Targeting fish around snags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Keith Stratford

Above: Ben Monro jigged up a decent flathead near Short Island at Jumpinpin. Travis Ellis landed a cracker mangrove jack on an Molix RT shad.

Targeting fish around snags

OCTOBER is an excellent month to be on the water in southeast Queensland.

Mangrove jack are getting very active and the flathead season continues around the Gold Coast and Tweed areas.

Bull sharks will be very lively in the upper reaches of creeks, harassing herring and mullet schools.

This month, flathead generally slow down in the local rivers on Brisbane’s northside.

Fish are still to be caught but the numbers are down from the previous few months.

A few nice trevally and grunter should be feeding still around the middle reaches of the Pine and Caboolture rivers.

We haven’t had much rain recently, so the rivers and creeks are in good condition.

Bait schools are pushing into the upper reaches and fish will be following.

The upper reaches of these rivers tend to have a lot more structure than the lower and middle reaches.

Mangrove jack are happy to push as far upstream as they can get – as long as there’s food for them.

Travis Ellis landed a cracker mangrove jack on an Molix RT shad.

Visible structure above the surface will hold plenty of fish, though they do receive a lot of attention.

Snags beneath the surface that have at least 1m of water over them at low tide will hold a lot more fish.

These snags are easily found with a sounder.

If you don’t have a sounder, it’s still possible to find these types of snags.

Steep banks on the bends of the rivers will have fallen trees along the edge somewhere.

Occasionally, you can see where the bank has collapsed and a tree has slid into the water.

These are excellent places to cast and jig some sinking lures.

Plastics rigged on a weedless jig head are more suited to areas such as this.

Vibes are snag magnets and can soon become donations when casting into fallen trees – unless you know the area very well.

Mangrove jack are normally the target around snags in the upper reaches, however estuary cod, barramundi, grunter, trevally, jewfish and threadfin salmon are all species you may encounter.

Barramundi are becoming a common capture for anglers willing to put the time in to work them out.

Obviously it’s a good idea to practise catch and release on barramundi in our local rivers, so they can continue to grow in numbers.

The barramundi closed season starts on November 1.

Even though they can be caught as by-catch while chasing jacks, it’s a good idea to move on to another area if you continue to hook them during closed season.

Trevally can be a real handful around snags when they get to the 50-60cm range.

Trevally will be feeding around the bait schools in the upper reaches this month.

These things pull like good jacks and have many anglers thinking they’ve hooked a big red devil.

If they had the attitude of a mangrove jack, they would cause all sorts of trouble.

Jewies and threadfin can also be caught around the snags in the upper reaches, especially around trees holding big schools of bait.

Hooking these speedsters with a locked-up drag is not much fun, so be ready to loosen the drag if the fish starts screaming away from the snags.

Grunter can also be caught in these areas and are a very welcome capture on my boat.

That’s because grunter are delicious to eat and are one species that is rarely released when I catch them.

They can school up in the local rivers, so it’s worth putting a few more casts into the same area once a fish is captured.

The flathead season will still be going strong on the Gold Coast this month.

Plenty of big fish will be captured around the mouth of the Jumpinpin Channel and back around islands such as Short and Crusoe.

Plenty of smaller fish will be hanging around the larger models and they make great eating.

The perfect-sized flatties to take for a feed are between 45-55cms.

October is a good month to get out on the water and test your gear against the mighty mangrove jack.

Hope to see you on the water.