Once the domain of salty sea dogs who could line up two points on the horizon, fishing ‘the paddock’ has become commonplace. It’s the domain of trailer boats with electric motors, fancy plotters and sounders telling fisherman all manner of detail about the fish life below.
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Fishing this open ground between the inner and outer reefs on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is perhaps the best way to put a feed in the esky and utilise modern technology. In this feature, let’s look at some of the techniques used to cover a broad range of species that might be encountered.
The first thing to appreciate with each type of fishing scenario mentioned is finding bait and life. Understanding tides and direction of current flow are crucial in aggregating sea creatures. In almost all circumstances, fish will congregate around other fish. Life attracts life, and predatory fish are willing to complete the circle of life in close proximity to their prey.
Successful fishers will appreciate that finding life on the sounder does not always lead to record catches. Many factors combine to produce excellent fishing, and those who understand moon phases, bite times, water temperatures, weather changes and subtle clues in the their environment will be at a distinct advantage. Being able to adapt your fishing techniques to what is working on the day separates seafood eaters from fuel burners.
Bottom-dwelling, midwater and pelagic species coexist in what can seem like a lifeless expanse of water. Yet underneath is a seething mass of life, playing out at 30m or 40m down. Up on the shoals and down in the holes, the fish will be where you find them.
Let’s look at the fishiest areas likely to be encountered out in the paddock of the Great Barrier Reef.
Shoals
This is a term used to describe hard-bottom areas or pockets of shallow water in an otherwise featureless paddock. Like all forms of structure, shoals become aggregation points for baitfish and predators. These areas act like sponges for nutrients and a place where currents lift food through the water column. The more isolated the shoal, generally the more life it will attract from a wider area.
The food chain starts with the filter feeders like damsel fish, banana fish, fusiliers and a range of schooling baitfish. Squid, garfish, schools of herring, anchovies and pilchards top up the edible list for a host of predatory fish. This congregation of bait attracts roving pelagic species such as mackerel, trevally and tuna, as well as more sedentary fish such as coral trout, fingermark, nannygai and emperor species.
It always pays to be ready when fishing shoal areas. Baitfish moving around brings predators up to the surface periodically. A floating bait or live bait tossed out the back while drifting can be very effective. It can be surprising to see what comes sneaking under a drifting boat. Mackerel, GTs and sharks are just some of them. Shoals will normally fish best on their leading edge. Basically, where current is pushing against bottom structure, try to fish the leading edge or pressure edge as this area tends to congregate baitfish with predators patrolling the surrounds. A tide or current shift may re-locate the bite to another part of the shoal.
Lumps, Bumps and Ridges
Some of the most productive fishing comes when a random lump appears on the sounder, in the middle of nowhere, covered in life. Lumps tend to be rocks and broken up shoals on an otherwise flat bottom. They can be as tiny as a blip on the sounder or huge bommie-style coral clumps chasing sunlight from the depths.
Lumps nearly always contain life of some sort. Baitfish presence is almost guaranteed on any lump inside the Great Barrier Reef. The biomass can be astounding, but it doesn’t always translate into fish being hooked. Having spot-lock on many of the modern electric motors is a godsend for those trying to fish lumps. Anchoring without the rope or chain is so good!
Anchoring can be particularly challenging, especially when a little current is involved. In days past, those skilled at anchoring held a distinct advantage when fishing isolated lumps; miss the spot and you miss the fish. A bump similar to a lump might indicate a patch of high ground in otherwise deeper water. It can be worth traversing these bumps looking for baitfish holding on the rise.
It is easy to take too much from a single lump or bump that’s fishing well. It pays to catch a couple and move on, rather than fish it to death. One lump might have a scattering of coral trout or a school of fusiliers being circled by barracuda. The next lump might have something else completely. This is what makes the Great Barrier Reef so special – the sheer diversity of species that exist from south to north and east to west.
Ridges might run off old lines of reef or form where harder substrate has remained, leaving a steep drop-off to the seabed below. These areas can be identified by contour lines on a chart or shadows on bathymetry. They hold fish; sometimes up on top of the ridge, sometimes on the edge and sometimes on the fall.
When current is pushing against a ridge, finding that point where fish will happy sit in front on the pressure edge is crucial. Too far one way or the other and efforts can be futile. In deeper waters, these ridges act to mix waters together, creating marine life, stimulating food chains and attracting predators. Many a marlin has been captured around ridges and canyons where they use oceanic currents to guide their journey to plentiful baitfish.
