Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Saltwater-Estuary » Catching Estuary Reefies

Catching Estuary Reefies

When you think of fishing of an estuary system, you naturally think of species like bream, whiting, flathead and mulloway, but depending on your location the estuaries can hold so much more, especially if it is has deep water access to the open ocean.

Years ago I was enlisted in the military and while I was away my dad rang me and said he was on his boat, a catamaran that was 30' long and moored in about 4 metres of water, doing a service on each outboard. He went on to say that he had a school of kingfish underneath it. I asked "are you sure they are kings dad?" Dad's reply was awesome... just to make sure he tied on the only soft plastic he could find to a piece of whammy and ended up landing a rat king through the outboard hatch!

Soon after I returned home and armed with a fist full of plastics we hit the shallow water in search of kings. This particular session saw my dad, brother and myself landing kings up to 80cm and snapper hitting mid 60cm in less than 4 metres of water. The bit of reef structure that we were fishing was an easy 20-30km from the open ocean.

Over the years and a thousand You Tube videos later, it's no secret that you can land top quality fish in shallow water on light gear. So how can you better your odds? Probably the biggest key is to figure out a pattern. You've probably heard it a thousand times in every article, however what I'm talking about is seasonal patterns.

Work out what species are likely to migrate into your local estuary, depending on the time of year. For example, your warmer water species are less likely to venture into your estuary system during the frigid months of winter and vice versa. In southeast Queensland the bigger snapper seem to venture into the shallow water during winter and don't seem to mind hitting baits and plastics in less than 15 metres of water during daylight hours. Species like sweetlip (grassy) don't mind hanging around all year and to be honest show up in some crazy places. They love any bit of structure they can find and don't mind schooling up on the edges of weed beds either.

Once you've figured out a pattern, it's time to find some structure. Don't go looking for massive pinnacles, as you'll be surprised what actually classifies as fish holding structure in your local estuary network. Some good quality research will go a long way. Prior to hitting the water check your charts and look for likely deep holes, ledges, old jetty pylons and other structure.

A sounder will also help you pinpoint intended areas you wish to fish. My favourite estuary structure for chasing reefies is just a simple shoal bottom. In this case your sounder isn't going to help very much, you just need to cover ground and get your plastic down there.

Also keep in mind that depending on the size and time of the tide, different areas are going to work at different times. One particular spot that I fish is a rubbly shoal bottom, with a two metre rise as I drift over it. The most productive time to float your plastic down here is mid-tide, when the current is raging and the bigger the tide the better it fires. I use the lightest jighead possible and let the plastic float a metre or so off the bottom, like a bait fish that is tiring in the current or a prawn that just can't hold on any longer.

Although not every fish that you're going to drag up is going to be a keeper, finding some awesome looking ground and working it over on different tides and times throughout the day will eventually produce some quality table fish. Something else to consider is that huge amounts of boat traffic can make a massive difference to how well an area will fish, especially if the area is predominately quiet. However if the fish are holding in an area that has high traffic noise, then often being quiet is not as important and you can simply sound over the top of the structure and fish, and then drift back over them.

So when the weather is not playing ball and you can't sneak outside or drifting over the sand flats and creeks doesn't have the appeal, searching for structure and chasing some other species in your local system might be an option.

Scaling back your favourite outside presentation and having a flick over some likely looking ground might just produce the goods. My go to presentations are a 3 to 4 inch ZMan Jerk ShadZ or MinnowZ and ZMan Scented ShrimpZ and EZ ShimpZ, generally rigged on a 3/8oz TT Lures HeadlockZ HD jighead. This tends to cover most situations and depending on the surrounding structure, going light in the leader department is going to help and I try to keep mine around 10-14lb. It's time to explore and see what reef surprises are waiting to bite in your local estuary system.

Gear List

ZMan 3.75" StreakZ
ZMan 4" Scented Jerk ShadZ
ZMan 5" Scented Jerk ShadZ
ZMan 3" MinnowZ
ZMan 4" DieZel MinnowZ
ZMan 3" Scented ShrimpZ
ZMan 3.5" EZ ShrimpZ

TT Lures HeadlockZ HD jigheads