneath these pontoons. Again there are often a lot of pontoons in a canal system, so what defines the best fish attracting pontoons? Look for pontoons with plenty of growth, shady pockets, water movement and additional attachments, such as jet ski pontoons or even moored boats that can add shade and ambush points.

When fishing pontoons it's often about going light to keep the soft plastic as close to the underside as possible and that's where the TT Lures HWS (Hidden Weight System) jighead comes into its own, rigged with a ZMan 2.5" GrubZ for chasing bream. For mangrove jack anglers will often rig a ZMan 3" MinnowZ, 4" DieZel MinnowZ or 4" SwimmerZ on a 1/4oz, 3/8oz or even 1/2oz jighead, which allows good control of the cast when casting and fishing the plastic faster, back along the edge of the pontoon.

Productive areas worth casting to when breaking down each pontoon include the shade under the walkway onto the pontoon, back corners of the pontoon, front corners of the pontoon, running the lure along the edge, any pressure points or eddies that can hold and deliver the lure to waiting predators and any additional structure or shady pockets that allow a skip cast into an ambush point. At times you will find that pontoons on one side of the canal will produce more fish than the other, due to water flow, sun or other variables and this can assist you in fishing a canal system faster and more effectively. It's also worth making a cast onto any boat ramps that run into the canal, along with a cast down each side of the ramp.

Bridges

Stop at almost any bridge and you will find a well-worn path leading down under the bridge, to where anglers can access the water and the many pylons that offer structure, shelter, eddies, shade and ambush points for predators. Kayak and boat anglers often have access to all of these pylons and some trial and error, or a decent fish finder will soon have you working out which pylons have the best structure, the best flow and are holding bait and fish.

When fishing bridges I will generally cast up current, past the pylon or pylons and allow the lure to sink so that the retrieve brings it back at a depth where the fish and bait are holding. If you don't have a sounder you can work your way from pylon to pylon and make multiple casts at each pylon, retrieving higher in the water column, then mid-water and then closer to the bottom. This may produce a mix of species, including trevally, tailor and salmon higher in the water column, bream mid-water and mulloway, snapper and cod down deeper.

When the current slows you may be able to parallel the bridge and fish a stack of pylons with one cast, casting on the up current side of the bridge and then again on the down current side of the bridge, working your way from one end of the bridge to the other or targeting the most productive pylons.

Mangrove Edges

Natural structure that provides food, shelter and ambush points, mangrove edges are productive fishing areas that are available throughout Australia. The trick when fishing mangrove edges can be where to start among the kilometres of mangrove edges available. Fish will often patrol the mangrove edges, and you be able to catch fish right along the edge, however I look for features that may see the fish stopping and holding in a particular areas. When I approach the mangroves in a new area I immediately look for a few standout features, including points, water movement, breaks in the mangrove line, snag piles and drains.

Points and breaks in the mangrove line often divert water movement, create eddies, hold bait and create ambush points. Fallen timber and snag piles also offer excellent points of ambush, while also holding bait and creating current breaks. Drains are access points for predatory fish and funnel bait in and out of the mangroves, making them worth a few extra casts.

When fishing mangrove edges I prefer not to parallel fish them along the mangroves when there is enough water for fish to take you back deep into the mangrove forest. A long cast ahead of you, a fish eats the lure and heads into the mangroves and you have little chance of stopping them. Instead I prefer to fish along the mangroves fanning cast from about 45 degrees ahead of the boat, back to straight from the boat into the mangroves. This allows you to fish the more finicky feeders ahead of the boat, while also dealing with the drains, lay down timber and pockets as you come across them. I generally cast tight into the mangroves, retrieve the lure fairly quickly over the spiky and snaggy mangrove spikes on the bottom, which can trigger strikes from bream, tailor and trevally, along with barra and jacks in the north, then I allow the lure to fall to the bottom once it has cleared these spikes and I then hop and pause, or roll it back to the boat.

