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Three Days, Thirteen Species!
By Gary Brown
Anglers travel to North Queensland to target particular bucket list species, but also for the sheer variety of fish species that are on offer. On a recent adventure, fishing over three days with John Campbell from the Burdekin Barra Lodge at Groper Creek, I managed to land thirteen different fish species, on six different ZMan plastics, rigged on three different jigheads. What an awesome adventure.
In no particular order the fish landed included barramundi, giant trevally, northern longtail tuna, Spanish mackerel, grass sweetlip, mangrove jack, queenfish, coral trout, pikey bream, stripey snapper (Spanish flag), spangled/yellow emperor and of all things… a dusky flathead.
As you will see in my gear list at the end of this article, I took up a heap of soft plastics and jigheads as I wasn’t quite sure what I needed, even though John had given me a bit of a run down on what I should bring with me. The main ZMan plastics that did the damage were the ZMan 3” Scented ShrimpZ, ZMan 3.75” GOAT, ZMan 4” DieZel MinnowZ, ZMan 3” MinnowZ and the ZMan 4” Hard Leg FrogZ.
Day One
The first day saw us heading down to the entrance of the Burdekin River to fish a selection of creeks, focussing on the last of the runout tide and then the first of the run up, as this enabled us to get over the sandbars that were everywhere as we headed downstream.
It wasn’t long before I started skip casting the 4” DieZel MinnowZ and 3.75” GOAT deep into the mangroves. I tell you what, once you get the hang of skip casting these on either lightly weighted SnakelockZ or ChinlockZ, you will find that you can get them so deep into the mangroves and snags that at times you can’t see them. As I hadn’t done this type of fishing for a while my reaction time was a bit slow at first and I missed a few good strikes. After about an hour of flicking, not only did my reaction time improve heaps, so did the direction of my casting.
Before going up to fish with John I had taken his advice and downsized the length of my rod, selecting a 6’, 3-6kg Okuma Wave Power rod, matched with an Okuma Epixor XT 30 reel and spooled with 30lb Platypus Pulse X8 Braid. This outfit was brilliant when it came to casting in those narrow creeks and close to the mangroves and snags. The shorter and stiffer rod, than I am used to, made it much easier to muscle out the fish from deep in the snags and mangroves.
Day Two & Three
For the second and third day, John had us launching from the newly dredged ramp at the end of One Tree Bay and heading out to the Bun, along with a selection of creeks in the area. Even though we had a bit of south easterly wind, the fishing was great and this is where I increased my species list from two to thirteen!
While using my 7’, 3-6kg Okuma Helios SX spin rod, paired with an Okuma Epixor XT 30 reel and spooled with 20lb Platypus Pulse X8 Braid, fishing near and around the Bun, I caught my first ever GT, to about 5 to 6 kilos, along with a Spanish mackerel of around 83cm. Awesome fun on light gear. The reason that I switched up to the longer outfit was that it gave me the extra casting distance, while the slightly softer tip allowed me to let the fish take the plastic properly before setting the hook. As you will see from one of the photos, the 40lb Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader copped a hiding from the GTs and Spanish mackerel and it still stayed together. How good is this line!
Working our way along the rocky shoreline, I changed my leader to 40lb Pulse Mono, just to see how it would hold up in the clearer water and amongst the boulders and reefs. This line is also as tough as anything that I have used. Actually, I believe it’s even tougher. So tough that a couple of times when the fish buried me into the reef, I was still able to get them back out and to the boat.
A couple of the creeks that we decided to fish took a lot of concentration from John, navigating the twists and turns through the many sandbars. Once we managed to get in there, some of them deepened to over six metres, while still being very narrow. This where I would go back to the shorter 6’ rod, where accurate casting and tight water combat was more important than casting distance.
After using a selection of different coloured ZMan plastics to tempt out a few more mangrove jack, John suggested that I try the Calico Candy and Red Shad colours in the 4” DieZel MinnowZ. His reasoning was that mangrove jack are very territorial and will eat other smaller jacks. I’m glad that I took his advice as I nailed four in a row, along with a few near misses.
Over the three days I lost count of the fish that I caught. What I do remember is the number (5) that I lost to very large sharks after I had them three quarters of the way up to the boat.
On a side note, I would like to thank Morgan Grant (Guide to Fishes by E.M. Grant) for helping me to correctly ID a few of the fish species that I wasn’t quite sure of as I have the 5th edition of the book and I believe that it’s now in its 12th edition.
If you’re looking for a fishing adventure that gives you access to a myriad of fish species, along with some of the most iconic fish species in the country, it may be time to sort your fishing gear, get packed and head north.
Cheers, Gary
Gearing Up:
Okuma Wave Power 6' 3-6kg spin rod and Okuma Epixor XT 30 reel
Okuma Helios SX 7' 3-6kg spin rod and Okuma Epixor XT 30 reel
Platypus Pulse X8 Braid 20 & 30lb
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader 30lb & 40lb
Platypus Pulse Mono 25lb, 30lb & 40lb
4" SwimmerZ - Gold Rush, Pearl & Sexy Mullet
4" HerculeZ - Pearl, Sexy Mullet & Mulletron
5" HerculeZ - Pearl, Sexy Mullet & Mulletron
4" Pop ShadZ - Mud Minnow
4" Pop FrogZ - Pearl
4" DieZel MinnowZ - Pearl, Sexy Mullet, Calico Candy, Sexy Penny, Houdini, Green Lantern, Red Shad, Gold Rush & Purple Death
3.75" GOAT - The Deal, Hot Snakes, Watermelon Red & Green Pumpkin/Orange
3" MinnowZ - Pearl & Sexy Mullet
3" Scented ShrimpZ - Houdini
SnakelockZ Finsesse - 1/8oz 1
SnakelockZ - 1/4oz 3/0, 1/4oz 4/0, 3/8oz 3/0, 3/8oz 4/0 & 1/2oz 6/0
Snakehead - 1/2oz 6/0
Headlockz HD - 3/8oz 3/0, 3/8oz 4/0, 1/2oz 3/0 & 1/2oz 4/0
ChinlockZ - 3/0, 4/0 & 6/0
Pro-Cure Mullet Super Gel Scent