Episode 69: Baffle Creek Winter Smorgasbord With Jason Medcalf

Jason’s Top Tips For Fishing Baffle Creek

• In winter, rug up! Southerners might still wear shorts and thongs, though.
• There is lots of great fishing to be has within a hundred metres or so of the boat ramp, due to the jetties, moorings and other man-made structure in this area. However, Baffle Creek contains numerous rock bars (careful of props) and they fish very well for a range of species.
• The mangrove jack that Baffle is famous for are present over winter but are not easy to tempt, coming back on the chew properly around September when the water warms and becomes more cloudy. Other species fish better in winter, including bream, flathead, giant trevally, large queenfish, grunter and more.
• Weedbeds have come back since the banning of beam trawling in the creek, and these areas are great to target with small lures for bream and whiting or with poppers for big queenfish and GT’s.
• Straight off the boat ramp upstream of Winfield near the caravan park is a good place to fish the Flicker Shad for flathead and bream. The northern channel has a big bay where the water warms up and the flathead wait off the edge for baitfish as the tide starts to fall.

Jason’s Tackle Recommendations For Baffle Creek

• A 2-4kg combo with 8lb braid and a 15kg leader is perfect for targeting bream, flathead, jack, small trevally etc on small hard body lures, surface poppers and stickbaits.
• Move up a line class or two as you start to fish deeper for grunter, cod, jacks and the like using vibes around rock bars, ledges and mangrove roots.
• Some big GT’s, metre queenfish and tuna come into the creek mouth at times and require a 6-8 kg rod with 30lb braid and a 40-60lb leader to have a reasonable chance of stopping them.

Jason’s best lures for Baffle Creek

• The Berkley Flicker Shad is a great small hard body lure that resembles the famous Rapala Shad Rap but is made of plastic and has a rattle. Jason finds them deadly on Baffle flathead particularly, but also catches bream, grunter, cod and jacks on the same lure.
• Cultiva Zippin Ziggy is a great surface lure for the creek. It’s great on jacks over the summer period, but in winter over the seagrass beds it’s fantastic for bream, whiting, flathead and trevally.
• Soft vibes are very effective in Baffle Creek in Winter. Jason likes the smaller size Zerek Fish Traps, but Jackall Transams work well too. These are great under jetties where fish are sitting in the shade as well as along the ledges and rock bars. They’re deadly on grunter, flathead, bream and plenty more. Jason looks for deeper edges and shaded areas like undercuts then flicks a vibe in and allows it to drop to the bottom before working it back with gentle little hops.
• The Halco Roosta Popper in the 80mm and 110mm sizes is Jason’s choice for targeting the large GT’s and Queenies that come into the river mouth. He likes gold best and fishes them around the mouth.
• The 4” Berkley Gulp Shrimp in New Penny colour is perfect for all kinds of estuary fishing along the east coast and can be relied upon to take fish all day in Baffle Creek. The northern bank of the northern channel has a mangrove ledge that fishes particularly well with this lure. Flathead lie in the shadows and eat this lure freely.