A recent winter trip to Townsville gave me the opportunity to sneak in a day of fishing up in the Hinchinbrook. I hooked up with Steve Jeston, a long established sportsfishing guide, who divides his time between the Hinchinbrook Channel, Cape York and the marlin grounds off Cairns and Townsville. The plan for the day was pretty open: we weren't going to spend the day targeting any one species, rather just alternate between the estuaries, flats and open water chasing whatever the tides and conditions allowed.

Greg with a solid GT

We put in at the Herbert River, which is at Halifax, some 130 km north of Townsville. The Herbert, which feeds into the southern end of The Channel, is a broad, mangrove-lined river with many smaller creeks feeding into its main body. We struck out for the mouth of the river, but were soon distracted by some surface bust ups at the junction of one of the larger feeder creeks. I quickly rigged my fly rod with a little white clouser minnow, while Mick, my fishing buddy for the day, nailed the first fish of the day, a feisty little GT on a metal slice. A few casts later and I came up tight on my first fish casting blind around the creek mouth. Another GT, this time a larger specimen, slugged away deep for a few minutes before coming to hand. We spent the next hour or so tracking these fish as they moved out toward the river mouth with the tides, picking off a mixture of Queenfish and GTs. Certainly a great way to straighten the kinks out of the line early in the day.

Eventually we moved out into the channel proper hoping to find some big pelagic action. The big Queenfish were pretty uncooperative on the day however, the occasional bustups were too short lived to get a cast to. Rather than persevere, we moved onto the sandflats for the bottom of the tide, hoping for some sight-fishing opportunities to Golden Trevally and Permit.

The Herbert River at Sunrise

Our first encounter came instead with a Blue-Spot Trevally. Steve spotted it mooching in the wake of a large Shovel-Nose Shark. I dropped my fly (a rather large, weighted epoxy shrimp pattern) on its nose the reaction of this fish was something to behold. It wasn't so much a taking of the fly - it was more like an armed robbery. He rushed up to the fly at a zillion miles an hour and crunched it, and I was on before I even had time to strip any line. Ten minutes later, following a couple of searing runs and a close encounter with a large snag, I had the Trevally (which was about 3 kilos) which was doing laps around the boat. Stupidly I was a little aggressive in my rod work and managed to pull the hook. Bugger.

That disappointment though was soon forgotten when Steve saw some Permit. As we got into position for a shot, I caught my first glimpse of them, and they were absolute horses. Steve called them for 30 pounds, which did my already frayed nerves no good whatsoever. I had the shakes. Ninety minutes later I still had the shakes, though this time with rage. These are one frustrating fish. I'd managed to calm my nerves and make more than a few good shots at them, and they took more than a passing interest in my fly, cruising up to it and giving it the eye, but they flatly refused to eat it. Over the next hour we tried longer leaders, different flies & different presentations but still no luck. Sodding things. I was just about to suggest dynamite, when a biggish shark moved up over the flats and cleared the place out. The Permit would have to wait for another day.

One of mick's many cooktown salmon (steve in background)

The tide had started to run in so we moved back into the river and into the mouth of one of the feeder creeks, where Steve assured us Cooktown Salmon would soon be arriving. In the meantime we had some fun with a school of Tarpon who were rolling around a little upstream. As promised, the Salmon soon came to the party though, and the action was thick. We got 12 to the boat in a 60 minute session, most falling to Mick's metal slice. They weren't huge fish (generally between 50 and 60 cm) but on light gear they were a ball. No two fish fight the same: one will scream off down the river staying deep while the next will jump four times though never take line off you. They've got very raspy mouths, so with the slightly longer fights on fly gear you lose a lot of fish. Bite tippet is good insurance, though even then you'll occasionally lose out.

 

Continued...

Greg with the wildass giant herring

Having extensively pestered the Salmon we moved back into the main body of the river where we'd heard some mullet getting crunched. We prospected the area with a few casts, expecting GTs or Queenies, but instead I managed to connect with a Giant Herring. These things are one wild fish. The initial run is as quick as anything you'll ever hook, and from then on all bets are off. One minute they're deep, the next they're cartwheeling out of the water. They run away from the boat, they run at the boat. It's crazy, white-knuckle stuff. Staying in touch is nigh on impossible. At one point the fish ran under the boat and started leaping on the opposite side, so I had about 7 feet of my rod submerged trying to stay hooked up. After five or six minutes of mayhem the fish came to hand for a few photos.

A few Queenies and GTs later we made our way back to the ramp. Steve was telling us the Herbert is just one of many spots he fishes in an around the Hinchinbrook. Have to try some of the other spots next time.

Gearing Up

I fished the whole day with a nine-weight rod matched with a clear intermediate line. A lot of the fighting is hand to hand, so a great reel isn't necessary, though it'll certainly be a bonus if you connect to one of the bigger fish. The leader set up was 3 feet of 40 point hard mono and another 3 feet of 20 pound flurocarbon, with a couple of binimis in the middle to give some shock resistance. White clousers and some big epoxy shrimps will cover most situations.

Mick was using a four-kilo threadline filled with gelspun line with a short hard mono trace. A four-six kilo baitcaster would do the job just as well, though the extra casting range of the threadline was sometimes an advantage.

Fishing with Steve

Steve Jeston caters for all forms of tropical sportsfishing. He can be contacted at hyperspace@bigpond.com or check out his website at www.users.bigpond.com/hyperspace

Steve has a full range of both fly and spinning gear which you are welcome to use if you don't have gear that's up to the job.

Don't be intimidated.

Even if you're not the best angler in the world, don't be afraid to go out and chase these fish. My fly casting skills are far from great, and I still managed to nail some great fish, and on another day I might have even connected up to some Permit. And in addition to being knowledgable about the fishing in the area, Steve is more than happy to give you some help with your casting if you need it.

Greg Pankhurst fished with Hyperspace Fishing Tours as a paying customer.