The Hinchinbrook report by Ryan Jamieson

 

G’day Fellas,

Jemo here, your Vice President and Location Coordinator providing you with a monthly fishing update from the mighty Hinchinbrook Channel. Over the past few months I’ve been dominating the local lure fishing scene with great catches of Mangrove Jack, Barramundi and G.Ts showing up throughout the channel and adjacent creeks. I attribute my success to my sheer determination, in conjunction with my superior knowledge of locating specific fish species. Other A.B.F.T teams may struggle in this kind of fishing environment, as they are what you might call ‘hackers’ or ‘weekend worriers’ content with catching lesser quality species such as Iodine Bream or undersized Sweetlip.

The Hinchinbrook Channel stretches from Lucinda all the way to the sleepy fishing town of Cardwell. There are endless mangrove lined creeks, bays and rocky headlands to fish and explore. The fishing opportunities are endless in this pristine environment, from indulging in anything from popping for GT’s in the channel, working bait drains for the mighty Barramundi or my personal favourite, working the endless snags, rocks and mangrove lined banks for Mangrove Jack.

Hinchinbrook is my idea of paradise. This was evident on my last outing with fellow lure fishing enthusiast and friend of the A.B.F.T. franchise, Benny Pascoe. Benny and I set off in the early hours of Sunday morning before sunrise. We arrived at the boat ramp to find there was only a foot of water running through the tiny creek , which was our intended launch point. Not being deterred, we launched the boat and cautiously walked it a kilometre through crocodile infested water - in the dark. When the water was a sufficient depth to run the boat in we set off on our fishing adventure. As we crossed the channel I noticed a few feeding schools of what appeared to be GTs or Queenfish, I reluctantly continued on as I’d promised Benny we would catch Jacks. After a short run up a small creek (with several circles to purposely disorient my passenger) we arrived at our destination. A knowledgeable local like myself is not willing to disclose the coordinates of such an abundant location.

As the boat come to a stop and the electric motor slid down into the plentiful waters, my first cast hit the water. After a couple of twitches of my prawn star, I was greeted with a quick jolt and was left with nothing but a boil on the surface of the water and a stunned look on my face. On my second cast I twitched the prawn star twice and it was engulfed by a sizeable Jack, after a short struggle it was brought to the boat and netted. It measured 43cm which not bad for my second cast. No sooner had the Jack been released and Benny’s rod buckled over. After a few tense moments his 42cm Jack was landed.

A decision was made to move upstream to fish a snag I had previously done really well on in the past. Benny stuck with the prawn star and I changed over to a Tilsen barra. In what seemed like seconds, Benny hooked up and was onto a serious fish. I decided to quickly bring my lure in and out of Ben’s way, but it was not to be, on the second crank of my reel the Tilsen was also crunched by a solid Jack. “DOUBLE HOOKUP”. Both fish were boated and Benny’s Jack was measured at 44cm and mine 40cm.

It was a great morning session and Benny left with a satisfied smile and an agenda to return as soon as possible. This is the kind of sport fishing prowess team Longrod bring to the leaders table each A.B.F.T. It’s no wonder other teams just can’t keep up.

Over and out,

Jemo (Vice president, Location coordinator)

Jemo’s Thought For The Day...

I recently witnessed a member of team square hooks who posted a video of himself catching a queenfish with what looked to be the fishing equivalent of the winch off the front of his boat trailer. In what way does this encompass skill in fishing? I’m pretty sure any amateur off the street can wind in a fish that’s a quarter of the weight of the breaking strain of the line being used .This just proves that the members of Team Square Hooks are unable to catch fish unless the odds are stacked in their favour.

Here at team Longrod we believe in the sport of fishing. We incorporate modern equipment and tactics along with experience and know how in order to catch fish. We catch fish in a fashion that gives us as the angler a true sense of achievement when boating that trophy fish. Other A.B.F.T. teams incorporate old fashion kill and grill techniques which are both out dated and ineffective. Team Longrod are on the cutting edge of fishing technology and proudly working alongside our sponsors, refining lures, electronic fish locating technology, even down to our outboards and electric motors. Perhaps others should embrace our enlightened and contemporary fishing philosophies?