Long time member, posts have been far and few between of late tho. Hoping to get a bit more involved this year since the whole family has made the full move north with me from Brisbane.
March has been a bit hit and miss for myself. In between work and family commitments I’ve really only set aside opportunistic day trips trying to get out, landing a few fish in between but nothing red hot.
Recently got a leave pass and targeted some specific tidal windows in the Mary system and wasn’t left too disappointed in the end.
Caught up with two good mates after some time between casts and beers was exactly what was needed and after the school drop off we made it on the water after lunch. Greeted by the sight of about 50 trailers in the car park I was a little less than enthused but nonetheless we pushed down toward the mid sections of the river. Interestingly enough we passed a fair few boats coming up and chatting with a mate he’d said the boats were thick at the mouth, not much caught. Lol.
That’s all that I needed to change plans and decided to target fish mid steam instead and sure enough, it wasn’t long until I found them. Using a Lowrance HDS LIVE, target ID and clarity is always on point. As the tide slowed to turn the fish moved wide of cover to sit deep on some mud clumps and a long ledge.
Vibes were the order of the day and after one of the lads found the structure instead of the fish, the other deckie was on before getting stitched up next to old mate. My turn and I quickly pulled the hooks on two good fish. Turning the boat around to retrieve old mates lure his reel started to squeal again and we quickly realised he was still on. Coaxed her out gently and when she rolled on the surface we caught glimpses of a healthy fish in the 90’s only for her to dive again, and pop the trebles.
That seemed to be his luck for the rest of the day as we moved to another location and found even more fish willing to play the game. We ended up jamming a few more fish in the 70-80’s before a big storm forced us even further upstream where I pulled up intent on cleaning the fish.
Well, as luck would have it this section was loaded as well and we pulled a few more up to 96 with just as many lost too. Interestingly enough I didn’t expect to get sharked that far upstream.....
The next day was more of the same although this time armed with system knowledge and a full set of tides I was confident we’d find a metre fish. Gavs previous best was an 86 and he’d upped that the day before with a 96 so my hopes were high, on the cast would make it even more special.
The morning started the same although greeted with a high tide this time instead and running fast. The fish were held up hard on the bottom amongst the pressure points. The decision to run 30g vibes combined with long casts upstream soon paid dividends and I actually lost count of how many solid fish we extracted. All the while boats came zooming past heading downstream completely oblivious....life was good. All these fish were well conditioned slabs, chrome and absolutely inhaling lures on the drop. It was pretty insane fishing. Comments from the lads were they’d never seen that many solid fish come over the gunnel in such a short session.
As the tide dropped the back eddies formed and as more boats screamed past us we we went searching ourselves. Finding a likely stretch I scanned a few individual fish and eventually marked a school of about seven fish. All good size, solid fish.
The boys lucked out as I plucked 3 fish in the 90’s from them, but it was on the next subsequent drift things got spicy. As we passed over a large fish on the down scan, I instantly called it for a metre and as luck would have it, Gavs lure was being tea bagged right in the zone….clunk went the rod tip and the rest is history.
A metre fish graced the deck of the Bonnie, Gav was hooting to join the metre club and we cracked a few cans to celebrate.
Not long after we decided enough was enough, flicking the barrages for a few rats and 60’s before retrieving on the low with about 2ft under the boat. Yes, it’s getting tidal out there folks. Back in town by 430pm the good vibes were pumping.
All in all a great month after all! Hoping that I can replicate in April…..time will tell.
Cheers.
Richie
