THE FISHING in the fabulous Hinchinbrook Channel has been excellent lately. Plenty of barra are being caught in the channel itself, with some big girls being caught on live mullet off Hecate Point. Baden Candow managed to hook two over 1m on the neaping tide as well! Meunga Creek has been producing nice barra on the run-in tide, with Gary Ford catching one around 115cm, also on a live mullet. Land-based anglers have doing well at the Marina, with good barra, jacks and cod being caught on livebait.

Missionary Bay has been firing up for the grunter fishos, with plenty being caught in the mouths of the creeks (No 8 is the best) on prawns and strips of mullet.

I recently had the opportunity to fish the Lucinda jetty with my good mate Dave ‘Lumpy’ Milson. We had a ball catching queenfish, GTs and small mackerel, and got severely smashed up by those big fingermark that hang out there. We used poppers for the pelagics and deep diving Reids for the fingermark

There are still good numbers of prawns being caught out the foreshore, and the crabbing has been steady with some big bucks being pulled out of the creeks in Missionary Bay.

With the large amount of rain we’ve had in recent months the fishing future for the Channel and surrounding creeks looks good. The Murray River has broken its banks and flooded the surrounding flats twice, most likely flushing out all the big barra that have been hiding in the numerous lagoons. Local anglers in the know have told me the Murray system is the feeder area for most of the barra caught in the Channel, so it would be good idea if they stopped barra netting in that beautiful river.

There’ll be pretty good tides for next month – just avoid the neaps, as the fishing then can be slow. If you do fish the neaping tides, fish the rock bars using floating lures. I’ve had some success using pink Prawnstars in the creeks on those slow tides.

However, I for one will be heading for the Bay if winds allow. I really enjoy fishing that area and it seems to be more consistent. I recommend that you fish the flats on the high tide and head up your favourite creek when the water runs out.

The best lures for us last month were a silver Terminator, the orange Leads and the ever-reliable gold Bomber. As usual, one of my Bombers finished up as a bit of white plastic after a major jack attack!

I’ve had some more queries regarding my prediction of the best days to fish. This time I was collared at the boat ramp and queried regarding the 8th and 9th of the month. Seems they were out of sync with the moon phases, but my theory on it all is this – the less water between the fish and us, the better. I don’t care whether it’s a black moon, waxing moon or a blue one – just put me up a creek on a low tide with drains and snags exposed and I’ll find a fish!

Safe boating and I’ll see you on the water. Remember, ‘Fish for the future: practice catch and release’.

1) Dave ‘Lumpy’ Milson with a queenfish caught at the Lucinda jetty.

2) You can’t help smiling when you land a GT.