I have found in my area that mangrove edges can often be less productive on the higher stages of big tides as the fish disappear and feed back in the mangroves where you can't access them. Instead I fish the mangrove edges when the water is rising and there is enough water to hold fish around the mangroves, or when the tide is falling and the fish have moved back out of the mangroves and are holding around structure and making the most of the time to feed before the tide drops and forces them away from the mangroves.

Timber & Snag Piles

There are a few different types of timber structure that you may come across, including standing timber, laydown timber and timber snag piles.

Standing timber basically refers to living or dead trees that are still standing and these are often fished vertically, with the plastic allowed to fall to the base of the tree where it is jigged, hopped and retrieved, or retrieved with a dead slow roll back toward the surface. You can also sit off these trees, cast back past them and allow the lure to sink to the desired depth before being retrieved past the tree. Favourite trees for anglers often include ones with bird nests in them as the birds regurgitate fish for their young, some of which falls into the water, along with their waste.

Laydown timber refers to fallen trees that are laying horizontal in the water, often from a river bank and then angled into the depths. These are dynamite fish holding structure as they provide shelter, shade, ambush points, current breaks and they attract plenty of bait. Running your lure alongside the trunk of the tree will result in some brutal strikes, as will prospecting the branches at the end, especially when they still have the leaves on and hold loads of bait. One of the perfect snags on this planet is when a forked tree has fallen into the water or two trees have fallen to create a fork in the water. A tight cast right up into the fork of the snag often results in an almost instant and brutal strike.

Snag piles are often created by bank collapses or flood waters and consist of piles of dead timber. These snags can be some of the most productive and also some of the most dangerous in terms of getting your lure back. I will generally sit downstream from the snag pile and cast back toward it. Rather than cast straight into the pile and risk getting snagged or bricked and shutting down the bite, I will start by casting a short distance from the snag and gradually working my cast closer. I will then do the same on each side and then finally I will fish over the snag if it is underwater, or I will fish the front pressure point. I find by starting my casts a metre or so from the back of the snag and each side of the snag I will often also hook more different species, extract more fish from the snag and also get bricked less often.

Weed Beds

One piece of structure that is often avoided because it fouls lures is weed beds. Weed beds are the heart of many rivers and estuaries though, along with the freshwater, as they are the home to much of the food in the system, including crabs, prawns, baitfish and sea snails. Weed beds offer shelter, shade, ambush points, food, salinity and warmth that attract many fish that call this area home.

Weed beds are one of my favourite areas to fish and when the tide is high there is nothing more enjoyable than rolling a ZMan 2.5" Slim SwimZ over the top of weed beds that are out of the water when the tide is low. Fish hunt over these weed beds when they have access and catches can include bream, grunter, flathead, trevally, snapper and more.

Sandy and rubbly pockets in the weed beds are worth special attention as these areas seem to be a focal point for feeding fish. Weed beds that have a defined edge as they change to sand, mud or rubble are also worth some attention and these defined edges can often be paralleled, allowing you to fish right along the edge of the weed where predators hunt.

Drains

I often refer to drains as 'bait funnels'. They are the first point where the bait can gain access onto the flats and they are the last place that the bait can hold before a receding tide forces them of the flats and into the mouths of awaiting predators. No matter how small or large the drain, predators will feed in the mouth of it and also use it as a means of travelling and ambushing bait.

When I approach a drain I will generally cast around the outside of the drain and then work my way up into the drain, depending on its size. If it is a run out tide I will make some additional casts on the down current side of the drain mouth as this is often where fish will hold, waiting for the current to deliver baitfish, prawns and other food to them. You will often see a run of dirty water on this down current side as the water from the flats enters the main flow and this dirty water line is also an ideal ambush point for predators.

