Hitting the Creeks

By Nicholas Moore

We are very lucky in Northern Australia with the variety of angling that we have on our doorsteps. Every now and then it is great to embrace this diversity and rather than just focusing on one species or one type of fishing get out there and try something new or different from the norm. 

I often grab the light gear and hit the mouth of our local creeks on foot targeting species and fishing locations that are all to regularly overlooked. There is so much you can learn from these type of trips and most of all it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

Before you start heading out to fish some new water there’s a few things to consider: 

• Planning- do a little research. Check out some locations and identify some areas you think would be worthy fishing.
• Gear- have your gear prepared before you head out
• Conditions- look at local conditions (wind, rain and tides) and how they may affect your target location.

Let’s dig a little deeper into the above points.

Planning

Some of the key elements to look for in a location are the presence of defined creek mouths and entrances and at least one nice hole or channel at the mouth that you can access on foot. Ideally the hole should have diversity in its structure. You don’t just want it to be sand you want it to have some mud, rubble, sand and hopefully some structure.

Different bottom substrates are the building blocks of various micro ecosystems and support the micro-organisms that kick start the food chain. So you are more inclined to find a lot more fish in areas that have diversity in their bottom structure.

Your number one tool is your web mapping applications. Everyone knows Google Earth. It’s good but there are a lot of others you can use to view creeks at various water levels. Look across Apple Maps, Google Earth, Bing Maps, Qld Globe and even your local council areas sometime have web GIS imagery that no one else would have.

Navigate to the creeks in your area through these web apps and see if you can identify holes and perhaps their substrates. Next check the water levels from other historic imagery and identify if you could walk in. Lastly identify how far the walk is and if you can access.

Gear

For this type of fishing mission I normally take one rod and a small backpack loaded with a few lures. My favourite two rods outfits are either a 7”, 1-3kg rod or a 2-5kg rod paired with a 2000 or 2500 LT spin reel spooled with 6 -10lb braid. Here’s a breakdown of a typical outfit that I use.

Rod: TD zero 702LS or 20 Team Daiwa Black Wild Weasel 6101MLFS.

Reels: Daiwa Certate 2500 and TD Sol iii 3000

Braid: Jbraid Grand 6-10lb 

Leader: 12lb J thread FC

My go-to lures are for the most past soft plastics, with none longer than 3.5”. My favourites are: is typical. some of my favorites include the following:

• 5” Bait Junkie Grub in baby bass
• 2” Bait Junkie Minnow in macha craw UV
• 3” jerk shad rigged on a 1/4 oz jighead

Conditions

I like to hit these creeks on the falling tide, fish through to low and then the first of the incoming. Alternating between the different lures I normally work my way along the holes fishing the different substrates and structures for foraging fish. The number of different species you can encounter is phenomenal and you can get anything including, barra, a threadfin salmon, blue salmon, grunter, bream, trevally and of course flathead.

You can have a heap of fun with this style of fishing, and you can broaden your fishing skills and knowledge with the different species that you catch. It’s a great all year type of fishing and isn’t dependant on it having to be summer, spring or barra season, and is a great option if you only have limited time for a fish. So next time you wondering what to do head out and give it a go. You might just be surprised at how much fun you can have.