Hope I have put this in the right forum category - apologies if not!

I'm really wanting to do more weekend getaways from Brisbane up to Mooloolaba (due to it's opening to the ocean) and up to Hervey bay.

I'm really struggling to find air bnbs / any accommodation that has a safe place to park the 6.3m boat, let alone somewhere to park that has power to charge the 36v minn kota battery setup, and ideally a place to wash down the boat (now I'm getting picky! But worried about rust, given my post recently about rust on my new trailer).

Does anyone know of any good accommodation that might be suitable up that way? I have tried the boat harbour apartments in Hervey bay but there wasn't anywhere with power and they were building a new set of buildings which look to take up a chunk of the trailer parking.

Thanks!

First light

Managed a 33cm grassie early and thought we were in for a treat.

It wasn't to be, but we both got snipped by macks before I jagged one on a circle hook.

He went 62cm

We floated out a pillie but they were too smart for the gangs. No cigar.

Poor old @Leosonfire couldn't stay away from the snags and spent most of the morning/day rerigging. I didn't laugh once.

There was plenty of unders action and we ran out of bait (except for a small amount we wanted to keep for the river snapper). I went to the berley pot and retrieved a snapper frame and we cut up and scrounged for usable bits.

We headed back to the rockwall to give that a bash, but the fish there didn't like our offerings. Whilst pondering life and staring out to the bay something caught my attention. A tripod beacon. Soon after I had an epiphany ! We rigged up the sabiki jig line (gee I hate those things) and headed to the beacon. There was plenty of bait there and we soon had a couple of pike and about 20 herring in the livewell. What a good idea it was to fetch our own bait...

We then headed into the river and not a minute too soon as the wind had sprung up and there were white caps and curly waves everywhere.

We ran some drifts without any luck for a good hour or so. Then I got a good hit and up came Ellicatch's best snapper to date.

49cm.

I was happy with that but felt I really needed to get Leo onto a good fish before we went home, so I let the wife know we were going to be playing a bit longer. He couldn't take a trick and was still getting snagged up regularly. I still didn't laugh.   Well maybe a little. Finally he retired both rods after losing his rig and I said to use mine as I was done for the day.

In the end it worked out - he landed a snap, but it was a couple of centimeters short. Bugger ! Still better than a poke in the eye with a short stick. We made our way back to the ramp calling it a good day (for me).

Well this morning I woke up earlier than anticipated so I got the gear ready, and took the cart down to the jetty. It had three rods, the net, some bait consisting of frogmouth pillies, prawns, and Bony Bream, and an esky. I arrived about 5:45AM to a medium tide and a flat water, not a ripple to be seen in sight. The temperature of the misty air was very nice for fishing, and the odd 'hello' from walkers was the only thing that broke the silence. The smell of the Brisbane River and wet forest was making a weak aroma which I liked (good memories of course!). The sun was still rising, and I was ready for a fish.

The salmon line was deployed with the head part of a Bony Bream, and casted out as far as it would go. One line had a little Motor Oil placcy, and the other line still needed rigging. I didn't even have that done after about 20 minutes of being on the jetty, and nothing had happened then. I did see a large school of baitfish 'boil' when I casted my line in, meaning that they may be around. While I was tying on a hook though, the salmon line buckled over and off screamed line like no tomorrow.

I picked up the rod, tightened the drag, and the fight was on. I lifted up the rod, then cranked the reel handle as hard as I could. Unfortunately, I then felt something that ruined that experience.

"Foosh!"

That was the fish spitting the hook on me. I left the bait out for a bit longer but soon enough realised what happened. I reeled the line in slowly, and up came nothing. I made an educated guess that it might be a Thready, as the leader wasn't very frayed and the speed of the run taken was far faster than any shark I had ever come close to catching. I switched everything over to a new rig just to be safe, and then deployed the next bit of biddy.

My dad was down by now, and he did a bit of cast netting. On the first throw, he got a juvenile Yellowfin Bream, and some little prawns. We kept them (the prawns) for bream bait, seeing as though the only thing I'd be using if I didn't catch anything would be herring (dead). We did some more throwing, and got together a small amount of herring and prawns (as well as one lone mullet). 

I started flicking the SP around as well. I flicked it under it mangroves, around the mudflats, and under the pier numerous times for no love. I was using a 'hop-hop' technique, which I figured would've made the lure very enticing for a flathead or cod. Just as I was walking towards the jetty, the salmon line went off. This time the fish did not take that much line, so I tightened the drag and struck straight away. It felt good- heavy weight and shakes. Then, just like the last one, it spat the hook! This time also had me coming back empty handed, so once again I replaced my trace as there was a little bit of fraying and put out the final bit of Bony Bream, the tail bit.

Everything went slightly quiet now; nothing on the plastics still, and no hits on the rod which had a little live prawn out. I then decided to do a bit of cast netting. My dad and I use the same technique, except he has a variation of it which requires you to give it a larger whip. I tried this - one throw was OK, with about 60% opening (he gets 90%,99% of the time) and then the next was a doozy as the net was pretty well closed and banana-ed. (Funnily enough, we got a prawn in this throw ). 

I saw the salmon line get some action then - a bit of line went off. I picked it up, held it out there for a minute, then reeled it in. There was still an intact bait, so I threw it back out waiting for another fish. My dad had to head off now, and in his last throw he got the mullet then. It was about 15 minutes until I saw a peck-peck-peck on the salmon line. I assumed the bait would've stayed on but after checking it I realised that it was gone. I reeled in, disappointed, and chucked out a half frog mouth pilly.

It was about 15 minutes of nothing, at around 7:30AM, when the line buckled over completely. Line was screaming off, and I eventually got there, tightened the drag, and prepared myself. After a bit of cranking, he went for the pylons. I managed to coax him out though, and then he took the fastest run a fish has ever taken for me out into the middle of the river. He was near the surface but wasn't coming up now. I gained line on him but as he was about to surface, he took an even faster and stronger run straight back down. This happened about three times now, and by this time I had a serious case of the shakes. After many tense moments I finally gained enough line to get an ID on him.

"HOLY MOLY! THAT'S MASSIVE"

Or at least that's what everyone thought (and I bellowed) when I saw it. Some passers by luckily came down to give me a hand netting it up, and in no time it was on the jetty. I got some quick photos, seeing as though the hook was a goner cut that off, and then I measured him. 115CM long. Jeez, Louis! 

I picked up the fish and lowered him back into the drink, ready for the release. He gave a massive kick off, and that was probably the best feeling I had in a while! Here are some photos of the fella (pic heavy) - 

Landing Him

Up you come

115CM of Threadfin Salmon

I could hardly lift him!

Up ya come!

Trying not to dislocate a shoulder

Back ya go!

Well, after that exciting series of events... Quite frankly... Disaster Struck! The Thready resurfaced floating in the river. We tried desperately to get him in the net before he got too far out, but it was too late. We couldn't get him. "Please go down, Please go down, Please Swim away, Please swim away" was all I could say. It wasn't looking good, and I was about to dive in (the people stopped me), so I tried the next best thing - hooking him again. This was a complete no go, and I failed miserably each time. 

There was only one option - I called dad, quickly explained to him what had happened and why the kayak needed to come down. Fifteen minutes later, my faithful fishing mate was there and my dad and I were paddling down the river, as fast as our arms could carry us, to the threadfin salmon. We got to him about 500 Metres down. I grabbed him, and the first thing we did with a sharpened screwdriver was to vent him. He stabbed it into the very inflated part, and heard the hiss of air come out.

