Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Saltwater-Estuary » The Slim Chance Session
The Slim Chance Session
By Sean Bekkers
Every now and then I can manage a sneaky session, even when the weather gods don't want to play ball and a recent morning was exactly one of those session. Whilst rigging the night before, the wind was blowing in excess of 30km/h. I had a spot that I wanted to hit, if the wind dropped back enough for me to use light tackle, to target some estuary favourites. I went to bed with my fingers crossed.
Following a late storm I awoke at 3am to a light breeze of five knots, which was well below the predicted 20 knots. I couldn't believe my luck and after smashing a strong coffee, I headed off to the boat ramp. As I moved toward my spot for the morning, I killed the engine and crept in on the electric motor.
My last few trips out and about I've noticed a large volume of small bait fish and jelly prawns and with my intended targets being flathead, bream and grunter (javelin fish) on the dead low tide, a lightly weighted ZMan Slim SwimZ was going to be my lure of choice on this occasion. My gear for the day consisted of my Okuma Helios combos, both running 10lb Platypus P8 braid and Stealth leader, with a selection of 2.5" and 3" ZMan Slim SwimZ, rigged on TT Lures HeadlockZ 1/4oz jig heads.
As I crept into the area that I wanted to fish, I could see the prawns and bait getting hassled in the predawn light and although my anticipation was high, it took me a little while to find my groove. As I had been working the edge for almost a half hour and hadn't had a touch, I decided to change my retrieve and instead of the usual hop style retrieve, I decided to shake the Slim SwimZ at the end of each hop (on the pause). I was basically trying to imitate a prawn under threat and on the second cast my Slimmy got hammered by a small grunter. I was stoked because the monkey was off my back and the code of the day was cracked.
I kept working my way around the edges until the unmistakable clunk of another fish hammered the Slimmy and after a quick little run I had landed a respectable mid 30's grunter. I flicked the next cast out and let it sink to the bottom. At this point I saw a prawn getting hammered by what looked to be a good bream and like most anglers I proceeded to quickly wind my line in and cast toward the action. Naturally you try and get the lure back as quick as possible before the opportunity passes. On the way in I got nailed by another fish, right at the boat. A 40's model dusky flathead had chased my plastic right to the boat and smashed it. Following a quick tussle, that had some airborne action, I had dinner in the net.
The water depth around the edge was approximately 2.5 metres, so on each hop I had to give it a rather long pause to reconnect with the bottom. After working my way into the shallow spot though, it was less than a metre deep, so instead of running a 1/4oz jig head I dropped it back to a 1/12oz and swapped out from a Slim SwimZ in Blue Glimmer colour to a Midnight Oil colour. This time instead of pausing I opted for a slow roll across the top of the weed bed and with some wind assistance I could get a reasonable cast for such a light jig head.
It didn't take long for a bream to hammer it and after a few quick pics and a release, I put a cast in right on the edge. With not even a crank of the handle the drag was screaming and line was ripping out around the front of the boat. This turned out to be the best fight that I've had in ages on light gear. I managed to wrestle some line back, it tore off with a heap more and so on, until I finally put another respectable grunter in the boat. SEQ grunter just love a ZMan Slim SwimZ.
The tide was starting to push in pretty hard by now and I decided to try another area that would have enough water on it for the boat to drift over. Moving up onto the flat, as the tide was coming in, provided some excellent recon as to what sort of bait and fish get up there to feed. It was awesome to see garfish not much bigger than a 3" Slim SwimZ and prawns up there going about their business, with the occasional boof and slurp of fish attacking them, reassuring me that I had the right presentation.
Drifting with the tide in less than a metre of clear water meant that all of the fishing became very visual. This included watching a trevally chase my plastic back to the boat and even with a BOOF and a saltwater shower... the hook didn't connect. It still made a highlight for the session though because I could watch the whole thing unfold right at my feet. Flats fishing is awesome for this reason. A little bit more work and I managed to land another small grunter, before calling it a day.
Overall, with an unexpected break in the wind, this session was a resounding success... for the lifestyle factor, along with the great fishing and I was also able to share it with dolphins, dugongs, stingrays and turtles, which makes any trip pretty special. I had planned to target bream, grunter and flathead on ZMan Slim SwimZ, tick that box, and along with these I managed some other species, including small sweetlip, Moses perch and flounder, which filled in the gaps nicely between the better quality fish.
Screaming drags, Sean
Sean's Gear:
ZMan 2.5" Slim SwimZ - Blue Glimmer & Midnight Oil
ZMan 3" Slim SwimZ - Midnight Oil
TT Lures HeadlockZ HD jig heads - 1/0 & 2/0
Okumo Helios SX Spin Rods - 7' 1-3kg & 2-4kg
Okuma Helios SX Spin Reels - HSX-30
Platypus P8 Braid - 10lb
Platypus Stealth Leader - 10lb