The conditions on Justin's solo morning were not promising. Recent rain had stained the south-east Queensland flats; declan was off doing lure R&D somewhere; and the wind had pushed the boat into the dirtiest corner of the estuary on the run-in tide.
What followed was a clean demonstration of how ZMan micro finesse plastics actually work in dud conditions, run from the front of the boat by Tackle Tactics TV's Justin and built around three things - a 1.75-inch Micro Goat, a 2-inch Guppy Grub and a 1/8-ounce TT Lures Headlocks Finesse jighead.
The first fish was a grunter on the third cast. The second was another. Justin called the species correctly before he could even see the fish.
"One species that does love that dirty, stirred up water is grunt," he said.
The Micro Goat - rigged on a number-two Headlocks Finesse in bloodworm to match a bloodworm-colour head - was the bait that did the early damage. Justin's rigging note was the kind of detail anglers gloss over: the Micro Goat ships with the two tail sections fused, and they need to be separated.
"That little guy out of the packet, we need to remember to grab his two tail sections there and pop that apart so we get that double kicking feet," he said.
"Might be a bit of a day of the grunter today," Justin said, holding the spotted grunter up. "You can hear him grunting. That's how we got his name."
The bag-friendly grunter went on ice. The barred grunter, which carry visible vertical bars and run different bag limits, was a different fish entirely.
When the first flat ran out of bait, Justin ran. The clean water on the next flat called for a different plastic. The 2-inch ZMan Guppy Grub in motor oil came out of the box, paired with a motor-oil head for an overcast UV pop.
"This guy is what I call the ultimate finesse curl tail," Justin said. "It sits right at the back of that number two in the Headlocks Finesse UV. That's a motor oil colored head and a motor oil colored plastic. So nice UV pop for these overcast low light conditions."
A drop of Procure Ascent in mullet went into the body grooves before launch.
"I like all the flavors, but it's mullet today and it's the first one I grabbed out of the bag. Just a nice bait fishy scent. Stays on well, even on your pants when you're wiping on your pants. Sorry, Sher Lee," Justin said.
The Guppy Grub fired bream into the mangrove edges. Justin was throwing the cast hard up under the trees and rolling the bait out as the tide pushed the fish onto the cover. The takes came on the cover release.
"On this higher stage of the tide, so the tide's pushing in - so these fish will often push right up into the mangrove edges. They can't get in here when the tide's out. So, they come in when the tide is in," he said.
"That's pretty cool. We've got a couple of grunt. We got a bream. We're getting some bites on the micro finesse," Justin said.
The instructive part of the morning was the pairing. The Micro Goat handles open-flats searching where bait is sparse - the double kicker generates enough action to draw a fish in, and the grunter respond hard when stirred-up water gives them cover. The Guppy Grub takes over once the water cleans up and the tide pushes bream onto mangrove ambush points - the curl tail with the internal rib works harder than its size suggests, and the fish hit it on the rolling release off cover. Two plastics, one head, two patterns, and a session salvaged on a grey day.
