Mackay

Bait will prolong barra activity

MACKAY Cameron Christian

April saw plenty of rain, which should see extra bait around in the following months and provide some hope for prolonged barra activity. Barra are usually hard to find during June and persistent anglers will have to seek calm sunny days with neap tides.

During these times, typical calm and sunny June weather ensues, the waters around Mackay will be crystal clear once the cold weather sets in. As a result, June is usually ideal snorkelling conditions for those interested and willing to bear the cold water.

The prime conditions of June should see an explosion of bread and butter species like flathead, whiting and bream. As the tide runs in, look for flathead over yabby beds, rubble patches or mud gutters and drains like those seen at the sand flats adjacent to the trainer walls at the mouth of the Pioneer River.

At the top and bottom of the tide, flathead can be readily found around structure like rock bars and mangroves feeding on small baitfish and crustaceans. Fresh baits like, prawns, herring, small mullet and strip baits rigged with minimal lead and good quality, abrasion resistant and fine leader should produce great keep an eye out for winter whiting. Yabbies are excellent bait and should be rigged on small, long shank hooks with minimal lead and light leader. During a hot bite take care of size limits and try to limit your bag, this goes for yabbies too as it can be very easy to pump far more than needed.

Flathead and whiting are best targeted on the light gear and put up a great fight on the right tackle. Anglers can make the most of their light gear by targeting bream through the winter months, pikey bream in particular become increasingly aggressive as this is typically their breeding time. Bream can be targeted around dense structure like mangroves and rock bars or open flats with rubble bottoms using just about anything for bait. For a real challenge however, try casting or pitching small divers and soft plastics right into mangrove roots underneath the mangrove canopy. Anglers will need to be weary of jacks and barra, which will obliterate bream gear in the blink of an eye. Money spent on this gear will never be wasted around Mackay however with the abundance in quality sooty fisheries.

Queenfish and trevally have been around in good numbers and in quality sizes lately and action should continue through June. For offshore anglers, queenfish should be available around the islands from Seaforth and St Helens to those out from Sarina Inlet. Queenfish and smaller trevally can also be found hunting around the creeks with the incoming tide, surface action will be a dead giveaway and is a good reason to keep a spare rod with a popper, metal slug or shallow diver ready to go. Alternatively, live herring, mullet or gar worked at the surface or down the bottom around structure should produce great results.

June also brings the

Jerry Timor with a 1m queenie guided by Inshore Fishing Mackay.

barra are commonly found in shallow areas sunning themselves, try targeting these fish using surface lures or lightly weighted soft plastics worked as slow as possible. Electric motors, long casts and stealth are a must however as barra in this position are very skittish.

If there are no further unseasonal downpours and flats as the water just begins to cover these areas. Fishing such shallow water requires stealth, however, land-based anglers should cast well away from the water’s edge and avoid wading through the water.

As the tide runs out, flathead will usually fall back to the deeper water. Anglers should target these fish by working any small drop offs, results. For lure anglers, soft plastics are an ideal option to work any of the areas mentioned above. Around the flats, edges and drains however, small divers like Little Lucifers, Killalures and Tilsans can all produce when worked right along the bottom. While fishing for flathead around the features mentioned above in shallow systems Reliance Creek and Sarina Inlet, anglers should Mackay Show and snapper, initially they should be seen further south offshore from Cape Palmerston and over the course of the month will move further north around Hay Point and the islands out from the river mouth. Local tackle shop staff will provide the most up to date information on the progress of the snapper migration along with the best lures and baits.

In the freshwater dams, rivers and creeks barra will become very lethargic and hard work to find. Persistent anglers will need to be prepared for the shorter bite times and focus on the warmer areas in the warmest parts of the day. Fortunately, future barra seasons are looking very promising with recent stocking efforts by MAFSA. 9,100 fingerlings all around 100mm long have been pumped into the upper reaches of the Pioneer River (Platypus Beach), paid for using funds raised by MAFSA. In addition, 2,400 fingerlings have been introduced into Teemburra and 2,200 into Kinchant using SIP funds, highlighting the importance for local anglers to take the DAF’s SIPs survey and ensure a fair share of funding is provided for our local dams.

The 2022 INDT World Sooty Championship has been another great fundraising event for MAFSA and a full write up of the competition is available in the tournament section. With the biggest comp of the year over, local anglers focus on sooties may fade but sooty action certainly won’t. Sooties should become easier to catch as conditions progress into winter and weather patterns become more stable. The downpours during April may delay this stabilisation of the dams and potentially kill back the weed banks currently throughout all the dams. Due to this, targeting the timber should be one of the best options for finding sooties through June. Finding where the bait and shags are holding will help anglers to find the structured areas worth fishing. Once found, the treetops can be worked with accurate casts tight into the structure using grubs, small swimbaits, hardbody vibes and good quality suspending divers worked slow and paused as much as possible. Snagging can be prevented by running single hooks, faced backward on vibes, or rigging snag/weed guards, much like those seen on football jigs, on soft plastics by drilling a hole into the jighead and gluing in short strands of thick fluorocarbon leader.

June normally sees the weather patterns stabilising, which means better fishing conditions in both freshwater and saltwater and local anglers will be keen to capitalise.

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Nick Barr with a nice golden trevally caught on a day out with Jason from Inshore Fishing Mackay.