▲TopSTARLO’S FISHING REPORT #17

▲TopSkinny Water Action!

At one level, there’s nothing particularly new about flats fishing in Australia. Vic McCristal was writing about it in the 1960s and anglers were doing it well before that. I’d guess they didn’t call it “flats fishing” in those days. That Americanism came along later. Back then it was simply fishing in bloody shallow water! Common targets where flathead, whiting and bream, but other things regularly turned up, too. Lots of other things.

In more recent decades, the superb fishing on offer across our tropical and sub-tropical flats has tended to steal the limelight from these “bread-and-butter” southern targets. After years of drooling over glossy images of foreign bonefish, tarpon and permit flats in Yanky and European magazines, we finally woke up to the fact that we had a slice of that special heaven right on our own doorstep. Sure, some of the species were different, and often the tides and terrain were a bit trickier, but it was still there; from Moreton Island to Shark Bay and at a hundred and one focal points in between. The flats genie was out of the bottle.

Now, the emphasis is shifting back down south, where the majority of us actually live, work and fish. It’s a natural enough evolution. Lots of us have been throwing soft plastics, hard bodies, flies and natural baits into skinny tidal water for ages. When it gets too shallow, we climb out of our vessels and wade, joining those many anglers who don’t own boats, canoes or kayaks. The flats are an egalitarian field of play, where all wet feet are equal.

The real surprises have come in the form of exactly what’s available, and how geographically widespread it is. Whiting on poppers in southern NSW. Big flathead in Victoria’s Corner Inlet. Sea-run trout on the Tasmanian west coast. “Salmon trout” and gar in the South Australian gulfs. Blue-nosed bream in the wild southern estuaries of Western Australia. Kilometre after kilometre of thin water, so much of it full of fish. It’s pretty exciting stuff when you stop to think about it: An under-exploited resource literally beneath our noses! Certainly not new, but definitely overlooked and under-rated.

▲TopDEEP HOLES

Whenever I visit a southern estuary destination that’s new to me, or one I haven’t visited in a long time, I invariably meet some helpful local who wants to tell me all about the “secret” deep hole up around the bend that’s just heaving with monster fish.

“Yair mate,” they will typically confide, glancing around furtively to make sure no one else is listening. “Not too many people know about it, but up there past the power lines, against that steep bank on the left, there’s a hole that’s fair dinkum nearly 70 feet deep! Give that a go. Mate, there’s some bloody monsters in there… you’ll be lucky to hold ’em on that gear!”

I always thank them sincerely and file the information away, but you know what? Those deep holes are often surprisingly barren, unproductive fishing spots. They have their moments, to be sure, but it can be a long time between drinks.

Think about it. Where is the thickest concentration of life to be found in our southern estuaries (and most northern ones, for that matter)? Where are the weed beds, the yabby banks, the worm colonies, the oyster racks, the cockle beds and the rippling shoals of frightened little bait fish? Where are the water birds wading and feeding? Where are the stingrays and crabs and prawns foraging? Yep. They’re in the shallows. In water less than two or three metres deep. Often much less. Yet we stand on the bank or wade out up to our crutches and cast as far out as we can, towards that beckoning deep hole and its dark, promise-laden mystery. As often as not, we’re throwing our rigs right over the backs of the fish we yearn to catch.

▲TopA GROWING THING

My hunch is that, while it ain’t anything new, shallow water flats fishing will be one of the major growth areas of Australian inshore, bay and estuary angling over the next few years. The exciting tropical flats’ scene will certainly continue to develop, but the biggest surprises and advances will more likely come from our cooler southern waters. We’ve already seen the explosion of interest in a truly amazing (and highly productive!) popper and top-water lure fishery for whiting, bream and flathead. Elsewhere, people are finally beginning to crack the big-mullet-on-fly puzzle (and not only by berleying them into submission with truck loads of bread!). Blackfish (luderick) are being targeted on artificials and even sight-fished in the shallows. Jewies (mulloway) are turning up in shallower and shallower water, along with unexpected things like monster tailor, often where no one knew they lived! Who knows what else lies just around the corner?

It seems strange that such incredible things can have gone largely unnoticed on the literal doorsteps of our biggest towns and cities, but trust me, they have… and I’ve been as guilty as anyone else of not seeing the forest for the trees.

▲TopFLATS BOATS

One of the greatest things about skinny water fishing, as I mentioned before, is that it’s so readily available and easily accessible, with or without a boat, canoe, or kayak. There are countless drive-to destinations where anglers can from step from a car (or even a bus or train!) and start walking, wading, fishing and catching stuff. That’s neat.

It’s also inevitable, however, that we’ll start seeing a lot more purpose-built flats’ boats on our home waters. There are a handful in the country already, mostly working in northern latitudes, but a few are now also turning up down south. In some ways it’s another “full circle” thing. The little car-topper punts a lot of began our boating careers in were (and remain) highly effective shallow water fishing platforms. But the next generation of Aussie flats boats will owe more to stealthy, American-made bonefish, tarpon and redfish chariots than to car-toppers, duck punts and “john boats”.

Just as Yank-inspired (and often fully-imported) “bass boats” have changed the face of the local bream/bass/barra/cod boating scene (with wash-overs into many other areas of fishing), I predict we’re going to see a strong surge of interest in Australianised flats boats over the next season or two. I’m talking here about craft that draw less than 20 cm of water fully laden, yet are capable of doing 30 or 40 knots, even across choppy estuaries and bays, and boast generous casting platforms, clever rod storage, circulating live wells, state-of-the-art electronics and the like. Bow-mounted electric motors will have more relevance here than the graphite poles so frequently seen in US mag’s (and which are often only pulled out for photographic purposes, apparently!), but poling may also have its place and time. My crystal ball is still a little foggy in some areas, but you can bet it’ll clear up significantly this summer!

A lot of these boats will be fibreglass, or even exotic composites of carbon fibre, kevlar and the like, but there will be room for clever tinnies, too, especially if they can be designed to be quiet and wave-slap-free enough to sneak up on fish in water barely deep enough to cover their backs.

These are exciting times. Personally, I can hardly wait! Chances are I’ll see you out there soon, on a ridiculously shallow flat somewhere, chasing fish we never suspected were catch-able. That is, of course, unless you want to stay anchored up in that secret deep hole, waiting for a hidden monster to find your bait?

<quote> I’ve just taken delivery of my first fully-dedicated flats boat. It’s an imported Scout Costa 170 from the US. Check out the pic’s with this report and stay tuned for future reports on this boat’s performance! <quote/>