On every trip I have made up north on
the Bruce Highway, there is one area
that has always grabbed my attention,
Hinchinbrook!
A plan was hatched to head north from
Brisbane to fish the Hinchinbrook area
based out of Lucinda. With a good mate
already there for the week prior I had a
heads up on the fishing situation before
arriving.
Like any new area it can take time to work
out the fish, Hinchinbrook is no exception
with a huge area of estuary to cover and
offshore options also. With only 7 days
available to fish, we concentrated on
the estuaries with mangrove jack and
barramundi as our main target.
Day 1 saw us arrive around 3pm. After a
quick unpack we threw the boat in the
water for a quick session to get in the
swing. The sheer size of the area presents
so many options and it was overwhelming
deciding where to start. The most logical
option was the first creek we came to
considering we only had a couple of hours
before dark.
20
Lucinda
QUEENSLAND
Brisbane
Working up this creek it didn’t take long
to find fish with a few average grunter
coming on board for my young fella Mitch.
We found all of the fish to be tight to
structure so accurate casting was a must.
Mitch was using an ATC Valiant SW3000
spooled with 20lb braid and 30lb leader
and I was using a top end baitcaster on a
Live Fibre Venom 6kg Baitcaster spooled
with 40lb braid and 50lb leader. Just prior
to dark we had a double hook-up on a
barra and a mangrove jack. Both fish fell
to the impressive Zerek Live Shrimp Hot
Legs.
The rest of the week was basically a
repeat of the first afternoon working our
way through the creeks fishing all of the
structure we could find. A mix of hard
bodies and plastics were used depending
on the type of structure we were fishing.
The standout lures were the new Zerek 69
and 89mm Tango Shads along with Zerek
Flat Shads. Working the Flat Shads slowly
through the really heavy timber saw plenty
of fish hooked and a few landed.
A few things we learned along the way
really helped our catch rates and by the
end of the week we had the place fairly
well figured out.