That confirmed my suspicions- bloody barotrauma had got to the poor bugger. 

We paddled to the bank, allowing air to go through his gills the whole time. I prayed he would give a massive kick and go straight back down. He didn't... YET. We found some rocks under someone's jetty walkway, and stopped there. My dad did a kamikaze jump straight out of the kayak into chest deep mud and water. LOL. I waited with him for a long time, with not much progress except the fish getting a tiny bit stronger. I paddled the double kayak back to the jetty up the river, to say hi to my mate.

I told him the situation, and I was still praying the fish would be gone by the time I got back there. It didn't end up swimming off though, so there was more trying to do. I was back with my dad for another ten minutes, and after watching the fish kick I had hopes. I went back to tell my mate, who said, "Well, it's either a happy released fish or BBQ salmon dinner, Hamish!".

The whole time, my dad was in waist deep water standing on a dodgy rock bar. He said he could feel the odd thing brushing past his leg when he was down there, like an eel. Yuck!  

Since he paddles too, I decided to ask him if he wanted a go. He replied yes, so I quickly paddled back to dad to tell him. The fish was not progressing, not even in the slightest. We swapped life jackets and sunnies, and now my mate was going to give the fish a check out. In this ten minute period, I frantically messaged everyone who I could that might know about what the hell to do with a fish that's been vented in the swim bladder and swimming for an hour, as well as make the URGENT thread in AFO.

Lets just say it's not URGENT anymore!

After that, my mate was back, so we swapped over. The fish was swum for around an hour and a half-two hours by this point, and we still needed to try and released him. My mate informed me my dad said I had a choice - to release him and waste him or keep him. I got there and I saw that the fish had pretty well died on Dad. I was very sad at this moment, and I felt really bad about keeping him. I knew this was always a possibility though so I have only myself to blame for catching these fish.

We loaded him up on the yak... Got him back and had a brief admiration session of the fish. It was absolutely huge. Dad loaded the fish in the yak, and got going straight away. He needed to get the ice on the fish as soon as possible so it tasted as best as it could. By the time I was home with my mate, we had ice on the fish and we were ready to fillet him up. We decided that I would do it, and that we would let him ice down a bit longer.

In the Esky

It was then my Mum and Dad had the silliest idea ever- to take the fish to a fish shop to get it filleted. "What kind of BS is that", I thought... After some convincing, we piled into the car and got there. Even though they then refused to fillet it (my dad literally said, "Hello, I have a large fish here, will you fillet it for payment?". That was responded to with, "Yes, $15!") they had some good Bony Bream, Mullet, and other baitfish in there so that may be a cheap seller for me if I run low.

Once we got back home, I started the filleting job. I was doing well until I hit the backbone, and then... I forfeited and handed the knife over to Dad . After lots of struggle though, we ended up with 3.2KG of meat, and probably about an extra 500g of fish crap. We threw the frame away, as it was to big to freeze, and now the meat is sitting in the fridge waiting for a BBQ dinner with me and my mates families tomorrow. 

Dad Filleting

3.2KG of meat

About 10KG (it seemed WAY more than that... I can lift a 12KG barbell and could hardly lift that so either dodgy scales or I've gotten weaker, LOL)

Quick photo

That was the salmon done. The biggest fish of my life, that I've ever seen and caught. I felt very bad about it, but what happened has happened. Next time though, I do not think I will be putting out the salmon line. It also seems the ones that are smaller are far more hardy than big ones, so a few of them would be nice. 

Thanks for reading this report, and I hope you enjoyed. It sure was an epic day. Here are the stats of the trip. 

Stats of Trip - 

Tide: 2:40AM, 1.6M, High, 8:20AM, .5M, Low

Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent - not too much run

Air Pressure: 1010.7

Humidity: 68%

Temp: High was 33^oC

Weather: Sunny, few clouds

Time Fished: About 5:45AM - 7:45AM

Fish Caught: Threadfin Salmon x 1

Bait caught: Mullet, herring, prawns

Bait used: Bony Bream, Half Frogmouth Pilly, Prawns, Herring

Tackle Used: 12lb, 14lb, 30lb braid mainlines, 20lb and 80lb mono leaders and traces, size 2 and 5 ball sinkers, 4/o and 6/o suicide and circle hooks, large barrel swivel, size 2500 Diawa Shinobi 2500 on Abu Garcia Veritas, SHimano Nasci 2500 and Ugly Stik, Penn SSM 650 on Rogue Firepoint Boat rod 

Overall Success Rate: I can't give it 100% (as much as you wanted to read that @Another Wazza) as it didn't swim off. Settle for 50%.

Cheers Hamish

P.S. No one has made an attempt to guess why I changed my profile pic on December 19^th and only then, . 

We thought they were Carp and therefore an invasive species (we didn't mind, was just glad we caught something finally) but then when I asked my friend, they said it looked like Perch or Bass, and then my parents said it might be bream (as you can tell, my friends and family are as hopeless as we are...)

So what exactly did we catch?

Thanks for any help in advance!

Been a while since I have posted about a fishing trip,  Been heaps slack,  not doing much fishing since around late September and with work being very hectic found myself with barely any time to get on the water.  

Left the ramp early around 4am Australia Day morning headed for some ground south of Cape Moreton with intentions of Chasing a Black Marlin & maybe a offshore snapper if they wanted play the game .  Good run across the Northern Bay in the dark although very shallow in a few areas causing some detours around some white water . 

Anchored up around 545am ish in some wonderful conditions ,  1st few baits we had some mac tuna hammering our floating baits  which helped wake us up and get the blood pumping . 

After deploying some burley and the mac tuna thankfully going away - I was up first with a good hook up on what felt like a nice snapper,  only to pull the hooks  - I quickly retied a new hook on and put another bait out and instantly hooked up to what I called a good snapper - this thing went super hard for the structure and had me in the bottom for a few tense moments,

Bit of rod work and up came a nice size Jew.  around the 9kg mark,  which was released to fight another day.   Kept at is for about another 15mins with a few runs and a few bust ups, 

My mate hooked a good fish which ended up being a nice spangle emperor around 6kg mark and despatched quickly to the esky, I was up again this time with a nice snapper around 5kg which went in the ice slurry as well. another 10mins past and I was blown away 2 more times on 40lb O/head gear with not much else I could do , felt like a passenger holding a fishing rod. re-rigged again, wound the drag up on the Talica 16 and sent another bait back in the burley trail but not as far back to the structure as normal and stopped it , let is float there in the current for a bit and the it started screaming off, this fish was no where near the caliber of the of beast from previous hook ups but still good,  bit of a tussle and up popped a nice snapper around 5kg - it went straight to esky also,  Seems I was on I fire with hook up and the deckie not getting a single bite.  I put another bait out and locked the rod in the holder set ready to go again. 

I decided to chuck a bit of sunscreen on as the sun was coming out from behind the clouds and was heating up,  whilst doing this my rod screamed of again. I asked the deckie to grab this one and sort it out ,  this fish fought well and in no time  I slid the next under a nice snapper around 5-6kg . Straight to the esky he went.  

