Over the last year I have spent quite a bit of time fishing with jigs over shallow reefs on the Fraser Coast. When I mention shallow inshore reefs. I am referring to locations which are not too far away from the Urangan Boat Harbor. Locations which, if you pay attention to your sounder, you will find scattered all throughout the Great Sandy Strait.
I have made a video previously about drifting over some of these reefs. I will place the link for that video below.
Things To Consider
The first thing to consider when fishing these particular locations. Is the sheer volume of water moving in and out of the deep water channels when you have a big tide. The channels are quite narrow. There’s a lot of water moving. And when you get wind against tide, it can become quite tricky.
One of the things I have noticed while I have been drifting around exploring these reefy areas is the fishes’ behavior. What I generally find when the tide is really flowing. Is that the fish will sit on one side of the structure. Basically protecting themselves from the high volume of water moving past.
They are conserving energy, sitting tucked in behind the structure. And they will jump out and ambush food as it comes past. The other thing I have noticed is that when you have a slack tide or a changing tide. The fish move away from the structure a little bit and can start circling the structure in search of food.
During these periods they will venture out a little bit further because it’s a bit easier for them to do. Of course, when the tide completely changes direction. The fish will again find themselves a nice, protected spot on the other side of the structure.
Structure
This is not true for all species. There are some species like cod and coral trout, who will find a home in little holes and things in the structure, and they generally won’t move too much. But, for snapper, sweetlip and other species, they generally move around the structure and find places out of the water’s flow.
The best way to find out where all the structure is. Is to Google it because there is quite a few publicly known GPS marks throughout the Great Sandy Strait. But, I reckon nothing can beat time on water where you basically move around using your sounder to identify structure. When you find one little patch. Spend a bit of time sounding around. Out to a few hundred meters around it as you may find other structure.
The Next Challenge
The next challenge is trying to hold your boat above the fish, so that you can get a lure or bait down to them. As I’ve mentioned before, drifting is an effective means of fishing these reefs. However, in this blog, I’m going to talk about using the Minn Kota, to hold you above where you have identified fish.
Electric motors are absolutely fantastic devices. Most have a spot-lock function. Which basically uses GPS signal to hold you within a few feet of where you actually press the button. So, instead of deploying an anchor and getting the angles correct with water flow and all that sort of stuff. You can just deploy the Minn Kota, hit a button and bang, you are on the spot.
Stay Vertical
Getting your jig or your bait down to where the fish are involves getting the jig weight correct. I can not stress the importance of getting your offering as vertical as possible in the water column. Too much weight and your offering will arrive with a thump. Not enough weight and your offering will disappear in the current at right angles and you will never hit the bottom.
I find for myself, I use 40, 60, 80, up to 100 gram jigs. And I basically start with the 40’s, and I’ll work out whether that’s actually getting down. If it doesn’t, I will retie a 60 and then an 80 etc until I do get the weight correct.
Technique
There are a couple of ways I use jigs. I sometimes short cast them up current and let them drift down. This means they get caught in the current, but they come back down over my target area. Once I feel them on the bottom, I simply gently lift the rod tip up and down. Due to the current flow, this will result in the jig hopping across my target area. Sometimes I give the jig a double hop or a triple hop and sometimes I wind the handle a couple of times to get the jig jumping up looking like a wounded bait fish.
With jigging I have found the fish can strike at anytime, so you need to stay on your toes. If you do cross paths with a cod or trout living in a hole, they will grab your jig and be back in that hole before you know it. So, you need to use good quality line which is sensitive enough for you to feel what is happening all of the time.
Final Thoughts
The last thing I will mention about jigging, is that it is constant. You are always doing something, which I find helpful for keeping the kids entertained. Give it a go, you may be surprised at the quality and number of fish you find using this technique.
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