Northern Exposure

Many anglers have cut their teeth on estuary fishing. And it's a solid grounding, as these lower reaches of tide-affected rivers offer the trailerboat fisherman myriad species.

But things can get a trifle confusing - particularly if you attempt to catch a variety of species in one session.

Often time, distance and tide is against you at some point of the day, so identifying a target species for one session and getting the tactics wired for that particular fish is often the best course of action.

A few pointers here may help to get you started or improve your catch if already underway.

Tides play the biggest role when fishing in estuaries and creeks that flow into the sea. Many estuarine species feed in the open on the incoming tide while the rest lie in wait in their respective lairs.

If I were to fish an area with large tides (2-7m) and time was on my side, I would concentrate my efforts on the first day after the neap tide.

This minimum tidal movement would give me the clearest water to work in, which would become progressively cloudier as the tide movements increase on the approach of the new or full moon.

MOON SHADOW...
For those fishing tropical estuaries, it seems to be that fishing the run up to the new moon is more productive than fishing up to the full moon. The tides are higher on the new moon, but the lack of any moonlight prevents many species feeding successfully during the dark hours, giving them a larger appetite during daylight. The smallest ripple on the surface would be easily silhouetted against a full moon and visible to predators below.

Thirteen years of fishing Northern Territory estuaries has taught me that fishing is good up to and including the night of the new moon. The next morning after that moon and from that point until the day after the next neap or slack tide, the quality of fishing waned considerably. This occurred even though we often had a further two or three larger tides after that moon.

The headlands either side of an estuary mouth are a good place to start your quest. It is here at low tide that you should invest some time to gather fresh bait. Crabs and octopus found in rockpools will hold you in good stead later in the day when further up the creek. Live yabbies or nippers are also a prime estuary bait.

More often than not, accessing the headland will have to be undertaken from the lee side which will sometimes have a sheltered beach area.

When surveying a beach from a boat, look for dark patches which will often be seen at the ends of the beach. This is mud build-up in the white sand and is the place to gather nippers and worms. It is also a good place to be on a rising tide as trevally, stingrays and other foraging fish move over these patches digging for what you are after. Their telltale remnants of diggings will be seen at low tide.

Carefully look at the pock-marked sand and you will be able to work out what species of fish has been in the area, which direction they lay as they feed and what part of the last tide they were feeding.

From there you can choose the right lure, work out the direction of approach and the best time of the next tide to undertake the session.

Trevally species will sit around headlands as the tide begins to make. Fish these headlands at the end of a run out tide and if the fishing quietens on the run in, it might be time to look at your yabby patch. Anglers in the north will find queenfish around the headlands, and both species will readily take lures and baits.

STICK IN THE MUD
Often along shallow coastal flats near estuaries, fallen timber will be stuck in the sand or mud. It need only be a single stick or mangrove branch but that alone is enough to attract fish to its shelter when wholly or partially submerged. Trevally will congregate in these areas. A quiet approach and a lure cast from afar will give their presence away.

In many estuaries, low tide spells trouble for propellers as rock bars shallow. A preconceived game plan to be in the right place at the right time might mean staking out a patch of shallow water near a hole in the creek or river.

Live and deadbaits fished suspended under a float and allowed to drift along the edge of the estuary or over shallow rock bars before retrieving and repeating the process will allow you to cover a lot of territory. If fishing in or near a hole, a 'slop' line consisting of a heavy handline or heavy rod and reel set up with a big bait, often accounts for some of the larger residents of the hole.

Trolling from a vessel is also an option along edges, taking particular note of bait schools that show on the sounder and working lures to the effective depth. Most action will come from trolling against the tide, which allows lures to get down deeper and and stay in the strike zone longer.

Don't be scared to bash the snags and fish tight into the cover. If you are not using your tackle retriever, you are not fishing close enough to the fish holding structure.

You can overcome some lure losses by using deep divers in relatively shallow water and trolling them short. The bibs should be kicking along the bottom exposing two or three sets of trebles to the rear because of its head-down attitude.

On hooking up to a fish the boat is immediately 'gunned' out into the clear water.

If fishing among lots of sticks and trees, remove one or more of the trebles. Often I will fish a 5m deep diver such as a RMG Poltergeist in 2-3m of water. Their large bib provides a forward shield for the one forward treble, and the removal of the rear treble makes it swim head down at 45?, making it a lethal mouthful for a predator attacking from the rear.

