Page 58 - Bush 'n Beach Fishing mag

A small mangrove jack caught during the competi- tion.
Ash with one of many trevally landed during the competition.
This slatey bream was a surprise for the author while chasing mangrove jack.
Even small sh kept the kids entertained.
Last year my partner Ash and I spent a few days on Baffle Creek staying at Rocky Point Retreat.
We spent the first af- ternoon getting the pots in and pumping yabbies for the next morning.
We got to know Bottle Creek fairly well over the competition and started catching a few good fish on lures.
TBaffle Creek Family Fishing Festival

HE Baffle Creek Family Fish- ing Festival was
Local Luring
by KEITH STRATFORD
held in September this year.
a bit of time up Bot- tle Creek, as we had caught a few mangrove jack and other species there before – it also looked reasonably good for crabs.
Each morning we took the pots further up Bottle Creek until we finally snagged a good crab.
I’ve never entered a family fishing competi- tion before, though with my son’s sixth birthday looming it was a perfect time to have a go.
It measured a bit over 19cm and took our team straight to the lead of the crab section.
While we didn’t have a lot of luck on that trip – with car prob- lems putting a halt to our fishing expeditions – we thought the camp- ground was excellent, so we booked a spot for the week of the fishing festival.
Yabbies looked to be plentiful but wherever we tried pumping for them was hard work.
However, I only man- aged to land one small jack there, with a few fish getting the better of me.
With an overflowing ute and boat, we hit the road early on the Sunday morning to get there in time to set the camp up and get set- tled in.
Early the next morn- ing, I took the kids over to one of the big rock bars to float yabbies over.
The gravelly sand was quite soft and in plac- es we sank up to our knees.
We caught a variety of trevally, small jewfish, grunter, cod, tarpon and a solid slatey bream (also known as blubber- lip) – all on plastics and blades.
The festival started at lunchtime on the Mon- day and finished with a presentation on the following Saturday af- ternoon.
The action was red- hot, with all sorts of species eating the yab- bies and a few bust- ing off the kids’ light outfits.
We were starting to rack up a good range of fish and were on- ly slightly behind the leaders, so we started chasing a few other species out towards the mouth.
This gave us plenty of time to try a lot of dif- ferent areas and target a range of species.
Because the kids had a ball catching a range of species, we decided it was going to be our plan each morning.
The best part about fishing in this area is it’s great for a swim as well.
The Rocky Point Re- treat, located on the southern side of Baf- fle Creek at Winfield, allows access to the mouth and the middle reaches of the creek.
The crabbing was very slow, with only one crab weighed in on the competition app.
Page 58 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, December 2020
We decided to spend
www.bnbfishing.com.au
It has a boat ramp close by and huge campsites to spread out on.
* continued P60
Moses perch were plentiful around the rock bars in Baf e Creek.
We took crab pots with us to try catching a few mud crabs and get among the prizes for biggest crab.
Baffle Creek hadn’t had any rain in previ- ous weeks, so the whole system was very clean.