Page 66 - Bush 'n Beach Fishing mag

Fishing therapy – a positive outcome for anglers
* from P65
The greedy bugger
duo into its folds.
The mangrove jack
its snaggy home.
That one went back
30 barramundi for the morning, a fairly typi- cal total for spring, if you work the right tide and area.
of the restrictions, the boat ramps at Weipa were overflowing with trailers every weekend, as residents escaped to the water in search of a feed for the family.
grabbed the jack by the head, then powered back towards the snag leaving a hole the size of a kid’s swimming pool, but I managed to halt the run because the cod had snavelled a tre- ble and my adversaries were now fighting each other instead of their potential captor.
had been savaged around the head and measured 47cm, so it was quickly brain- spiked, bled and iced for the kitchen.
too, and I managed to pull another barra from the upstream side of the snag on a replacement lure, just to put icing on the salty cake.
Though the majority were undersized, there were a couple of males that appeared to be showing signs of matu- rity ahead of the com- ing breeding season.
There is little doubt that the ability to carry out this normal activ- ity in the midst of vi- rus chaos helped many people cope with the massive change forced on them.
I yelled at Tom to take a video of the mayhem, but he decided to gr- ab the net instead and somehow scooped the
In the interim, while the cod was detained in the boat, Tom had cast back in the same spot and removed another smaller red devil from
Losing is almost as much fun as winning – and an expected part of the deal!
To boot, recreational fishing and boating have also been major contributors to our much-depleted econ- omy, with tackle and boating shops reporting increasedturnovercon- trary to national trends.
Ol’ mate Mr Greedy monster had chewed the rear hook out of the lure body but was sent back to ravage another day.
Encounters like that make mangrove lure casting one of my fa- vourite fishing activities, with the results exciting and unpredictable.
This could be confir- mation that a La Niña event is not too far over the horizon, an option that will certainly be welcomed after a num- ber of lean wet seasons on the Cape.
We managed around
Getting a fishing fix has been a vitally im- portant ‘chore’ during the COVID crisis.
This cod was obviously hungry. After taking a swipe at Tom’s barramundi, it decided to grab the author’s mangrove jack and snagged itself on a treble in the process. Double headers like this don’t come often – or in such spectacu- lar fashion!
When camping and out of town trips were prohibited at the peak
A warmer than usual winter has kept water temperature in a range that suits barramundi activity, so there have been plenty of small fish around creeks and rivers with an occa- sional horse making an appearance.
If ever the powers that be needed evidence of the contribution recre- ational fishing makes to the ongoing mental health of the commu- nity, its value has been clearly demonstrated during the lockdowns that have limited many other social activities.
A great positive story in a seemingly endless stream of negatives.
But back to the fish- ing...
New lure, new mangrove jack! Note the tight mangrove creek where most
Page 66 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, October 2020
of the action happened.
Tuna, mackerel, treval-
Cod, mangrove jack, fingermark, grunter and small queenfish have been on the chew on the bigger tide.
However, numbers of blue and king threadfin salmon seem to be well down this year, which may change for the bet- ter once hotter weather arrives.
This year, with the lack of visitors – in the charter industry and drive-in fishers – fish- ing seems to be notice- ably better for both es- tuarine and offshore.
* continued P67 www.bnb shing.com.au