By this stage is was getting to around 8am and we started hearing some radio chatter about Marlin to the North of us around the Caloundra Wide area. So we rigged up out last baits set them back around similar distance and I started cleaning all the boat up and the deckie started getting the trolling rods ready , after about 10mins stuffing around ,  my rod went absolutely nuts.  locked it into gear and I was howling - got to work on pretty quick and went hard trying to turn this around. This thing played stale mate and ran hard along the bottom and literality pulling me to the back corner of the boat - Unsure if this was an even bigger Jew or snapper, once I had him coming up I started playing it safe and let my rod do the work. Deckie was on the net & ready and done a top job getting this bad boy in the boat - PB for me for Spangled Emporer going 8kg on Popey's scales last night.

From there we headed North Trolling for Marlin managing to hook one out off Caloundra around 11.30am. Jumped off pretty quick,  pretty happy to get a bite considering my 1st attempt ever at trolling for marlin.. 

Headed for home around 1pm in nice conditions.  

Few pics below 

Cheers Josh <><

Any tips or trips regarding depths and or general Locations in Moreton bay to try for some sandies?

Ideally somewhere between manly and rous to soak while I fish for the day.

Not really sure what depths I should explore or contours / holes Or the like that I should look for.

Well after catching some garfish in the last session, I decided the next morning I'd go and give them a test run for bait. I had in mind it would be the last time I went for a shark fish, so I hoped to get one. I got to the park after waking up early, and deployed the garfish (half). It was chucked out, as well as some other lines with little bits of prawn. Dad gave the net a throw but the tide was too high to get any good livies, and running a bit too hard. 

To be honest, I was doubting we'd get much after a while. The tide wasn't the best, I needed a bigger sinker, and the little lines were having no inquiries. After chatting with Dad for a while though, I saw the rod go right over on the jetty. I ran down hoping to be on a bully. It had big weight and was pulling pretty hard; wasn't running though. I thought I'd end up with a pup but after aching my arms for a little I got the mother of disgust. A giant catfish.

Yuk!

He was thrown back into the drink, and told not to come back. Hopefully I don't make a habit of catching catfish that can be mistaken for sharks . i redeployed the next half of the garfish after getting the 6/o hook out of his mouth, and kept fishing. At this point there'd still been no action on the little line, which made for a rather boring wait for the bigger line to go off.

I saw it go over but then nothing was on it after reeling it in and the bait was still in perfect shape - so little something I assume. Seems it may have been worth to throw a cube of gar out in hope for something instead of fish with prawns for the entire duration of the session. The water was nice and glassy too, like it is most mornings. It is certainly better like this before the wind picks up then in the arvo.

Glassy - you'd love this on the bay!

After that catfish, we kept fishing. It was really deadly quiet though, with not a nibble to be sensed in site. I kept persisting, and a fair bit past 6:00AM the rod with a bit of prawn got some action. The fight began, and I wound up another catty. At least it meant I wasn't donutting. 

Also - it had this weird red bit on the tail? Any ideas?

After that one was bidded farewell, the lines were deployed again. I was wanting to use most of the prawn I had to avoid wasting any, as well as the garfish. I had the new slab on the salmon line, which was a bit on the small side. After no hits for quite a considerable time, I put on a new half in case it might entice more fish.

It got some more enquires from smalluns, but no considerable hits. The cod line was moved, as the tide had started to go slack and changed. It didn't take long for a little bit of action on that one though, and my Dad predicted the exact moment the fish would bite. I cranked it up, but to my disgust a catfish came up.

Catfish + me don't mix!

That was the last of Dad for today, and he set off back home after that one. I kept fishing in hope of something more, so sat down watching the lines in the water. The shark line got yet another hit but no love whatsoever. Bummer! I had seen old mate yakker man go by now, and I thought he must've missed the tide change by a little. He went off though, for his routine paddle.

There were some more canoers that came down now, and they had kayaks, Canadian Canoes, and I think one was a yak like ours. Very interesting looking paddling club! They had theirs all near the jetty, but briefly before they had arrived I got a bigger hit on the shark line...

The rod was buckled, but as soon as the fight started I realised it was not too large. A short fight ensured another catty came up. The bigger ones seem to love the gar, as @natang mentioned!

Bad pic!

I let him go back in front of some folks sitting on the jetty, whom congratulated me (I said, "Thanks' with a slight hint of dismay in my voice ). The bite now went rather quiet on this line, and with one of the last pieces of gar I hoped for something OK. The cod line was deployed with more prawn, so I got back to my possy of watching the lines from the chair. I look a bit funny but it gives me a good vantage point.

Old mate yakker man had come in this point. He was very worked up about something though, and was pretty angry about something by the time he left. Hope it went all OK for him.

The cod line was rebaited, but soon it looked like it was getting some action. This fish wasn't running, but it was tugging the line. I picked it up and a hard fight with plenty of headshakes ensured me pulling up a nice eel. He was legal size, so I contemplated keeping him while he was in a bucket of water. I decided (after a phone call to Dad) that the Pike Eel would be fine, so it was this fellas lucky day. He was released to chase more bait under he jetty. Another main reason I released him is because I dehooked him.

Variety

After that, I fished for a while longer, but alas, no success was had. I loaded up the cart, gave the jetty a wash (wasn't that dirty anyways), and set off home to catch some ZZZ's. Here are some stats.

Stats of Trip - 

Tide: 12:25AM, .4M, Low, 7:15AM, 2.1M, High, 1:50PM, .7M, Low.

Moon Phase: Waning Crescent Phase

Bait Caught: -

Bait used: Prawns and Gar

Tackle Used: Diawa Shinobi 2500 Reel, Abu Garcia veritas Rod, 12LB braided mainline, 10LB leader, size 2 bean sinker, 4/o or 3/o suicide hook, Abu Garcia Barra King 650, 20LB braid, Ugly Stik rod, long trace, size 3/o circle hook, 30lb trace, 30lb leader, size 2 bean sinker, large barrel swivel, Penn 650 SSM, 30LB Braid, 80LB Mono trace and leader, 6/o circle hook, size 6 sinker, barrel swivel.

Fish Caught: Catfish x 4, Eel x 1

Time Fished: Around 5:00AM something - about a bit past ten

Overall Success Rate: 50% - better than being at home...

Alright, now to the next trip. This one was a bit more exciting, and after watching many videos of someone who goes by the name of BrisVegas Fishing getting threadies on lures at night in my area, I decided to try. The technique was to flick your lures around light pools, where they 'boof' them off the surface.

I had a prawn imitation lure, cheapy, so I didn't know if it would work, but I've bought two packs of 'Holt Productions' prawn lures in 'White Flash' which are supposed to be the top lures for prawn imitations (online store - Google 'Holt Productions Lures' if you're interested).

I had all the rods rigged, the sounder ready, and all the gear ready to go. Dad found me lounging on the front lawn - probably trying to get some sleep. We dutifully set off at bit before seven though, after dinner. We got to the park and put the yak in to do the first test of the night - the sounder test. Dad will write a thread on some success we've had but tonight the sounder was not playing the game and had the white screen yet again - 

We had some reading

After that one, we were disappointed. Luckily for us, it was a low tide. You know what that meant! Bait! Or so we thought. Dad did throws all around for diddly squat (I found a prawn and scat in the net today though, who were buried in the garden under the mulch). It wasn't looking good for us, but how bad could it be? BAD

We were about to set off, and still being optimistic, we said, "No livies = more time to fish on lures". Well that lasted for about two seconds.

