Fishing the Estuary

While on my second trip, back to the local estuary system, I was armed and dangerous with the Storm Wildeye Twitching Nipper soft plastics, and an assortment of Rapala hardbody lures.

Arriving over an hour before the peak of low tide we began the trek along the deeper creek, with tight timber banks, that fanned into shallow sand flats. My first lure to hit the water was the Storm nipper in the pearl colour as it was a proven standout when compared to other soft plastic lures. It wasn’t long before the nipper got the chomp and my Okuma rod was bent as a nice flathead darted through the water. 

A nice Flatty that smashed a Storm Nipper

As we progressed down the creek I decided to test out one of my new Rapala Jointed Shad raps. I chose the shad colour and began casting it out towards the snags. The lure floated on the water till I began my slow twitching retrieve across the bottom giving the lure an injured tail kicking action. On my third cast about half way from the snags my line tightened and the fight was on. My first assumption was a flathead because the fish hit the lure over an open sand bar, but as it approached the banks, I realised it was a Goldspot Rockcod.

The Goldspot Rockcod

I few casts later my I hooked up again, but much closer to the snags, on what I think may have been a Finger-mark or Moses perch around 35cm in length, but the fish spat the hooks before I landed it.

1st fish for my new Rapala Jointed Shad Rap

I soon changed my lure back to Storm nipper as I feared losing my little Rapala in the snags. With no more hits we started to head back up the creek. As we passed a shallow flat in the estuary we heard a splash across the surface and thought about having that one last cast. As I did I decided to use a much faster flicking retrieve in hope of a little Queenfish. In after the lure covered about 2 meters of water it was stopped dead in its tracks and raced off in the opposite direction. The fish had a very fast first run but quickly tired. My first thought was a massive whiting, but as I saw the forked tail I noticed it was a Giant Herring, which is a fairly rare catch in our area.

My biggest Giant Herring yet (thanks to the Storm Nipper)

The fish was a released after a few quick pictures and then we headed back up the creek where we landed a couple more little cod and flatties. I can’t wait till next time so I can test out the new Rapala Ultra Light Lures.