Holes
Referring to holes in the huge expanse of the Great Barrier Reef lagoon (inside the outer reef) is basically referencing gutters, deep spots and depressions. It is hard to define what a hole might be in such an expanse as the Great Barrier Reef. Perhaps any areas between 30m-80m of water which are substantially deeper than the surrounds might constitute a hole.
Produced by circulating currents scouring out the seabed, these holes form most of the way up the Queensland coastline. Within the Great Barrier Reef lagoon, these depressions contain life and growth to varying degrees. When trying to find fish in these holes, move around until you find decent life on the sounder and drop a bait, jig or vibe and just see what happens.
Especially during the months of warmer weather (November to March), these holes can be particularly productive as fish settle into pockets of cooler, deeper water. Their feeding patterns may become a little erratic and a change of tide or current can suddenly trigger a bite.
Life also hangs on the upward slope out of the holes, often dependent on the way tide and current are moving across it. Drifting these areas can be barren, but it can also be a surprise packet of different fish, including emperor, sweetlip, nannygai, trevally, red bass, trout and chinaman fish. It can also mean sharks!
Wonkies
Wonky holes are outwellings of fresh water running underground before pouring out into the sea.
Rivers, creeks and streams from the mainland leak freshwater through a porous membrane of earth. These in turn still find their way to mix with salt water.
These holes create their own ecosystem and will usually have a buildup of life around them. Quite a few anglers seek out wonkies to target fish such as red emperor, nannygai, spangled emperor and cod. The methods to find these holes in the first place are a science understood by the committed depth-sounder enthusiast. Plenty of on-line assistance exists to bring new recruits into the game regarding location and identification of wonky holes.
Dropping down baits, jigs and vibes in the area surrounding a wonky can be super productive. Don’t be surprised to find schooling fish a little distance away from the wonky itself. Quite often the dominant fish in the vicinity will find their way into the action. If the fish are biting, care must be taken not to take too much from these spots as the biomass is constrained to a very small area.
Techniques for Chasing Paddock Dwellers
Metal jigs and vibes are two of the most productive forms of presenting artificial lures to fish holding at depth. Jigs these days might be divided into slow pitch or flutter jigs which sink and rise in a haphazard, fluttering motion, and knife jigs which have a more direct sinking motion. There is normally either one or two assist hooks designed to secure fish snapping at the fish-shaped metal. They can be stimulated with a touch of bait like squid tentacles or thin-sliced strip bait.
Soft plastics with heavier jig-heads can be fished to a range of depths usually dictated by the amount of current and wind. Working these plastics in a hopping motion in the bottom five metres of water before winding them fast through the water column can be hugely productive for a range of species. A straight flick-tail plastic between 75mm and 150mm long and some awesome squid and prawn imitations can entice a broad range of fish encountered at depth. Octo-jigs and sinkers rigged with a skirt can be equally effective, especially when ‘tarted up’ with a little bait or scent.
Many vibes have entered the market and are taking more than their share of fish when worked in an erratic manner up off the bottom. The sideways wobbling action produces an intense bite response from fish used to chasing prey fleeing upwards. They also get smacked when fluttering through the water column on the way down. Fingermark and coral trout are two tasty targets for this technique, but a myriad of other species from midwater cobra to top-water mackerel will have a crack.
Fresh baits and live bait are perhaps the best known and most widely utilised when targeting fish at depth. Fussier fish find it hard to resist a well-presented strip bait and larger predatory fish attack live baits with absolute gusto. This style of fishing self-perpetuates. Landed fish can be re-used as bait or live bait to target bigger fish down below.
When baitfish schools are located on the sounder hanging midwater or near the surface, trolling lures, skirted baits or swim baits are a brilliant way to entice hunting fish into striking. It can also be an effective way to cover likely areas as speed and troll depth are altered until a pattern of success emerges. Speeds of between 4.5-7 knots are generally used and varied for best results.
Plenty of smaller marlin and sailfish are taken in this way, with Spanish and other mackerel species adding to the tally. It can be a lucky dip when trolling and plenty of slow days on the water are saved in this manner when the bottom dwellers aren’t playing ball.
Fishing magic
The Great Barrier Reef is one of the wonders of the fishing world. Yet it is this area within the reef lagoon and out of sight of the colourful reef tops and cobalt blues of the outer reef that actually hold the lion’s share of tasty fish accessible to fisherman. Next time the weather flattens out, plan your attack into the paddock and go searching for new spots to try. You just might be blown away by the fishing on offer and the joy of discovering fishing spots for yourself.