Getting the Ultimate Reset – By John Boon

As soon as the weather cools down there’s always one trip that’s on my mind and that’s light tackle sport fishing. In my opinion the best place to plan this sort of trip is north of Yeppoon to Corio Bay.

I wouldn’t say it’s my most favourite place to fish in this area due to the fact there’s lots of hazards (rock and sand bars) and your ability to move around on low tide is limited. There’s also a great risk of becoming stuck on a sand bar. For anyone that’s had the pleasure it can be a long wait till you get enough water back under the hull to move the boat.

There are plenty of locals who know Corio Bay well and don’t have this drama. They have worked out what heights are required to access different areas and how long to wait before you may need to leave. I can guarantee anyone who knows ‘the bay’ well has at some point had to wait for the tide or found those hidden hazards.

Tom getting into the tarpon action on the silly string.

Personally I don’t like being governed by waiting for the tide to access different areas. I like to know if what I’m doing isn’t working or need to change tact then there’s plenty of water to get somewhere else. There will come a time when I do put in the effort to work the timing of this system out but for now I’ll leave it as a love/hate relationship.

If anyone is wanting to head up to fish the waters of Corio Bay then I highly recommend talking to someone with local knowledge. Both Barra Jacks in Rockhampton and The Secret Spot Bait and Tackle in Yeppoon have wizards who like to call ‘the bay’ home. Chatting with either shop for advice is highly advised.

As well as talking with locals, make sure to jump on Google Earth and find where Corbett’s Landing boat ramp is. It’s the main boat ramp that most use. There’s a mud ramp at Kelly’s Landing but it’s pretty much a high tide launch only or you’ll be swimming in mangrove mud.

I’m not trying to scare anyone off from fishing this area but it does require a fair amount of planning. If you are new to the area, a steady look around towards bottom of the tide would be beneficial.

Tom gave the new prawns from Irukandji a red hot go with great success.

The Corbett’s boat ramp is a lot better now they have done the upgrade. It’s now a most of the tide launch. Just be careful around the low as the bottom of the ramp has a mud build up. Corbett’s Landing tide difference is about two hours later than Rosslyn Bay tide time.

So if it’s a pain in the butt place to fish then why go to all the effort? Like I said before Corio Bay would have to be one of the easiest places to catch a fish on lure. We aren’t particularly fussy about what species we catch when we visit, but generally we can pull up at a few well known spots not far from the ramp and catch specials like salmon and tarpon.

My most recent visit to Corio Bay was with good mate Tom Lewis. I become mates with Tom through another friend and Tom is his young fella. Tom has a passion for fishing and a large drive for learning regardless of what type of fishing he’s doing.

The only issue with this trip is that I had pulled the seats out of the boat to get them recovered. I told Tom this and he replied with “I don’t care, I’ll sit on the floor if I have too”, I broke down in laughter.

Blue salmon are great fun on light gear.

We had the boat packed and had just arrived at the ramp before any of the regulars were thinking about getting out of bed. It was a bloody cold morning I can assure you of that. I got out of the car rocking a pair of ugg boots. I think when you get to a certain age you stop worrying about being fashionable and start worrying about being comfortable.

We launched at Corbett’s Landing and made a very steady track down the middle of the river. There was a bit of fog so we opted to hit a couple of spots close to the ramp while we waited for some light and some warmth.

We scanned over a few areas with the Humminbird Apex and the sounder lit up with fork tails. We swung the boat around and deployed the Minn Kota Ulterra. Every deckie says the same thing when you hit the auto deploy button and it’s something along the lines of “that’s the greatest piece of kit I have ever seen on a boat”. That always gives me a chuckle.

It’s interesting to see the different colours in flathead in relation to the structure they are caught from. This model come from a rock bar.

We had been fishing for all of ten minutes when Tom was the first to hook up. The first fish to the boat was a steel back salmon. It wasn’t a trophy fish but it just goes to show that you don’t have to travel far when fishing this area to find some piscatorial action.

We persisted in this area changing lures and boat position. I was the next to hook up and this fish pulled a bit of string and felt quite solid. After a short fight a solid blue salmon appeared in the torch light. Tom slid the net under the blue and swung it over the side. I would usually release these fish but the old man had put the hard word in for a fresh feed of fish and who was I to disappoint?

We put the blue on ice and continued with the mission. There was plenty of fish moving through on the down scan so I opted for a bit of vertical jigging. It didn’t take long to get another bite and this time a nice tarpon took to the air. We had been fishing for around twenty minutes and the first three fish in the boat were all a different species, how cool is that!

We now had enough light to head down the creek safely. The tides weren’t to my liking with an early morning high tide which makes retrieving the boat a bit more difficult and we were also approaching the new moon so there was a large tidal difference between high and low. It was the only day I had spare so we would definitely be making the most of it.

With the tide being high we concentrated on targeting a few yabbie beds. This technique has worked in the past but unfortunately we couldn’t even raise a small flatty. We moved on to a rocky outcrop where we added a few more species to the tally like a couple of different cod species and bream.

Just as we were about to move Tom hooked up on the silly string and was just winding it in to the boat. I asked if he wanted the net to which he replied “nah don’t think there’s much size to it”. Right before we were about to get a look at what species it was, it turned and hit the after burners. To me they were two massive big flatty runs and then the unthinkable happened. Tom was only running light leader and the fish had chewed through it earning its freedom. Tom was definitely gutted as we will never know what could have been.

The tide had now dropped enough to start working some exposed drains. When working each exposed drain there’s a process I like to follow to make sure we cover most of the area.

If you set the boat up in one spot and fan your casts into and around the drain, you will cover the area like a triangle. Which means you do miss a lot of country. If you position the boat a bit downstream, then move into the centre and then head a bit up current, your retrieves will cover the entire drain. Sometimes you need to bop those flatty’s on the nose to get a bite. Always try to come up with new strategies to improve your results.

One particular drain we were able to pull two nice flatty’s with one going over the 60cm mark. We continued with hitting drains until the dropping water height had given us no choice but to vacate.

How wicked are the chrome and scales on tarpon! Great sport fish on the light stuff.

We then moved to sand banks with bits of snags and structure. We put the Ulterra in north mode and went about with a bit of power fishing to cover more ground. We were using a mixture of prawn (Chasebait and Irukandji) and paddle tail (Molix RT shad) imitations.

I thought this would be a winner to try and locate the bigger ladies but all we could find was a few smaller mid forties models and also some pesky steel back salmon.

With the tide starting to drop quickly we had to make our way back towards the Corbett’s landing boat ramp. There’s a couple of sand bars that will cut you off if you’re not quick enough. One of the sandbars near Kelly’s Landing had changed since our last trip. It now stretches right across with no channel.

On our way back to the ramp we flicked a few rocky outcrops for one last hurrah. The cod were still keen by the looks. I was up the front working a Molix RT Shad when I heard Tom say “YEP!”. I turned around to see a solid bend in Tom’s bait cast outfit so I dived for the net.

Talk about saving the best fish for last. Tom had hooked the best flatty for the day. The Irukandji prawn was paying off big time. I slid the net under it and pulled it over the side. A quick high five and a few good happy snaps pretty much finished off a bloody awesome day.

We ended up with around 8 flatties boated, tarpon, blue salmon, steel back salmon, grunter, bream and a couple of different cods. If that’s not a mixed bag and a fun day on the water then you might not be entertain-able.

I would like to thank Tom for tagging along and being bloody awesome to fish with. I think we both got the ultimate reset this trip. Had some fun, caught some fish with no issues. Stress free fishing at its finest.