North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Well it looks like the secrets out .
* must go to Kmart and BigW tommorrow to take the rest of the stock..*

Hello All!

After sitting back and reading every post for the past month I thought it was time I finally joined and got amongst the action...

Headed out to Shoal Bay last Saturday to fish King Creek. First time I've fished out there and was a bit of an eye opener.
Fishing the deep banks out the front looked promising, and thought we were onto something good early in the piece,
only to drag up a Shovel Nosed Ray/Shark to 1.5m. Continued to troll the banks and into the mouth without success.

Tried casting the net for mullet along the banks as the tide dropped, as there were hundreds skipping along the surface.
Was near impossible without a drawstring as the water was deep. Only ended up with a boat load of prawns.

Decided to head up King Creek and troll the first rockbar while we still had water under the boat. Managed to pull up a
nice silver 80cm barra. Didn't put up much of a fight, but that could have been due to me mate who skull dragged it into
the rockbar and probably knocked it out cold! Thought he was pulling a branch up off the botom.

The water then left us to sweat it out in the hole near the rockbar, where we dropped baits (dead and alive) whilst also
throwing lure after lure at a couple of snags. Eventually produced a nice 70cm threadie on lure but nothing else. Another
boat in the hole got an average barra on live mullet. Finally the tide rushed back in and found that our thoughts about
fishing the incoming tide were not going to happen. The rapids were flowing hard and we headed back to the mouth, then
out to the rock, then back to King Creek on high. Trolled for another good hookup but was dropped without even a shimmer of
silver scales before heading back to the ramp and calling it a day!

Although the fishing was quiet, the place looks the goods and the opportunity for big barra appeals. So much so that
I'm heading out there again tomorrow. Was wondering what others do at low tide though, as sitting in a couple of metres of
water for 4 hours can be draining on ones esky! Is there anywhere worth fishing out from the bay or do most people just
wait it out and hope the hole their in produces?

Sorry for the very long post, but as its my first, might as well make it half decent.

CHEERS!!
Moonman

G'day Moonman.
I find once you're landlocked at shoal bay it's the best time to fish. The barra will bite right throughout the day in the hole. Depends how many fish are in the hole. My theory is,try and find a hole that is surrounded by a large shallow area,I think the fish are more concentrated once it drops. I could also be talking s%^# ,but that's my theory.Any horizontal branches laying in the water generally means fish also,no matter how shallow it is.