"Hamish... Where are the paddles?"

So I zoomed off home on foot to get them, while Dad was going to do some more netting. I got home and grabbed them (of course I'd gotten life jackets which were right next to them but not bloomin' paddles) and was quite disappointed to hear Dad had no success throwing on the way back. We set off, not taking the message from the fishing gods that tonight might not have been the night.

We paddled down past some possible spots, and kept going. We had a ten cast or so flick at the first jetty which looked good, with no avail. I also had a large hardbody with a huge wobble tied on. I figured that was all bases covered. We set off more though, and it was quite relaxing to be paddling.

Paddling

We gave the next jetty another go to, because it had lots of light. I wasn't flicking my lure into the light had first, more so, letting it drift on the edges and give it had flicks coming back to me. That way it kept darting around the mid-water column like a disorientated prawn would I suppose.

We gave a couple more jetties some flicks for no avail, and shot down to the last stretch before it was past the bridge. The tide was really ripping against us now, so not too ideal for being on a yak. It certainly didn't help when we needed to drift an opposite directions to the wind and tide!

We got to the final stretch and the wind was dismal here, but we made the slog under and past the bridge. The first series of jetties was a while off, so we also got to them. We drifted in, and I did what I'd been doing all the session. Nothing. I gave the hardbody a flick to, but annoyingly my bait caster decided it would like to do that annoying thing where it just stops half way through a side cast (and it's a bit tricky trying to do overhead casts when the light pole and another rod is all together).

We gave all three jetties a flick and were disappointed. An interesting note is that the whole time we were on the water it was seriously quiet, like not one bit of bait skipping, not one fish jumping, etc. We only saw one person in a ski-boat (Like @GregOug's boat actually) zoom by!

I was still flicking on some jetties, and had changed to a 4 inch Z-man in 'Pearl' colour in hope of a flatty. I didn't get anything, but I did get snagged and loose it all which was disappointing. At least I knew it was on the bottom.

We began the paddle back, and annoyingly the wind had changed direction. We kept going though, and flicked all the jetties we had on the way here. At one point, I decided I may as well troll my hardbody, so I let out 20 or so metres of line and trolled it behind the yak. It would've looked appetising for a biggun! We got back to the jetty and I practically fell asleep on it like last time. I will crack the Thready-On-A-Lure one day! (Replaced my 'Catch a Metre Thready' as it was done). We got everything though, and on the way home heard a metal something fall out. We had a good look but couldn't find anything. Consequently, yesterday after I cleaned the kayak and was helping Dad put it away, one of the pins holding the trolley was missing! Blast! Must've just rolled into the drink...

Thanks for reading those two reports, and I know they weren't the most exciting. Hope you enjoyed and here are the stats!

Statistics of Trip:

Tide: 

Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent - not too much run

Bait Caught: - (Well an unidentified prawn and scat until net cleaning, haha)

Bait Used: -

Lures Used: A large green deep diver, 4 inch Z-man soft plastic, some cheapo K-mart prawn lure.

Tackle Used: 2500 Diawa Shinobi on Abu Garcia Veritas 3-5KG, 12LB braided mainline, 30LB Black Magic Fluorocarbon leader, FG Knot, Diawa Magforce Reel, Shimano Cranx Baitcaster Rod 5-8KG, FG Knot, 30LB Black Magic Fluorocarbon Leader, Abu Garcia Barra King 650, 20LB Braid, 30LB Black Magic Fluorocarbon Leader, FG knot, 4/o circle hook (didn't use this)

Fish Caught: - 

Time Fished: A bit past 7:00PM-10:00PM

Overall success Rate: 60% - Fun

Thanks for reading.

Cheers Hamish

Wanting to show / teach the next generation of kids what can be found in our beautiful Moreton bay.

I remember it to be a fun activity as a kid but can’t quite remember where in Brisbane we used to find them.

But she is happy for me to go fishing on my own while she goes to the beach, so just need to organize to see if i can get on a charter boat, only downside I can see is that the sea forecast on Friday up there may be 1.5m on 7 sec between waves, so could be quite a rough fishing trip. I might have to leave it to the last minute and see if the weather settles down or not before deciding. Tough decision on whether to go fishing or not!

Has anyone on here had experience fishing Coombabah Creek or Coombabah Lake?
 

ive got my 2 boys BEGGING me to take them fishing tomorrow but I don’t like the wind forecast n this pocket looks little sheltered....

I am going to be traveling to the West Coast of Tasmania in about a week and am hoping to get lots of fishing in.

I have heard there is some amazing saltwater fishing in and around Strahan and some pretty decent inland fishing in lake burbury, Queenstown Tasmania.

Have any other member fished these areas? I have been looking at photos online and the areas look so picturesque and amazing.

An old work colleague was kind enough to hit me up for a deckie spot and I couldn't say no

We were on the water by 3:50am and our plan was to have a look at the blue beacons past the Brissy river mouth (1mile?) to see if there were any mackies around. Water wasn't as glassed as I expected but we could still motor near WOT.

We got there as the sun was just starting to light the sky and found 2 boats at the first beacon where we had about 4 casts before deciding to have a look at the 2nd beacon.

Got close to the 2nd beacon and saw 6 boats already on it so decided to give up on the mackies and head to mud.

Drifted the south eastern side and chucked 95% placcies with a few casts of a hardbody thrown in. Started off with 1/8th jigheads which is usually heavier than I like in the shallows around mud. Lots of touches but not a lot of hook ups. The fish didn't really convert until I went back to my usual of 1/12 or 1/16 sized jigheads. Most of my fish came on Damiki armour shads and rippers. Long live the Skin Blue colour!!!!! Thank you @Zim man (not that you are on here much anymore).

Lots of littlies around and lots of tackle lost to the rubble. I reckon I lost 10/12 jigheads this morning. How good are the colours!

and then on the classic "last drift/last cast" finally got a better grassy.

All fish went back for a swim and I made it home right on 8am to fire up my laptop and get stuck into my work.

Happy Friday everyone Cheers

The plan is to take a my boat from Urangan and Mrs Drop Bear takes some of the cubs on the ferry. 

There are lots of fires I hear... Anyone know how I can find out where they are and if it is safe or advised to go?

While I was trying to get the dog out of the water, I cut my legs and hand on the barnicles, my eldest son tried to pull me back out of the water but failed, so middle son came to the rescue, one on each arm. All this time all I could think about was bull sharks.

On a lighter side, before this happened there was bream around the boat that looked well over 40cm.

Off to the doctor monday so they can inflict some pain on me and dress the wounds.

Dino

We are like boys in a lolly shop, all this top gear, huge waterways, lets do this, lets do that.  In reality we haven't a clue how to fish. We were out for 5hrs yesterday in the broadwater and had  2 nibbles. I did notice my Captain had a 4 oz weight, 500m leader and a double gang rig with a 125mm pilly, in 4mtrs of water. I was using a very light weight and small fillets letting the tide take the bait, to no avail. And no fish on the Garmin. HEEEELLLPPP. Even when there is fish on the sounder, I think its in Demo mode.

Is there more logic to any of this, eg, finding out what fish is in season, where their habitat is, keep going back to try and get a strategy, what bait they prefer etc, etc,etc.

