Bushman Mick's most recent video reads like a survival kit checklist for Australian land-based fishing — red head torch, croc spotter, lithium 18650 cells, knife, lip grippers, and a popper queued up for the bottom of the tide. He spent a night and a morning on a flooded mangrove creek in tropical Queensland and walked out with a story about a barracuda that towed him into the trees.
The video, posted on 17 May 2026, opened with the rain rolling in and the city disappearing into the mist. "These creeks are full of life. Barramundi, mangrove jack. But they're also croc country," Mick said. "Tonight, I'm heading deep into this flooded maze, chasing fish in the dark right as the tide starts pushing through. It's wet, it's eerie, and honestly, this place feels like something out of a movie."
He set up behind a fence on a bank that gave him a safe landing zone, fished two rods on heavy 0.8 mm leader, 5/0 octopus-style circle hooks and small live mullet pinned to the bottom. The current was savage. "Look at the power of the tide," he said. "Landing a fish from here is going to be an absolute nightmare."
The lighting kit doubles as a survival kit. Mick keeps a red light on his head and a white spotlight in his pocket. "When I'm fishing at night time, I like to have the lights off most of the time so I don't spook the fish. But when I do have my light on, I like to use my red light because not only does it not spook the fish as easily, but it keeps the bugs out of my face a bit more, and it also doesn't interrupt my night vision as much," he said. The white torch is reserved for filming. The spotlight is for crocs.
Within half an hour, he had company. "That right there, my friends, is the eye shine of a crocodile," he said, holding the beam steady on a single red dot across the creek. "Bigger crocs have bigger eyes. Bigger eyes are brighter and shinier. From my experience, that croc right there is at least four metres long. I've only been here half an hour. He's already come out to have a sus."
The night produced bait runs and bust-ups but no committed fish. Mick rotated through a hard-body and a soft-plastic prawn for what he was certain was a barramundi feeding on a spillway, then packed up at the top of the tide.
The morning rewrote the trip. With the tide draining out and small archer fish schooling in the shallows, he loaded up an HCO popper and cast into scattering mullet. The first hook-up came on a fast, straight, toothy strike. "There's a barra busting up right there," he said, before reconsidering the bite shape.
"That's a big barracuda," he yelled as the fish kited toward structure. "He's going to spool me. He's going to spool me. Oh my God, it's going into the mangroves."
The fight ended at the snags. "I'm on full lock on this drag. Full lock," Mick said, before the leader popped against the mangrove roots. "That was the best fight that I've had in a very long time. We're talking that would have been like a 15, 20 kilo barracuda. Definitely barracuda. Really fast strike. Really fast run, like a sprinter."
The casualty was 0.8 mm leader rated 55 lb but the diameter of an 80 lb in most other brands. "I've never been able to break that with a fish before. With a shark, yes, but not a fish. I've caught barras a metre with this. No problem," he said. He left with one archer fish for dinner and a plan to return with a 100 lb leader and a bigger popper.
