Run-Off Rats – By Nick Thompson
With an unexpected very wet August at first put a stop to any fishing plans until a mate of mine told me we’ve had enough run for some run off fun, and combined with a pupil free day followed by a weekend allowed me to get a few days in for some fishing targeting these run off rats.
On day one me and my mate (Danny) split up between two boats to try and have a little fishing competition. We meet at the spot at around nine at the top of the tide. And because of the high tide the water was very dirty so I opted for a darker lure to create the silhouettes. As well as this I wanted a larger lure and one with a big thumping paddle tail, so I went for the Zman 6” mulletron in gold rush color. Now I’ve found during this cooler time of the year and during the top of the tide, the fish sit higher in the water column. So when the lure hits the water, Iwould burn it to keep it higher in the water and then slow it right down to allow the lure to work its magic.
Just short of legal, it was this guys lucky day.
Throwing around these mulletrons is simple, like any other paddle tails, just retrieve it as slow as the lure will let you to make it work, then wait for the hit. With me and Danny and another boat fishing the mouth of the creek all of us catching nothing I opted to move up the creek and try something different. I moved to a small drain with a cut out bank which should have a feeding barra in it. I’ve fished this spot a few times and I know it’s used as a highway for the fish so if I kept casting I was confident in a fish swimming by. I positioned the boat to fish the edge of the back eddie and started throwing, keeping the lure higher in the water column chasing those cruising fish. I was making sure to cast in the same spot as with the dirty water barra use their lateral line to hunt and find their prey so casting in the same spot allows for the barra to pick the lure and gradually move in on the lure. If I’m fishing open water I give it about 10 – 15 casts and then move or change angles of my casts. After about about 5 minutes I feel a solid whack and set the hook. And fish jumps and looks to be a solid high 60s model fish but unfortunately with a small jump spits the hook back at me. Unfortunately that is all that spot had to offer.
After losing that fish I wanted to make a small modification to my lure. The mulletron comes rigged with store and sharp hook, however it’s quite small for barra so I dug around my tackle box and found a treble, a split ring and two lumo beads and quickly rigged up a stinger which I hoped would improve my hook ups on fish. As the tide continued the drop I could now see the tea tree fresh water starting to move down the creek so went back out to the mouth where the dirty water line was most prominent and the fish were feeding. Danny’s brother had already caught two; one around 80 and second around 70 mark which is a good sign that barra are on the chew. I fish high in the water column and get the classic barra whack and set the hook. After a couple jumps the fish was quickly landed and went a nice 59cm and it was quickly thrown back to grow hopefully much bigger. After landing this fish there was great confidence in my stinger as the fish was hooked by the stinger.
The wedge tail design on the mulletron gives it a unique action.
Dad rang shortly after with the commands from Grandad to keep the next one we got so now the trip had little more meaning. I was up on Danny 1 nil and heading into the final hour he gets two small rats meaning I had some catching up to do. In the final 10 or so minutes I decide to let the lure sink just to see if there’s any more bigger fish or feeding fish as its been a while since I had any action, and first cast bang I set the hook in to another nice fish. It takes a few jumps and before being quickly scooped and went a respectable 63cm a good eating size fish. By time the fish was bled and taken care of there were only a few casts until it was time to head home
Now because me and Danny tied on two barra each we needed a rematch to get a definitive winner. Fast forward a week and we head out together on my boat. We went straight to the creek mouth we the barra are holding last trip and we were met with a crazy amount of weed which made the spot unfishable, we tried for about an hour with nothing so we moved away from the creek and went down stream looking for some fish while the tide drops, hopefully getting rid of the weed. We found a few fish that weren’t interested in the lures we had to offer so we went back to the creek and most of the weed had cleared. However a boat had taken the spot we wanted to fish, so we moved up the creek slightly. We were fishing for about thirty minutes and we were discussing moving when Danny hooks up.
Not a bad way to use up a pupil free day.
The fish takes to the air and short fight we landed and other good 50s model fish. While Danny unhooking I miss a barrel short stroking the lure and Danny almost immediately hooks another barra in the 60s. This was a great sign especially as about fish cast. Later I dropped a good fish upwards of 70 but a few boats started moving around and the fish sit right down low and no matter how big or small of a lure we threw they wouldn’t touch it. We decided to go up the creek for a sound and while we did so we figured we may as well troll a hard body out the back and Danny hooks up and thing one is a proper fish. The fish starts stripping line and comes up to surface and it’s at this point where we realise how big this fish is but as barra are always good at she spits the hook leaving defeated and more importantly fish less. We came back to the mouth and a few boats had moved in where we were going to fish so we decided to head back to the ramp as Danny had to head an hour earlier than me.
The stinger working its magic.
After dropping Danny off at the ramp I decided to go to a small water outlet close to the ramp. This spot is very well known and often either holds heaps of rats or one or two really big fish on it. In the dirty water the water outlet was pumping out some clean water which meant there should be fish here. First, I missed a good hit. A few casts later I hook up the fish jumps and take a run and hooks come off. At this point I was starting to get a bit frustrated as that was now four missed opportunities with now fish on the beat for me. But a few casts later I hooked up to a real rat but I didn’t care cause I finally landed a fish, I quickly got the hooks out and next cast got a better fish starting puch the 50 mark. The third cast in row got another fish and this was a better fish gettin upward of legal and putting up a much better fight. After these three fish it started to slow down and I managed to convince one more fish to eat before grading home. It was a nicer fish pulling some drag and jumping plenty of times and would have been punching 60.
Although none of the fish were giants it was really nice to get some action considering the rough barra season I’ve had so far, not only this it shows great signs of a healthy system and means there will be plenty of fish for the next couple of years.