I know this is very broad and obviously would appreciate any and all help, even to have someone come out with us to show ue the practicalities

heading down to the Gold Coast for the wknd. Haven’t fished it a whole lot, will be land based flicking lures. Would like to get some locations. 
Also would light doing gear be too light to fish the seaway ?

I am looking for a rod that is around 9-10 ft that can handle 80lb of braid with the aciton being heavy and extra heavy. I am also happy to look into rods that are taller than 10 ft but comes in 3 pieces (due to restrictions in travel and storage). 

I am planning to do some heavy duty fishing off the rocks and beaches. So far I haven't been able to find a suitable rod. 

Mostly chasing crabs, flathead and jew in the river and then whatever is around in april that i can have some fun with offshore.

Steve kicked off with a breambo and some unders squire. My lead was too light so I changed to a rod with some more weight and joined in on the unders squire. Then it happened again, just like the other day and I got owned big time on a fish that took a long run, hesitated briefly, then ran me into some reef. 20lb. Not good enough. Put some more weight on my Gliss WTF ! rod and had the same happen again although not quite as long a run. Leader busted.

Steve also had a good hit from a suspected cod, but didn't hookup. Then he got owned by something decent as well. He also had a smaller fish get sharked which played him for a few minutes before snipping him.

Landed a couple of grassies that were getting close to legal, but not close enough.

Somewhere amongst all of that a couple of fellas in an open tinnie approached us stating they were lost. So pointed them in the right direction and off they went. Visibility wasn't great especially when the rain got a bit heavy. Didn't see them again so assume they made it back to port ok.

With conditions not really improving we decided to head back in too around 11 am. The run back was better than the run out, now with wind and tide together. Got into the river and it flattened out so we decided to drift around Clara Rock area.

Steve got a good hit and landed a snapper about 48, then another a notch smaller as well as a cod. Me - nothing just some timid bites. Finally the rod buckled and I finally landed the legal snapper that has eluded me for along time. I was chuffed even though he only went 38. Steve landed another legal and we both got a couple of just unders before the chills from being saturated through all morning got the better of us and we left them biting. Only 2 other trailers at the ramp when we got back.

It was a good day despite the conditions with both of us getting a feed. Thanks Steve for sharing one.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention the snapper ate Steve's rod.

I decided that Sunday would be my fish for the week, so I dutifully got the bike buggy ready, rigged the rods, and put the alarm on for a morning session at the local park. After waking up and arrived at around 5:00AM with Dad (very nice when no one is out at that time of morning), I rigged up the rods with prawn and Dad began cast netting.

He did a few throws at first for one prawn, and then got a couple. Just at that moment though, he heard the rod screaming and yelled at me to get it. I got everything set and the fight was on. It took one run with a loose drag but then the rest of the fight was headshakes and weight. I pulled him up after he went for structure a couple times, and a rotten catfish came up. I got him up and dehooked him, then sent him on his way.

40CM odd

After that one, the line was deployed again. By the time the bait and rod were put back into resting posy, Dad had gotten a good amount of live prawns so we needed the aerator (and they were all sizeable too!). I looked all throughout the buggy, and after a quick search, we concluded that I'd forgotten the aerator! Bugger!

Dad kept throwing, and he probably would've had 15-20 good prawns ready to use for bait. Seeing as though the eel hadn't been touched, I put out the biggest live prawn. This was given a soak for around twenty minutes for no love whatsoever. In this time, the other rod had no luck, and I'd only given the rod with a plastic a few flicks. 

As Dad was heading off, the line with a bit of dead prawn on went off. It wasn't a very good fight (in fact I could hardly tell it was on) but I cranked up a solid BR Perch regardless (actually, a tiny BR Perch!).

Perch

He was dehooked and speared back into the water, and then I kept fishing. The tide was still on the last of the run, so I kept flicking my lures around and about. I mainly focused on the jetty, with casts peppered all over. I then saw a carboard box, which I went down on the jetty to try and get with the line. After a couple failed attempts, the shark line, which had been switched back to eel after loosing the prawn, buckled over.

I ran over, tightened the drag, and the fight was on. The drag was quite loose compared to usual, so he took a bit of a run at first. Then, I got some line on him, and got him a bit closer. The bully made a bit of a splash on the surface, and I got a positive ID on him here. Then, he went for the pylons. I wasn't going to let that happen though, and after some nervous moments and heavy winding he was jetty-side. I went to grab the net and then he took off again. It was a good couple of minutes before he got in the right spot for me to net him, and then I lifted him up. he made a last ditch attempt of escape but I got him back in the net and took him up to deal with him. 

The bully flicked the hook out itself, which was lucky for it. I put him on the brag mat, and he went around the 85CM mark. An alright one, in my books anyways. Dad came down just at the right moment for him to photograph me, and after that I went to release him. I swum him for a little and then he kicked straight off. It was at that moment I realised I'd forgotten the circle - Bugger!

Solid

After that one, the prawns started becoming a bit more lively with the aerator, and Dad went on his way. It didn't take long for another nibble after the rebaiting and rerigging of the shark line, though. Once again, it was on the rod cast out deep, and it seemed to be just getting taps. I started reeling and and realised I was probably on a Perch, and it came in nice and easy after that. I got him up, took a quick photo, and let him back. The Perch seem to swim off OK if they are speared back into the water, but in general they seem to be terrible fighters and not too good for release either. 

Goldy

After that one, the next fish pretty much bit immediately. I heard a little bit of line come off the spool, then I saw jogged over, picked it up, and slowly pulled the hook. I find opposed to the strike with a circle hook, giving the rod a slow pull sets the hook as well as not pulling the hook straight out of the fishes mouth. It was an OK fight, and he was shortly released after. Regardless, I can see how sugar bags of these were filled back in the day when they were thick. 

Goodun

After that fish, I deployed the bait back out. It was a pretty low tide, so I started to give the cast net some throws. I just figured this would ensure I had some live bait for more fishing. I did about 10 throws, and each throw I would get livies which was great. They were deployed on the cod line, and the shark line still had eel on (bait checked).

That Perch had floated for a bit then kicked down luckily, but the next one I pulled up wasn't as quick. It was a good fish and I landed him around 7:15AM, and since he was a bit bigger figured I'd put him in off the jetty. Back he went, and floated in circle for about 5 minutes. I netted him up and speared him again, but luckily he went away. I figure he swum off because I threw the cast net straight after for more prawns and no perch. Haha.

Perch

I did some more throws with the net, but by then there was not too many prawns to be caught! Seems the bigguns were really firing on the last on the run out, but then stopped on the first bit of rise. The tide had changed, and it was sure rushing in! I tried casting the overhead and left it in the normal drag setting, and there was so much tide the line came out like a fish had taken it. Wow!

Everything went a bit quiet now, so I sat down. I tied a plastic on my line, with 10LB leader. I had a 3/8^th jighead, which had a 4 inch plastic on it too. This may seem wrong, and I'm no expert, but they go quiet nicely for me and it allowed me to flick in deeper parts anyways. I sat down and flicked towards the mangroves, under the jetty, and everywhere for nothing! Bugger! One day I'll crack the Brisbane River lure code. Lol. The line went off again though, and unluckily for me this was the last time. I began fighting him and pulled up the fifth perch for the session, and then released him back to the river. 

Perch

The sun was coming up now, so I kept persisting, except with gloves, shoes, trousers, shirt, and sun buff all on. It was about 8:30AM now, and I'd still had no hits on the plastics. It was looking dire, so I began packing up. I persisted until around 9:00AM or past that, and then rode home keeping my live baits in tact. I bucketed the jetty down too, and left it in a nice condition.

