Skipper Meggs Adventures in Cardwell – Part 2
Posted by Meggs | Fishing Holiday Stories | Posted on October 6th, 2009
Greetings all,
Before I forget – congratulations to Lorinda Potter who was lucky enough to catch her first jewfish off the back of a houseboat on the Clyde River at Batemans Bay. Caught on a barra rod loaded with 15kg but with a 1/0 hook, running ball sinker and no trace the most unluckiest 96cm jewie fell to a frozen packet prawn thrown at boil of bait fish. Well done!
Ok, with much anticipation Wazza and I had changed our game plan for the second trip and went with a cheaper hire boat with a 15hp and a crab pot thrown in. Yes, we were worried that the 15hp wouldn’t hack the trip but our friendly host agreed to drop us off at a different ramp in Bridge Creek which was well south of the town of Cardwell. With a high tide at 8am this would put us into prime fishing territory with the afternoon low tide helping us home to the marina.
We managed to put the boat in without being taken by crocs and made our through the dense mangroves out into open fishing territory. A couple of local crabbers gave us some tips on how to navigate from Bridge Creek and about 45 minutes they passed by us holding up a huge muddie – well done to them! We made our way to a likely looking feeder creek and tossed gold bombers at some drowned timber and within a dozen casts finally managed to get some interest from a couple of small barra. They went for my lure first before moving onto Wazza’s. A couple of Boofs! later and they were gone.
We meandered around a few of the creeks and streams before deciding to put our crab pot in a likely area in front of two drains whilst we fished a y junction further downstream. It seemed like we were only there for less than an hour but regardless the 3 meter tide got the better of us and I chose not to risk being bogged in the mud trying to retrieve our crab pot – besides we were always going back that way again the next day and it wasn’t as if the waterway was full of boats and potential crab pot thieves.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful although I did manage to catch the world’s smallest hammerhead shark which was a real buzz. Drifting back towards the Cardwell marina we picked up various rubbish fish and our hopes for redemption from the previous days’ disasters seemed well and truly dashed. There was only one thing left to do – call up the big guns and go on a charter. We got in touch with Mick Radlof, a Cardwell local, and after explaining our plight we arranged a charter for the following day.
Mick was a great bloke and I must admit it was good to have someone who knew the local waters like the back of his hand and he took us to places where we hadn’t even thought of heading. He gathered up some livies with his cast net and we mixed the fishing up a bit with lures as well. Wazza had the first run but unfortunately it was stingray so the gods were still definitely against us. I had a small run on a fish that spat the hook. Mick took us back to the crab pot only to find that we had been baited. He took one look at our crab pot and told us the locals call the one we used a “Take Away” because the crabs come in one end and take away the bait and then work their way out the other! Oh well, no barra and no muddies so far. What the hell are we doing wrong???
Anyway, Mick tried and tried and tried to put us onto some fish. We had a huge run at the junction of a creek but by the time the rod was lifted out of the holder the fish was gone. Time wasn’t on our side and the sun was getting low. Mick pulled the boat into the mouth of a creek and let out the big guns with some jelly prawns and live herring whilst Wazza and I pelted lures around the creek edges. Boof! Swirl! Missed again as one of the livies went off. Lucky me got a run on an estuary cod which we released and then finally Wazza managed a legal size barra which was immediately doomed for the bbq that night. We were about to pack it in when the waters around us started to boil with both baitfish and big boofs and swirls from the menacing barra that were in full attack mode. I had seen nothing like this in my travels – everywhere you looked there were barra boils and the noises of feeding fish.
Mick was good enough to let us try our luck here – I think he felt sorry for the way our whole trip had turned out and this was really a unique situation. He said to us that normally when there are barra feeding like this they aren’t much interested in anything else but the baitfish they’re feeding on. Regardless out of the blue a fish nailed a popper as it blooped its way back to the boat and I was on to my first Cardwell based barramundi which was duly caught and released to fight another day. Success at last!
We followed the boils around for awhile but couldn’t get any interest and as the light began to fade we called it quits and made our way back to port. It was tough going but at least we had a feed for the night.
As for Cardwell as a fishing destination – look we obviously didn’t set the world on fire. Mick also mentioned that the previous wet season had not been good and this has a flow on effect with the barra. The other thing is that we didn’t bother to do any reef fishing and this is generally an easier task to extract fish. We saw enough evidence on our final day to suggest that there were still plenty of barramundi left in and around Cardwell but we couldn’t seem to get any other interest apart from the local sharks and catfish. One great catch can make a big difference to your fishing holiday and I wouldn’t write the area off just based on our experience. A lesson learnt is always use a local guide if you can – this will increase your chances of success dramatically and they know the likely haunts of the local fish. Cardwell itself, and the surrounding areas including Lucinda, is picturesque and the locals are friendly. There’s some great drinking establishments and cheap accommodation so in summary I’d recommend that you put the town on your must fish list.
Sea you later,
Skipper Meggs