Yesterday I fished up Hinchinbrook channel with Jake. Jake is now living down Airlie Beach way and I haven't seen him for ages. He was up for a Christening, but had time of a fish on the Saturday. Tides were too big to fish the southern creeks, and wind was predicted to be blowing hard from the SW. So with few other options we decided on the treck up to Lucinda. Jake picked up me and my boat about 5am and by 7am we were in the water and away.
First stop off was The Bluff area where we sounded up some arches sitting just off the bottom. We suspected Salmon, but couldn't raise a bump on a number of different bottom lures. As the tide turned we headed over to fish the strip of mangroves between the Herbert river and Dungeness. Despite some nice looking water and plenty of bait, we only saw a small Jack.
From here we headed up to Sunday creek. I have a little spot up there that gathers massive shoals of herring on the top of the tide. When we arrived the bait was thick and shimmering the surface. But other than a couple of follows by small creek GT's, there didn't seem to be too much harassing that bait. Then suddenly from nowhere a big silver shape appears and snaffles up my DOA. He took off for the timber, and there was no stopping it. The fish parked in the cover, but I could feel the line rubbing on mangroves. It didn't take long and leader popped.
We had a look around the drains in Sunday, but there was still too much water. So we moved on into Benjamine flats. We found a really good series of drains, one that was pumping out so hard that it was creating ideal white water rafting conditions! But we didn't manage a single fish from any of the drains. Within 30mins the water had dropped and these particular draines had emptied.
Next move was up to Deluge. It was a bit tight getting in on the now low tide (and still dropping). But the clean and clear water of this creek made finding the slightly deeper channel easy. A few showers of bait along the mud bank, but despite a couple of follows from big black Bream we didn't see anything else. A quick call to Knighty of G and T Fishing School and Charters and we found out he had some fish working in a little creek further North. So we decided to go say hello.
Knighty had some clients on board, so we kept our distance and let them work their area. But we sat with a couple of drains that clearly had bait being hassled. Sure enough Jake hooks up a monster fish, but first jump and lure is shaken from its mouth. Fish of the day for sure! But only a handfull of casts late and he hooks up again. This time a much smaller fish that is easily lead to the boat.
This drain then went quiet so we moved to the next few. But on returning 30mins later the bait was still being worked. And Jake, true to form, hooks up again within a few casts. A 65cm fish to take home to his family.
It was now getting quite late in the afternoon and time to start heading toward home. We had a good half hour run at 30knots to get back to the Bluff area. A few casts in the creek mouths here while waiting for a little more tide to get into Dungeness. I managed a just legal Jack and few bumps that failed to hook up. We had a friendly visit fromt he fisheries guys and then headed for home.
A very enjoyable and bloody cold day. Never good chasing Barra on the coldest day so far for the year. But Hinchinbrook is such a beautiful place that the fishing doesn't see to matter. Thanks Jake for a fun day.