The next part of the trip was to meet my friend and go to my other spot. We had arranged to meet at the busiest part of town, (stupid of me as the train station is just up the road), and my friend made it. We were riding away to the spot at a bit before 11, and got there sometime soon after. The first stop was to see if we could try and get some more livies, so I just got the net out and began throwing. I didn't get anything in about the first 7 throws, except a Passionfruit Bundaberg soft drink out of the esky. I took a couple sips of that then gave it another throw. I pulled it up and heard some clicking, and to my surprise, a TIGER prawn was in the net! "Woohoo!" I thought. That's only the second one I've ever caught in the river!

Tiger Prawn

After that one, it gave me a bit more motivation to keep going. I gave it about another five throws, and low and behold, up came another one. I got him out, and walked him up the jetty walkway (which had holes going into the water) into my bucket. Lucky for him, he gave me the slip and clicked out of my hands, back into the water. Bugger! I gave it about five more throws here, before decided it was worth moving on.

The short ride to the next jetty along was nice and easy, and to my surprise there were some others fishing there too. They were nice enough, and had some rods and hand reels. I said hello and deployed the first line, with a live prawn. Hopes were high for something big, and we sat back and waited. I had a chat to the lady, who seemed to be mad keen. I recently google mapped the whole river in my area and now I have around twenty spots to try out. She mentioned one, which was around an 8KM ride, which she said has HEAPS of bait always swimming at it. Maybe I'll have to make the trek over! 

I kept fishing, and then, to my surprise, they pulled in a little pike eel. I was quick to intercept them before it was released, and ask if I could keep him for bait. They were A-OK with it, so after some decided I donged him with the pliers and got him into the esky. First, I chopped off a bit for the shark line, which was deployed on the other part of the jetty. 

Their Pike Eel

After that one, I was quite happy, because @Old Scaley's eel (which he gave to me) had run out from the morning's bully. Now, I'll be testing how PIKE eel goes opposed to the Freshwater Eel. I kept fishing, now with two lines out. Since everything was ready, I gave a plastic a flick. I flicked it off the left hand side of the jetty many times for no bites, the best cast I could do under the jetty walkway, and many, many casts in the little eddy made by the jetty walkway and jetty. Unfortunately, no flatties, cod, or anything wanted to eat my bait, so after a bit more casting a switched to a little bream lure. I kept my ten pound leader on as I wasn't sure what I could catch - a cod on anything lighter than ten pound would be interesting!

I persisted with this lure and flicked it everywhere I could. I made a big effort to have it go under the jetty by cutting corners as well. I figured there'd have to be something around there! Obviously not  . The other people pulled up another catch though, but it was a bit more interesting! They actually had hooked a catfish and perch on the same hook in one go! Wow!

Double Trouble!

After that was dehooked by them (and both released), they got another Pike Eel! Man, they were having some fun while me and my friend were getting bugger all!! This one was also donged and released to my esky. Interestingly, they caught it on it's own kind! Cannibal alert!

They departed soon after this, so I said goodbye and then put the rods back down in their spot. I had thrown the cast net a bit before, and apart from some little prawns, I had gotten one big herring which I deployed immediately, as they had proven fruitful last time. I also got one small herring in the net which was there for reserve bait. The aerator was doing a good job keeping most things alive, too. 

Dad called me up and asked me to do some work at the Scout Den (working bee on) and it was decided 2:30PM would be the departure time. We kept soaking the live baits, and both remained untouched for the duration of the session. It was quite disappointing, as I was really hoping for some alright here! We had some showers for the most part of the session, so that was alright as it kept us cool. 

Not what you want to be yakking in

After that, another person came down. He was about 30, and set up on the jetty a bit up from us. I was packing up the gear by now, so I bucketed down the jetty, cleaned up some old line people had discarded there, and then rode off with all the gear. The overall amount of bait was very good, amount a bag full! Silly me, but this is also punishment for wearing crappy K-mart shoes for one hour to long - 

Blisters 

Heaps!

I began the ride home, and stopped by at the Scout Den. Dad saw my blisters and sent me home, so after I said hi to a couple people I headed there. The bait was bagged up, everything was washed and packed away, and then that was the session. Not particularly successful, but better than school (really shouldn't be writing this report, should be sleeping! At least I did my homework!).

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed. It was a nice way to spend the day. Sorry for any typos, and hopefully I've remembered everything!

 Statistics of Trip - 

Tide: 

          First Spot: 12:20AM, 1.9M, High, 6:30AM, .2M, Low, 12:50PM, 2.5M, High.

          Second Spot: 6:00AM, .2M, Low, 12:20PM, 2.5M, High

Moon Phase: Illumination was 91% - Lots of Run!

Bait Used: Live Prawns, Dead Prawns, Eel (Pike and Freshwater), Live Herring

Bait Caught: Herring, Prawns

Fish Caught: Bull Shark x 1, Perch x 5, Catfish x 1

Tackle Used: 10LB, 30LB, 80LB, Fluorocarbon, Mono leaders, 12LB, 20LB, 30LB, Braided Mainlines, 3/o, 6/o, circle hooks, 4/o hook, 3/o suicide hook, large swivels, size 4-6 ball sinkers, Abu Garcia Veritas Rod, 3-5KG, 6"6', Diawa Shinobi 2500 Reel, Ugly Stik Rod, Abu Garcia Barra King 650, Rogue Firepoint Boat Rod 5-8KG 2M, Penn SSM 650.

Air Pressure: 1012.2

Humidity: 75%

Weather: Showers on and off, cloudy, sunny

Temp: 26^oC High, 21^oC Low

Time Fished:

          First Session: Around 5:00AM-9:00AM

          Second Session: Around Noon - 2:45PM

Overall Success Rate: 50% - good fun

Bike Shot

Cheers

I just would like to share this app from the Fisheries of Queensland .

In this app you can find your location and autorisations.  

Can I fish there?

Identify your fish from your photo (not sure if it works)

Witch fish is it ?

Fish stats

A link to Bom

Plenty of good informations

 Check out "QLD Fishing 2.0"

My son Brock had his best day going 4 from 5 on good size black marlin up to 100 kg fish. We had a couple of good days on the mackerel only minutes from where we stay at the park on the palmy reef.

The new van is getting a good work out with plenty of trips since we got it in September last year. Soon setting up roof racks for my roof topper tinnie for trips with the van, bring on more time touring then.

At one stage I was spinning a slug when one of my bait rods went off, so I gave the spin rod to my mate. I wind left handed (like all true right handed lure fisherman haha) so he struggled - and as soon as he got coordinated the line went tight and drag was screaming. I ended up with a good Spotty from the bait rod but my mate kept fishing my spin rod, eventually landing a 110cm Spanish. He claimed it but I am a little dubious as to whose fish it was 

We managed to land the Spanish, a Kingfish and five Spotties before calling it a day. Our conversion rate was terrible - we must have lost 15 fish this morning. One of the Spotties was lost to a solid Shark that took the fish beside the boat.

Anyway, my decision to extend my holidays by one extra day turned out to be a good one. The mackerel mayhem always brings a smile to my face.