Drop Offs and Ledges

Areas where the water rapidly changes depth often produce fish. These areas can produce breaks and pressure points in the current that attract bait and they also allow larger predators access to shallower water where the bait finds it more difficult to escape. It is often the best of both worlds for larger predators, such as snapper, mulloway, trevally, queenfish and big flathead as they can safely hide in the depths, moving up to hunt the shallows in low light periods.

For anglers this means the low light periods of dawn and dusk are ideal times for hunting the flats and shallow sides of drop offs for feeding predators. As the light levels increase you can then fish down the drop off and still land good fish. A prime example in my local waters is landing quality snapper in a few feet of water early morning and then as the sun rises moving off the shallows to a nearby ledge that drops to over six metres of water, where the fish can still be caught later in the day. A trick is often to fish as light as possible to give the soft plastic a slow, natural fall to the bottom of the ledge. As the current increases the jighead weight may need to be increased until the current possibly becomes too strong to effectively fish the drop off.

Drop offs are also prime areas for targeting flathead, an extremely popular target species and these drop off may be slower tapering and don't need to drop into deep water. The prime time to target these drop offs is the last couple of hours of the run out and first hour of the run in, as the flathead concentrate along the edge waiting for the last of the dropping tide to bring the bait to them. You can sit a cast distance out from these edges and work your way along the edge, or move in onto the ledge and work parallel along the edge, fanning casts from the shallows to deeper water.

Reef, Rubble & Wrecks

When searching for reef, rubble and wrecks, generally deeper structure, a depth sounder is ideal. It's amazing how a few small bumps on the sounder screen will see bait and larger predators holding in the area. In areas of high current flow you may need to concentrate your fishing around the couple of hours of the tide change, when the flow is reduced.

There are two main ways that we fish this type of structure, cast and retrieve and vertical jigging.

When casting and retrieving, depending on the depth and flow, you may be fishing anywhere from a 1/8oz to a 1oz jighead inshore and a 1/8oz to 3oz plus jighead offshore. In the estuary system that I fish I often fish rubble around 3-4 metres deep and run a 1/4oz jighead, stepping to a 3/8oz or 1/2oz when I move to wrecks and reef in 6-8 metres of water. Position the boat just down current from the structure, cast up current past the structure and allow the lure to sink, so that it ends up in the strike zone, then commence a hop and pause retrieve. Working that couple of hour window around the tide change, it won't take long to find out if there are fish there actively feeding.

When fishing the structure vertically we will stop the boat far enough ahead of the structure that we can get the lures to the bottom before we drift onto the structure. We then drift over the structure while fishing the lure with an aggressive short lift and then pause and drop the rod tip back. This technique is perfect for drifting larger areas of structure, however if the structure is small and isolated we will use the electric motor to hold position on top of the structure and fish it vertically.

Ideal soft plastics for fishing this deeper structure include jerk bait style plastics - ZMan 3.75" StreakZ and 4" and 5" Scented Jerk ShadZ for estuary work as they have minimal built in tail action, allowing you to sink them down quickly and keep them in the strike zone. If the run is less aggressive though a paddle tail or curl tail plastic can be deadly, with the ZMan 4" and 5" StreakZ Curly TailZ, 3" MinnowZ and 4" DieZel MinnowZ a few favourites.

Another lure option that is absolutely deadly when fishing this style of structure and especially when jigging vertically, is the TT Lures Switchblade. Depending on the current the 1/4oz, 3/8oz and 1/2oz are all dynamite estuary inclusions, with the 1/2oz a go-to for snapper, mulloway, trevally and more. There are also 1oz, 1 1/2oz and 2oz Switchblade HD models for those fishing offshore structure for snapper, coral trout and pelagic species.

Okay, so although I haven't given you 10 of my spots to fish... hopefully I've given you something more useful and that's a few tools to break down the areas that you fish, or new areas that you may find yourself fishing in. Structure and bait are often the two key things that will make an area productive, so make note of the obvious and less obvious structure in the areas on your fishing adventures and if there is bait in the area as well... buckle up!

See you on the water...
Justin Willmer