Against the Rising Wind... and Puddle X

After the evasive drawl of returning to work for my first full week since arriving back in Australia, today I found myself finally free for a fish.  Upon waking, the day was calm- though as muggy as the wet season has each day be - and in a few hours lay a low tide.  Fishing the shoreline of Darwin revolves around either a low tide exposing for the angler's feet stretches of rock or sand that are usually drowned beneath a few meters of sea; or else a high tide whose flood pushes fish into places they are eager to feed.  At present there is a 7 meter difference between high and low. That means 2 sessions on a work-free day!

By the time I was ready to head to 'point x' - perhaps the safest bet for a barra capture near Darwin's CBD - the palm leaves were swaying in a direction I preferred not to see: 'point x' would have a milliard little brown waves slapping across its shallows, which barra do not like.  So instead I drove to East Point, which has a few options somewhat away from a North West wind.

This was my second session from Darwin shores in almost 4 months.  I chose a location where a channel of turquoise water lay protected from the wind by an expansive bed of rocks shallowly covered.  Third cast and my Fish Arrow Flash-J shad was getting niggly knocks.  Next cast, this pretty little cod sucked the Flash-J down...

After a few more small hits - likely from another cod - I changed location.  Putting on a tiny DUO popper, what looked oddly like a fat pikey bream leapt sideways from the water, flinging the popper a few feet without getting hooked.  Several casts later, another hit without a taker.  The wind was growing too fierce for the popper, so I switched to a 4 inch Sawamura One Up Shad. These are perhaps my favourite paddle-tailed soft plastics: the indented mid-section gives the lure a great wobble, and the tail action is vivid enough to be felt as a pur through the rod tip.  There is a groove both above and below for fishing them weedless - I like to use weedless jigheads such as the Decoy Nailbomb, which fit these plastics perfectly.
Second cast with the One Up Shad and I received a solid hit as soon as it collided with the surface... but no hook set.  This is what was returned to me...

One Up Shads are a rather soft bait, but whatever did this had teeth more poignant than a long tom.
As the tide drove me back, the wind picked up even more, which now made feeling adequate contact with a soft plastic difficult.  Using a heavier jighead in this rocky area only leads to snags.  So hardbodies were the option.

This parrot fish fought like a bigger barra... for 5 seconds.  An ambitious fish considering the size of the Smith lure it hit.

Half an hour of casting bigger hardbodies proved otherwise fruitless. So on went a Zipbaits Khamsin to see if any smaller fish were about.  One was, but not the little fingermark or 7 inch barra I expected...

The young mackerel fought valiantly considering it was quite outgunned.  Exciting to catch a mackerel on a stalwart black bream lure.

The weather kept turning worse, and with thunder and shifts of rain in the distance, I decided to have a break until high tide at 'puddle x'.

One fish that is less than a regular on the end of a Darwin angler's line - unexpectedly for those moving to Darwin from Southern states - is the mighty mangrove jack.  I managed to catch only two throughout  2012, both being surprise fish when targeting other species (my few dedicated mangrove jack explorations always came back empty).  One location I thought had mangrove jack potential was confirmed by Hiro, who vouches he has pulled a few out.  'Puddle x' can only viably be fished during tides over 7.2 meters.  I've caught barra and tarpon there on a handful of visits.  But tonight, despite arriving half an hour after high tide, the Sawamura One Up Shad gathered me something red...

Not a big fish - and I apologise for the awful, night-time iPhone shots - but this is the first Darwin mangrove jack I have caught when actually targeting them specifically.  I also had 2 other jack bumps - both managed to mostly drag the lure off the jighead - and a quick barra hookup that just as quickly slipped the hook.  Hopefully I can pull out a larger jack next session...