Marty

the sharks were up to there usual tricks but spent the day nailing some nice gold band snapper, red emporer and nannygai. In all my years of heading up here, this was by far the best weather I had experienced. 
 

Day one saw four nannygai, five reds and over a dozen gold band hit the deck so the call was made to head south to broomfield reef and anchor up for the night then chase some trout in the shallows before heading home at lunch time on day two. 
 

woke up before the sun up and had a quick feed then commenced chasing trout. The trout weren’t really playing the game initially but after dropping down sinker sizes we managed to get six or seven coral trout and coronation trout on board and plenty of Maori cod too. By this point the sharks were really becoming a pain so the call was made to move 
After this we went out to the 60 metre line for a last attempt at some good red fish we ended up with two more nannygai and one more red so we were stoked. I even managed to nail my pb dolly and a not bad cobia aswell. 

with more than enough fish to last our families (and very select friends lol) for months we pointed the boat home for a smooth trip back to the ramp in glass conditions. All in all was one of the best trips I’d had up there, especially considering the last one was full of all sorts of engine and boat dramas.

Earlier this week, Steve (@Old Scaley) and I organised a trip to the POB, in Steve's tinny. I was very excited the night prior, and rigged up the rods with my first proper FG knots, some large sinkers, and circle hooks. We met at Steve's at 7:00AM, and said good bye to Dad. After the drive to the POB Boat Ramp, we also met up with Brian (@ellicat) and put in. Brian went first, so I tied (or tried to anyways) the boat up at the end of the ramp. Let's just say that needs work. After a little while, Steve's boat was put in too, and we both departed. Our first step was to set the crab pots, but Brian headed out of the river in search of a snapper. We said farewell to Ellicatch and bidded each other good luck.

Launching in  

After the boat was started, we shot off through Boat Passage, armed with some fish frames and crab pots. We went under the Pipeline and entered Boggy Creek to drop the pots. Steve got the first one set up, and after it was baited up we dropped it near a drain. The same happened with the next four, and they were baited with a mix of flatty and bream frames, mullet, and mullet  and bass heads. We had them in a line and then zoomed off back to the first location for fishing. I was taking note of what was doing, as I need to learn a bit about crabbing!

Steve had very kindly offered to take me out for some of my favourite fish - Threadies and Sharks. We got to the first spot, and the powerful electric was set into 'anchor' mode. Steve told me what fish he had landed here, and gave me some advice. The big, beautiful game reel was lobbed out with some Mr. Bait eel, and we hoped for some good sharks. In the meantime, a lighter line was casted out with half pilchards and prawn as the bait of our choice. 

Nice spot here!

In about twenty minutes with no bites or fish, we decided it might be better to drift. Unfortunately, it was snags after snags at this spot, so after busting off the shark rig on some rock (we did a big circle all around but it didn't budge) as well as my line with an FG knot, we decided to move spots. I re-rigged my line at the new spot, and we got fishing again. Once again, I casted down a half pilchard - Steve showed me the correct way to put them on with a half hitch too, so I was quite thankful for that. In the first while, the sounder was showing lots and lots. It seemed to be a school of quite good fish around a bait school. We figured they were either Threadies or Catfish, so the next step was to make them bite.

By now, I had put my rod in the holder. I let the drag off nice and loosey-goosey, and got a drink out. Just as I was about to drink though, and as some more fish showed on the sounder, the line screamed off and I was hooked up! I put the drag in the right mode, and turned off the ratchet. I started cranking, and then the fish took off! Straight away, I was feeling nervous. Would my quickly tied Albright Knot hold? Would my 20LB leader be frayed off? Would the hook be spat??? I got some more line in, trying to take it slow and steady. The fish went for another run, and this really got the adrenaline up.

It had great weight, and I was excited to see what would surface from the depths. Then, what I thought was disaster struck. The fish had bricked me! I gave it a couple tugs, and then luckily I heard the relieving sound of drag screaming with something on the end. I kept cranking, and it was close to the surface when it shot back down. I started gaining line though, and Steve had the net at ready. We were thinking a big Thready would surface, but what came up truly shocked me. I saw colour, and then I yelled, "Snapper!!!! Huge!!!". It shot back down, and now I was really excited. It surfaced beside the boat and Steve expertly slid the net under it, bringing in my first real Snapper! Me, out of all people, catching a snapper! Woohoo! Joy! I was practically falling over I was so happy - it was a true beauty!  We slid him on the brag mat for a quick measurement and it went a grand 55CM! Very, very nice fish! I thanked Steve for making this possible, then after some very good photos he was released to the esky. That's dinner covered alright!

Gigantic!

Woohoo!

After that Snapper, it took me about half an hour to calm down (probably longer for my heart rate to slow too!). I was about as happy as it gets! Now I can say I've got a new PB of 55CM, not 15CM! . Me and Steve were both hoping that he could get one now too, so we stuck too this spot. I put it in the same possy, this time with a prawn as bait. We were fishing along the Pipe, in about 7-11M of water I believe (maybe deeper and shallower at certain times too). All of a sudden, my rod went off! I clicked on the drag, and the fish was on. I was hoping for something alright, but ended up failing miserably after a half decent fight. Guess what it was.... Catfish! 

Bugger!

I re-deployed, a bit annoyed with the catfish. I even almost got pricked dehooking him, the spine gave me a little cut but very fortunately didn't go into me. The sounder was showing fish moving through, which was pretty good to see. We were now out a bit further, to see if there was any schools of anything hanging out and about. Sooner or later, I hooked up to another fish. It had a few head shakes, but no runs at all. After a average fight, up came another catfish. I really wish they didn't exist but now I was on two on the vermin count  

Cat

I still need a bit of work on my de hooking, but luckily Steve was there to help out (who got it off in about one moment, Lol). It was about time for a quick re-application of sunscreen now though, so I left the rod on loose and had a bath in the stuff (on my hands anyway). Of course, the rod went off at this moment, so luckily Steve got it for me. The fish spat the hook/missed the hook though, so back down the line went. The same had happened for Steve a bit earlier, where the fish took a good run but then didn't quite hook up . 

Now, it was Steve's turn. He hooked up to an OK fish, and it was running like no tomorrow. He got some line in, and then it kept shooting off back to the depths. I prepped the net, but guess what came up? A rotten old stingray. I believe it was a Spotted Ray though, like one of the types I'd caught at Yeppoon. He was cut off boat side, and we now were hoping for something may may be a bit more edible. 

At least we were both off the donut

Soon after, the baits were redeployed. I put back a half pilly, but sooner or later the tell-tale catty signs were back, and yep, another one of the buggers came up. He was flicked off, and returned back into his home. Steve and I decided to go for a drift after that one, and my line went off while we were moving. I skull dragged up another catfish, and luckily that was my last one for the day. I had made a bit of a mess on Steve's boat which was no good, but at least it was some entertainment while not much else had been biting. 

We went a bit upstream, to a rock wall near the beacons. The last time we were here Steve had caught an unders Breambo, so maybe some of them would be biting. The baits were deployed, and we hoped for a good fish. It was decided we'd pull up the pots after this, as they'd had quite a long soak. Steve's rod had a good hit at first while it was in the holder, but unluckily the fish did not hook up. We figured there was a chance of a flatty round here, so we stuck around going for a drift for a bit. There was a fair bit of run here, and a plastic was flicked for no love. 

