Floating the Mary

Ingrained in our culture as a metaphor, a ‘one-way ticket’ is synonymous with adventure and new beginnings. This same sense of anticipation and excitement is born in me every time I float down the freshwater reaches of this magic river. The Mary River in Southern Queensland rises at Booroobin in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, then flows 291km to the north, emptying into the Great Sandy Straits at River Heads. On its course it runs through the towns of Kenilworth, Gympie, Tiaro and Maryborough.

Since the gold rush at Gympie in 1867, this river has changed dramatically thanks to various human activities, the most notable being logging and cattle grazing. This has undeniably left the Mary shallower and more silted than the river that the local Kabi Kabi people lived in harmony with for millennia.

Despite these challenges, the fish have held on and rebounded well.

The species list available is impressive, and incomparable to any other freshwater river around the country. Fly rod targets native to the river are limited to Australian bass, with the endangered Mary River cod a welcome bycatch. Local and State Government stakeholders have worked hard over the last decade or so, and populations of these enigmatic fish are going from strength to strength.

Sooty grunter first appeared in the Mary River some 10 years ago, with Tiaro the epicentre of these early captures. How they arrived remains a mystery, however, they are thriving in this shallow sandy river so reminiscent of their native waters. Sooties are widespread now, from downstream of Tiaro to well upstream past Kenilworth.

Like most invasives, it appears they are here to stay, and at least we can take some solace in the fact that these indominable little predators may help slow the spread of tilapia through the system — and keep the fish count on a slow day ticking over.

Bass and sooties are the fish most regularly encountered while fishing the Mary, but the species list is not yet finished. Saratoga native to the Fitzroy basin have made their way over the wall of Lake Borumba during numerous flood events, and now have a well-established population in the river, along with golden perch. These two fish are certainly less prolific than the others, but on any given day they are a very real chance of making an appearance.

Rounding out the list, albeit very rarely, is the jungle perch. Every few years one of these elusive little fish is caught from the river by someone in the right place at the right time. With a possible species tally for a day’s fishing being four or more freshwater sportfish, the appeal of fishing the Mary is plain to see.

LOGISTICS

Being a large river that runs almost parallel to the coast and only a short distance inland, the Mary features regular road-bridge crossings, providing incredible access to the river for fishers. The length of river between bridges varies between 10 and 20 river kilometres.

These distances afford the perfect opportunity for us to book that one-way ticket. The long, sandy portages on the river and sheer volume of fishable water makes floating downstream for a few hours, then having to traverse back upstream to the car afterwards, a rather inefficient use of valuable time. However, utilising two vehicles, the ability to float from one point to another, encountering each obstacle just once and continually fishing fresh water, is a very efficient spend of fishing time.

With a little bit of forethought, an A to B float down the Mary is a perfect way to experience this river. There is a big difference between a 10 and 15km float, and even that 10km distance when the water is low can turn into a very long day. Having done a number of these trips now, we have a pretty good handle on which stretch of river is suitable for the time we have available. A 10km stretch is a good day’s fishing. After dropping a vehicle at the take-out point, and returning to the launch point by first light, you can expect to finish your float somewhere between 1:00 and 3:00pm, depending on the water level and how thoroughly you fish each pool.

Distances around 14 to 16km are doable in a day, but expect to be launching in the dark and arriving at the take-out very close to, or after dark that evening if you have fished with conviction. This sort of distance can make a great overnight trip if you go prepared. Having fished the least pressured sections of river during change of light periods is a great way to encounter some quality fish. This is a good option for those who really want to make the most of their time on the water.

The 20km plus stretches of river are really the territory of an overnight float if you want to fish the water effectively, and again are a wonderful way to spend two full days with a couple of friends on a special river.

Google Earth will be your best friend when planning a trip like this, allowing you to find all the various access points along with distances between, in order to plan the float that best suits your needs. Just keep in mind that the entire river, and its tributaries upstream from its confluence with Six Mile Creek in Gympie, is closed to all fishing from August 1st to October 31st to protect the breeding cycle of the Mary River cod. Luckily there is a lot of river, and even more fish downstream of Gympie to occupy your time over this period.