BARRA FEVER
River mouths in northern Australia during the neap tides from September-January are the places to find big barramundi. Large females will spawn in these areas and the smallest snag in just a few feet of water may play host to one female and dozens of males from 3-7kg. Check every snag as you move upriver. You will only have to find one that is occupied to have a blinder of a lure-tossing session.

If no snags are located around the mouth, check any rock formations even if in shallow water. I have seen many barra lying in water so shallow they are on their sides on the bottom, with their pectoral fins protruding through the surface. Another trick for the barra is to drift upstream in dirty water as the tide runs in. If there is no overhanging cover and the day is very bright, the barra drift vertically, with their head down, avoiding the bright sunlight. Scanning these dirty patches of water close to the banks sometimes reveals the tips of their tails protruding a few centimetres above the surface.

Dirty water will shelter these fish as they wait for more depth before moving upstream. The water travelling past the point of the headland will discolour, often only for the first 10-20cm in depth, providing shelter for prawns and baitfish, and shade for barra and salmon who prefer low light levels and the chance to get close to the next meal.

This scenario applies to other creeks that run off the estuary further inside. The dirty patch running upstream on the incoming tide is the place to look.

With fish targeting bait in the top section of the water column, it is pointless running lures in the clear water below it. Even shallow lures to 1m diving capability are sometimes too deep to be effective.

Poppers, fizzers and other surface lures such as Halco Night Walkers are ideal here. If you have any lures with broken bibs in the tackle box they will work as well, slid along the surface of this colour change.

Before leaving the mouth of the system, a quick run around with a sounder may locate deep holes. These will have their resident cod and groper, but it is the mulloway (or jewfish) that will provide more interest. Any fish living permanently in a shallow estuary will hold up in these holes awaiting the free ride with the tide, upstream.

TIME TO MOVE
Generally speaking, an estuary with a hole at the mouth will produce mulloway at the start of the run in tide, but after about an hour the fish swim out and move upstream with the tide. Time for you to move as well.

They will travel to the next high spot on the bottom, hole or rockbar. It will pay to troll upstream as soon as the bite stops, hopefully picking up those bottom features on the sounder and cashing in on a fresh feeding frenzy.

Jewfish will travel with the tide, feeding as they go right to the end of the system into creeks that are so narrow you will have to reverse out of them.

They will turn and run with the falling tide but will not seem as interested in a feed, usually returning to their hole at the front and remaining dormant until the next run in tide.

If you weren't following the jewfish and were still at the mouth chasing barra and pelagics, you will find they went off the bite after about one hour of the making tide.

Hereupon, the trevally will be where you find them, but most of the barra will be parked at the first creek inside of the mouth. They will generally favour one side of the estuary, so have a look either side for that first creek.

It will usually have more baitfish, prawns and sandflies than any of the others.

The skittish behaviour of the bait will tell you there is still predators about. When they go quiet, weigh anchor and drift upstream, working the edges until you find another likely spot.

When the tide has risen to cover the first of the breather roots for the mangroves, the barramundi will settle into these areas and lie in the shallows in the shade.

This will test your accuracy and educated baitcasting thumb, and if tossing flies, weed guards become mandatory.

FISH-MAGNET
Larger creeks running into the system become a magnet for species travelling upstream. A groin extending out and under the water from one side of the creek mouth provides a haven for the barra (albeit miniature by comparison to those outside) and is a good spot for trevally, queenfish and other species that were at the mouth.

If fishing in areas inhabited by fingermark bream this is the place to get them, and the prime months are August-September when this species move in from the reefs to breed.

I usually drive into the creek, and troll out against the tide and over the groin.

You will see the fish on the sounder sitting in the lee of the groin.

Best lures for fingermark feature shiny gold colours, and they will take rattlers, shallow and deep divers, often hitting them and racing into midstream.

As the tide progresses, hooked fish will change tactics and head toward the mangrove roots and on high tide will go straight through them. Like their mangrove jack cousins, they will slip even the tightest drag.

Once the system has filled, fish will be harder to find. If you do hook them they will lose you and your lure in the timbers, and the colour of the bottom of your tackle box drawers will start to show.

I prefer at this stage of the game to have a smoko, but if you are counting every minute, pick out a straight stretch of river with all but one mangrove in line. The odd one jutting out will hide some pelagics, usually queenfish, small giant trevally and pikey bream. These singular trees are good to drift and cast at.

When the tide is quite high and water is behind the mangroves, barracuda are sometimes found sheltered there.

The turn of the tide will see most of the species grab the free ride out of the system. There are few exceptions.

