Rains, Rain Don’t go away?

Recent rains in the Rockhampton to Gladstone vicinity have turned those little local waterholes into land locked fishing madness for the past month and if this trend in rain continues we are likely to see some very healthy specimens pulled out.

Clayton Nicholls with a nice 70+cm bara
pulled from the weed at the Woolwash

At this time of year the lagoons normally fire up at night but all the recent rains have pushed fish like Barra, Tarpon and even Sooty Grunter up to the surface chasing the swarms of insects getting knocked down and enjoying the change in temperature. This means that at any time of the day the chances of fish on surface or shallow diver are fantastic, the best time has been found to be between two and five in the afternoon.

Through this past month places like the Yeppen Lagoon and Wool Wash Lagoon have been fishing well with fish responding mainly to surface lures such as poppers and stick baits, and even unweighted plastics.

The main trick for productive surface fishing is watching all the little clear spots in the weed, chances are after a few short sharp bloops in the clear patch you will have a fish on fairly soon after. Be patient, best results happen after the lure is blooped and left there for a half minute or so.

Surface lures that have tight actions like the Sebile Splasher and R2S bubble pop have been smashing the fish population whilst shallow dives like the bomber long A’s, Rapala Xrap’s and Sebile Koolie Minnows have taken some decent fish just below the surface.

If you’re not too keen on lures and more of the hard-core bait fanatic, many species of perch have been caught on little surface lures around the Yeppen in the shallow waters amongst the lillies, a 4/0 through the back makes top notch Barra baits out of these little fish

All the recent rain has month been so good for the Fitzroy River but that’s not all bad news, the fish have pushed up into creeks such as Gavial and Casuarina to escape the large volumes of fresh pouring out. These fish are somewhat shut down but 8cm brightly coloured minnows with a short diving bib seem to be doing the trick.

Brendan Handly with a massive metre plus barra

These minnows can be slow rolled back from a snag or sharp short twitches with a little pause can get the fish stirred up and jumping onto the trebles.

Unlike popular belief Awoonga Dam is still fishing to its full potential, a small adjustments is all it takes to produce some fine specimens of Barra and further in the creek systems some Togas can be pulled too.

Prawns have come back in numbers in the saltwater regions of creeks between Gladstone and Rockhampton, mainly being caught in nets at mudflats or rubbles patches.

In the next month prawns are expected to be gathered a lot more easily, crabbing should be worth your while if the rain eases off but so far there is no way of knowing that, as soon as there is a break the black clouds roll in again.

Landlocked fisheries are expected to quiet down as the days get shorter and the temperature drops a little but a decent effort will still see you landing the large specimens.

If rains continue as predicted, bridges and water catchments such as Roopes bridge will continue to see a hefty population of Barra before they retreat to the deep pockets when the rain stops in the dry season.