THE FISHING

On my most recent float down the Mary with great mate Brandan, we did a full day float of just over 9km. We had initially planned to float a roughly 15km stretch between Gympie and Tiaro overnight, however, my small children intervened — as they do! The 9km we ended up fishing had us finished up at 1:30pm on the dot, and home in Brisbane for bedtime — everyone was a winner.

At the beginning of every trip down the river I am always filled with anticipation, but do my best to abandon expectation. Having experienced incredible, and horribly tough fishing on this river many times over, you can just never be sure which version you will get on any given day. The best you can do is go with a plan, pay attention to everything that is happening around you, and adapt accordingly.

Our day started well… almost. While working a set of lay-downs within sight of our launching place, I heard a big ‘boof’ and turned to see Brandan tight to something that looked very heavy. His 6-weight rod was bent to the cork and I had visions of a lovely big bass coming to the surface, only to see his face drop moments later as a rather large catfish appeared with a Dahlberg down its throat. Though not the most desirable species, at least fish were moving, we thought. We continued to fish topwater flies into the morning — Brandan the Deer Hair Diver, and me a large diving streamer. We had a few flashes and swirls but nothing managed to connect.

As the sun rose a little further, I swapped to a sink-tip fly line and another streamer to fish just a fraction deeper in the water column. Across the next few hours, I managed to pick up a handful of middle-sized sooty grunter. Brandan missed a good fish on the Dahlberg, and he picked up a nice bass shortly after switching to a Deceiver. We were doing better than a bad day, but after roughly 4km of very fishy water, we certainly felt there were more fish to be had — something had to change.

Not 10 minutes after stopping for some lunch we cracked the pattern, highlighting just how important it is to pay attention to everything. Fishing a shady pocket under an overhanging tree, halfway back to the kayak my line snapped tight and my little Primal 5-weight was bouncing violently! A strong tussle ensued and a solid bass eventually came to hand, with my Thomas Clancy inspired Jig Hook ‘Thing’ pinned firmly in the corner of its jaw.

While I was in the process of landing this fish, I heard Brandan call out that he’d missed one. Still with the camera in my lap after photographing my bass, I began to take some photos of Brandan working the next set of snags. The second cast he threw was engulfed just moments after hitting the water. Bass number two in short order was promptly netted, photographed and released.

We then sat for a moment and discussed what had changed — very little it seemed. But the next question we asked was where did the fish come from, and we had our answer. The ‘Holy Trinity’, as we dubbed it, for the next few hours was a shady pocket. This didn’t have to be big, just a steeper edge providing deeper cover, with a small amount of timber nearby.

We fished the remainder of the pool that lacked any shade, and didn’t raise another fish. We made the call to just paddle, and stop each time we found the Holy Trinity. Our first stop, a few hundred metres down-river saw both of us land another fish almost immediately from another shady, deeper pocket of water. This cemented for us that our observations were now a repeatable pattern, and without a second thought, we spent the remainder of our one-way ticket leap-frogging from shade pocket to shade pocket.

We finished off the day with a dozen or so fish, a nice mix of bass and sooties. Flies and depth were far less important in the equation than where they were fished. Brandan used a white Deceiver on a floating line, while I mixed between a mostly brown Bendback Deceiver and a heavy black ‘Thing’ on a sink-tip line. As long as those bait-fishy flies hit the hot zone, that was all that mattered to the fish.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Although this pattern may sound pretty obvious to most who have spent time fishing fresh water, it is not always so cut and dried. Some days these patterns are totally out of the box — fish holding on bare sandy drop-offs for example. You just have to make sure you fish all structure with conviction to start the day, and pay attention to everything that happens — bites, misses and hits — to help piece the day’s puzzle together.

It’s not often that a pattern is so concrete that you can fish it to the exclusion of all else. But when it happens, the sense of achievement that comes with feeling that you outsmarted those fish just once, is a wonderful thing. With a little bit of planning, and an observant mind, it is hard not to enjoy a one-way ticket down the Mary.