At the end of the wet season in the tropics barramundi will move upstream (away from the mouth) after spawning on the neap tides. As the tide runs out they will drop back some distance, but lie up on rock bars, snags and in back eddies until the next incoming tide takes them further into the system. They will continue until they reach the flood plains that are shedding the freshwater and all the food that lives in it. Here is where they will stay until the freshwater diminishes and they travel back to the coast. This period of time is called the 'run-off' and could take as long as four weeks, usually occurring around the end of March and April each year in the north.

NORTHERN NASTIES

Let the angler beware... Fishing our northern estuaries can be exciting and rewarding, but certain creatures must be handled with care...

CROCODILES
These large, thick-skinned reptiles, lizard-like in form, which constitute the genus Crocodylus, represent the most immediate threat to the estuary angler standing in or near northern waters. Their numbers have exploded, particularly in the Northern Territory, since crocodile shooting for their skins was banned around 1969.

Some areas, in particular the Mary River system (NT), have been grossly overpopulated with big crocodiles for many years. But having just returned from a trip there, I was surprised how few large crocodiles were in and around Shady Camp. Further investigation revealed that culling by a licensed operator had been in progress for some months and the result only spells good news for the safety of boaters, and preservation of the wildlife and fish stocks.

The crocodile that you lay eyes on is the safest one. Often there are many more invisible below the surface. (Just waiting to do the 'Crocodile Rock' and shed some 'crocodile tears').

When launching a boat, stay between the land and the boat and get aboard as soon as practicable. If launching in darkness, keep your eyes in the back of your head. During darkness, I have seen large crocodiles 40m from the water loitering around bins containing rotting fish frames at the Shady Camp boat ramp.

Don't clean fish at the ramp. Some of the NT's major ramps such as Shady Camp, East and South Alligator Rivers have cleaning facilities away from the water's edge.

Crocodiles prey on creatures that make a habit of drinking at the same spot a few days in a row. If on an extended trip and camping on the beach, change your boarding and disembarking point each day. That also applies to refuelling.

In the stifling heat of the day when the water looks cool and green, remember that the best place for a swim is back at the hotel where you might be staying after the trip. These 'big lizards' can hold their breath for over one and a half hours and may well be directly beneath the boat waiting for the next meal to 'drop in'. Don't let it be you!

BOX JELLYFISH
These pests inhabit northern coastal waters and are prevalent between October-May each year. During other months the breeding stocks are holed up in the tops of mangrove creeks, away from the cooler water, and not often seen. Generally, live jellyfish do not like being in surf close to the beach, but caution should be taken in case dead jellyfish and/or their tentacles are floating in the surf. They will still sting when dead or dismembered.

The long trailing tentacles will cause agonising pain on contacting the skin. Each of the thousands of stings on each tentacle punctures the skin and injects venom. The tentacles stick to the skin like velcro and are difficult to remove, with venom sacs tearing away from the tentacle and remaining attached to the skin.

The long strands of 'slimy cotton' hanging off a retrieved fishing line or cast net are more than likely tentacles from these jellyfish.

First aid for stings is a good dousing with vinegar and then removal of the offending tentacles. Continuous dousing with vinegar should be undertaken while seeking medical advice.

The majority of bad stinger attacks are usually on children, often on aboriginal out-stations. A bad case of sting in the upper body area may lead to respiratory problems for the victim - fortunately the majority of stings occur to the body's lower half. A bad attack will leave the skin with permanent raised welts similar to the results of a savage whipping.

If it is necessary to get into the water to launch or retrieve a boat in saltwater during the prime time for these jellyfish, wear suitable clothing. Thin cover alls are fine - and don't forget about the crocodiles!

INSECTS
Those living in cooler climes tend to be ho-hum about the bugs that might be waiting to annoy them on a trip north. Large beetles fly over the waterways inland from the sea after the wet season. Early morning, afternoon and night can spell danger to one's eyesight should a collision take place with one of these airborne insects. A clear or yellow set of wraparound safety glasses is good insurance against possible injury. (I prefer the yellow for use during low light visibility).

Mosquitoes should be guarded against at all times. Ross River virus, viral meningitis and a few odd strains of dengue (breakbone fever) and malaria are present in the north of this country.

The odd case of deadly bacterial meningitis and encephalitis has also surfaced.

The increasing number of unwanted visitors landing on these shores tend to increase this problem.

Totally covering up the skin, preferably with thick clothing, is the best possible protection, as mosquitoes can even penetrate denim. And don't skimp on the repellant. Bushman's and Rid are just two of the many brands available that will help keep you healthy and make a trip into the tropics more comfortable.