Dark side

We are very lucky around Gladstone in that we have a healthy population of different species of fish that spend much of their time scrounging for food.

These species include Mangrove Jacks, Fingermark, Barred and Silver Grunter, Flathead and of course rock cod in our local waters and all these species are receptive to both fly and dark side presentations.

Whilst I do have specific techniques for each of the species above I also have the technique below that I revert to when I expect the location I am fishing to be holding scroungers of a number of species. If you set up to catch scroungers, and put the fishing time in, not only will you catch scroungers but as a by catch you can also expect the occasional by catch other species such as Trevally, Queenfish, Bream, Blue and King Salmon and even Barra.

FOOD SOURCES

All four of these species chase the same sort of food items which include; prawns and shrimp, small fish (particularly herring and mullet), crabs, mollusks such as rock oysters and worms so it’s not surprising that fly and lure representations of those naturals are a good choice when targeting them. That is not the end of the story for these four species either as when it suits them they will all willingly take other non-natural looking offerings that ‘inadvertently’ draw their attention.

This is a list of the core items I take with me when I am forager fishing along the narrows or in the Calliope River, Boyne River and close coastal water around Gladstone in Queensland.

THE GEAR

 
FLY FISHING
For fly fishing my preferred gear is a #10 weight fly outfit with a straight rod length leader of 30lb Maxima Ultragreen monofiliment. My preferred fly line is a Scientific Anglers 400g intermediate sink line.

Flies presented on solid hooks in the #2/0 to #4/0 range representations of prawns and small bait fish are great flies for Fingermark and fingermark.These flies fall into two distinct types. Heavier flies with enough weight to get them down to where fingermark are feeding during the first part of the building tide and toward the top of the tide and during the falling tide flies that have some sort of structure guard or flies that swim hook point up. Having said that if your not getting snagged occasionally your not casting deep enough into structure.

Focus on repeatability twitching the fly and then letting it sit so you in the zone as long as possible. A lot of takes come as the fly settles on the pause and then the only problem you have is to get the fish out to clear water and into the net … often easier said than done.

You’ll find plenty of fly options to fit the bill in this selection:
My big fish fly box – temperate & tropical destinations

DARK SIDE
The outfits that I prefer for this type of fishing are 8-10kg overhead outfits with 30lb braid backing and a rod length of 20lb Sunline FC Rock connected to the backing with an Albright or FG knot. The reason for the choice of the overhead outfits as opposed to spin outfits is twofold:

• For the species and fisheries concerned I find it easier to give line with the press of the thumb on an overhead real and then being back in contact with the line with just a touch of the handle rather than the manipulating the bail arm on a spin reel.
• More often than not a large part of success in these fisheries relates to accurate casting in to tight positions around an behind mangroves and other structure and in being able to flick a lure under overhanging structure. With practice overhead outfits are much better at this than spin outfits.

 
I generally carry four classes of lures:

• When fishing for scroungers I enjoy fishing with soft plastics particularly those that represent food items that my target species target. Given that it’s no surprise that prawn and bait fish imitations are at the top of my favorites list.

  Right at the top of the list are prawn imitations in natural colours when fishing relatively clear incoming tides and brighter colours when the water is discoloured.

Both grub tail and paddle tail softies work well in natural colours for clear water imitations and darker and brighter colours such as black or red over over red or yellow being stand out baits for less clear and muddy waters.

• Hard body lures are not great option because it’s difficult to get them to swimm as deep as scroungers may be feeding and of course hard body lures can be fairly expensive and pretty easy to snag up and loose I generally only revert to them if I’m fishing over areas that are not too deep and are not snag endowed.
• I have found that vibes are a great bait for scroungers so I always have a selection on hand on hand. My first choice in vibes are Reel Action 85mm to 95mm vibes because they work really well and are relatively inexpensive.
• The second type of soft plastics that I have in my kit are ZMan soft plastics that I fish set up on weedless TT weighted shank twistlock beast hooks in various weights. These Zman softies are keep completely separate to all my other soft plastics, vibes and other baits as Z Man softies are made from Z Man’s own secret proprietary TPE material called “ElaZtech”. This proprietary TPE material melts and deforms traditional plastisol based soft plastics and consequently Z Man soft plastics must be stored away from all plastisol soft plastics in a non-PVC based container or their original sealed packaging. Zerek Chasebait, Transams and other TPE lures made from relatively standard TPE material don’t have the secret proprietary additive that is in “ElaZtech” and will suffer the same melting and deforming problems that traditional plastisol based soft plastics suffer if stored in the same container as any Z Man soft plastic.

You’ll find plenty of specific lure, soft plastic and vibe options at “Coastal & estuary lures“.

STEALTH

Keep in mind that scroungers are easily spooked so you have to be stealthy in your movements and casts.

• So when you approach an area you going to fish do it slowly and if available quietly under the power of your electric motor and take advantage of any cover that’s available. Don’t cast a long shadow over or motor over over the water your going to fish. Longer casts are important and cast to the side of any fish your targeting.
• If your using an anchor deploy and retrieve slowly so that there is no bumps or chain noises that will spoke fish.