FREIGHT TRAINS OF THE FLATS
Although on the morning of this trip the greenish waters of Shoal Bay were relatively clean by Darwin standards, visibility was still less than a metre. Luckily, we weren’t relying on sight fishing to find today’s targets. Rather our eyes were firmly locked on an electronic screen - being fed the marvels of modern technology - to show not only what was lurking barely two metres under the keel, but also 30 metres out to either side. It didn’t take long before the side-scan on the port side revealed a dozen large fish sitting up on a flat, adjacent to a drop off to deeper water.
“Do you reckon they’re barra or jewies?” asked visiting sandgroper Tim Carter who was aboard the green boat. “Timber… I think that’s a school of big jewies…” was my enthusiastic reply. I was excited because to date, Tim had yet to experience the thrill of a hot session of rampaging black jewfish hooked on the cast in less than a couple of metres of water. Fingerscrossed today would be the day.
With the CW Eliminator now spot-locked down-current of the located school, rods were quickly readied with seven-inch long soft rubbers rigged on sturdy 7/O jig heads. For the next hour or so we made long casts to the school which stayed pretty much in exactly in the same spot as when we first found them.
Despite a number of lure changes, varying jig head weights, as well as alternating both the type and depths of retrieves, not even a single nudge or bump rewarded our disciplined efforts. With the mid-morning tropical sun now
