Thursday

It would be my last chance to fish in Yeppoon, for a while. The wind had been blowing hard, so I decided to give Fishing Creek a look.I arrived at about 8.30 am but I had misjudged the tide. It was a big high and it would be a while before it ran out enough for me to proceed down the creek. I fished around the top end and saw a fair amount of bait moving around, but did not catch anything. The combination of a strong north-easterly wind and the big tide had stirred the water up, so I could not see much.

By about 9.30 am the water level was dropping fast and I could walk down the creek towards Corio Bay. I was using my new G.Loomis TSR Ultralight 6′ 7″ rod. It needed to catch a fish, to settle its nerves and I thought it would be fairly easy to find a flathead for it, in this creek. I waded down the creek for an hour, stopping at a every bend and sand bar, but I could not find a fish.

I liked the feel of the rod and its very sensitive tip. I gradually got used to the feel of the 1/8th ounce jighead hopping along the sand corrugations, on the bottom. I lost plenty of jigheads to the trees and snags, as I got used to casting with the slightly longer rod. At about 11.00 am I reached a bend in the creek where a big drain rounds a sand island and empties out into the main channel. The fast flowing water has carved some deepish holes and exposed the mangrove roots.

I thought there must be a fish here. I put on a GULP 5″ Jerkshad soft plastic, in the natural, Peppered Prawn colour and loaded it onto a 1/8th ounce, size 2/0 hook jighead. I cast around the mouth of the drain, still looking for a flathead, without any luck. I turned my attention to the eddies, at the foot of the mangroves on the other side of the channel. After about three casts at these roots, the line pulled tight about halfway back across the channel and a fish took off with the soft plastic. The rod bent right over and absorbed the initial smash, then line started peeling. I could feel the tail beats of something fast.

It kept making for the mangrove roots but I gradually subdued it. When I caught sight of it, it was a trevally – about 40cm long. It is amazing how powerful these fish can be when they have a strong current to run with. It took a while but I pulled it up on to the sand and took a few pictures.

The rod was off the mark but I could not find any more fish. With the north-easterly now almost gale force, I gave up just before noon.

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