I had some small nibbles, but no fish were successfully landed here. We moved into Boggy Creek, and went to retrieve the first pot. I got the gaff to get them up, and hoiked the pot up. I was hoping to see some big muddies, but unfortunately, there was a grand total of two toadfish. I tipped them out, got the bait out, and the pot was put away in the side of the boat. The same happened for the next - it was pulled up, and the pot ended up with about five bream... 2 inches big. They were taken out, as well as the bait. It was really disappointing. It looked like the perfect spot, and we had good baits. But that's fis- crabbing I suppose! The next two pots weren't very fruitful either, with more toadfish and diddly squat. They were all put away for next time, so maybe they will fill with crabs then! Steve gave a plastic a brief flick while I was puling it up for no fish too. 

We left Boggy Creek with the pots strapped up, and decided to do a bit of a drift on the other side of the river. The fish at this spot were Snapper, Flatties, and Flounder/Sole, so we were hopeful. At first, we were on some rubbly bottom, and I got fouled on some pretty looking seaweed. We did a long drift parallel to the bank, and in about 3M of water we got no love. We were certainly hoping for another nice fish.

The call was made to go out a bit deeper in the channel, so we took the bait out. I dropped down a prawn, and it got a good hit straight up. Unluckily, I missed the fish. It had a weird bite, almost sucked it in like a surge on the line, then spat it out again. It didn't take long for Steve to hook up though, and after a solid tussle with some nice runs an alright squire came up. He only measured 30CM, and I forgot to get a photo of this one. C'mon, Snappers! Five centimetres bigger!

I kept feeling more weird bites on the line. Nibble, nibble, then a surge on the line. Steve suggested it might be a cod, so I thought that was a pretty good assumption. Unfortunately, the one good hit where I thought I had it, the fish also spat the hook on me! We went for one more drift, and this was the last one of the day as we were heading back to the ramp after this. Steve casted his line, and when I turned around he was hooked up. It shot of for a run, and was giving up a good account of itself. Then, very luckily, a nice little Snap/Squire came up, and on the measure he went just 35CM! Yay! We'd each gotten a keeper for tea!

Great!

We then reeled up and motored back to the ramp, ready to go back home. We motored up Boat Passage, and got back to the ramp. There were some people fishing, and some cast netting off the ramp. After I tied the boat, and Steve had stopped the motor and all, I went and had a look in their bucket. The had some massive garfish, which I certainly would've loved to catch. I was tempted to ask if I could have a throw, but decided against it because the car was ready for the boat. I walked it down and it was wound up. We got everything out of the tinny, and started the drive back home. 

I got to Steve's and then helped unload a bit, then Dad arrived. He still hadn't been told about the catch - all I'd told him was bring an esky and ice (like normal when I get a goodun, Lol). He was surprised and happy when I pulled out a good Snapper out of the esky, and I was still jumping with joy. Lol. I got home and got to work cleaning the fish. I did it the exact same way as the bass, and I think I did an alright job. I also weighed the fish, it came in at a total of 1.995KG according to the Berkley scales. Woohoo!!! The fish was cleaned up, skinned, and then frozen/fridged for eating tonight. I made up a quick crumb mix and got him up in breadcrumbs, straight away ready for the BBQ. The fish had a good cooking, and was nice and golden when he came off the Barby. We ate him straight away with some veges, and boy! He was capital D - Delicious! 

I know this is a rather weird question... But is there any meat in the head region of the Snap?

The frame was frozen, and that was the end of the day! "What a Day", was all I could say! It was excellent with skipper Steve out on the POB, with a keeper each. I probably wasn't the best decky, as I was pretty slow with the pots, but I found it great fun to be out on the water. I'm glad Brian went well too, with the catches he mentioned in his report from today. A huge thanks to Steve for taking me out for the trip, one of the highlights of my school holidays (with the Thready, Yeppoon, NPD Trip, and now this! Great way to end the hols, that's for sure). Thanks for reading this report, and I hope you really enjoyed. Apologies for any spelling errors.

Here are the trips stats:

Stats of Trip:

Tide: (BNE Bar) - 4:30AM, 1.9M, High, 10:40AM, 1M, Low, 4:10PM, 1.7M, High

Moon Phase: 64% - so not too much run

Bait Caught: -

Bait Used: Prawns, Pillies, Eel

Fish Caught: Snapper/Squire x 3, Catfish x 4, Stingray x 1

Tackle Used: I had 20lb mainline, 20lb leader, 16lb, fluorocarbon and braid, and I believe Steve used similar, the shark rod was a heavy game reel with a big sinker and long wire trace with a big circle hook, we were using 5/o circle hooks, about 4-6 ball sinkers, barrel swivels, and I was using a Abu Garcia Barra KIig Overhead 650, On an Ugly Stik, but I cannot remember what Steve was using. He also gave a plastic a flick. 

Water Temp: 26^oC according to the sounder

Weather: 28^oC, Cloudy, 10% Precipitation 

Location: POB, Boggy Creek, Pipeline

Wind: 11KM/h Northerlies

Humidity: 67%

Air Pressure: 1013.2 

Time Fished: A little past 8:00AM - 1:10PM or so.

Overall Success Rate: 90% - Snapper!!!!

Cheers Hamish  

This is my first post and I haven't actually been fishing that much before recently. I've just started to get into it more. I didn't know whether to post this is freshwater or saltwater, but I thought brackish estuary fishing is closer to saltwater.

Anyway, I'm looking for some help with an ID on the Bream i caught tonight. I can't tell whether its yellowfin or blackfin bream. The information I have tells me that yellowfin are not common around the Glenelg River in Victoria, where I caught this, however it seems to have a yellowish, kind-of, set of fins. At least they are not totally grey black.. I have also heard of hybrids. But generally I have heard that blacks are more common in this area.

Any one know what it is?

Well two of these reports happened a while ago and I've been slack posting them, but seeing as though this is was my second last day of freedom before Year 8 , I figure I better get them up nicely. The first session happened on an afternoon, and was quite average. The middle session was a donut, and the last one, today, was pretty alright. Lost a few and landed a couple (not sharks unfortunately). It was a mix between me slacking off with the net, and... yeah...

I got to the park at the normal time. To my surprise, there were some others there. A person, around 15, and a boy, about my age (maybe a smidge younger). They seemed nice enough, had a few rods too. They had rods in the whole jetty, but offered to move some for me (I told them don't worry but they did anyways). I deployed the shark line, baited with salmon, and as the tide was running out from a high I put it in a different spot to usual. I asked them what they were using for bait, but to my dismay this was the response, "Tilapia". I asked them where and how they'd gotten them from (fearing this response), they responded with, Cast netted 'em from the duck pond'...

Not only is that highly illegal in a few ways (tillies should be binned or buried away from the water, cast nets are illegal in freshwater, who the hell cast nets in a duck pond...), they didn't care after I'd explained to them the worst bit, that tillies can still breed even when they're dead! I know it's in the salt, but you never know I suppose (that statement is made with no research backing it up, Lol). Anyways, they'd caught a couple today, both around the metre mark.

As I was standing at the wooden part of the jetty, I saw some action on my rod. It was a surge-surge-surge on my line, then I gave it a slow lift and the rod loaded up. I started fighting; he ran for structure so I started going pretty hard on the fight. I was getting close now, so went hard on him again as it was running under the pylons. I got it out the front, and after some big head shakes a nice bully emerged. He looked a bit bigger than usual, so I'd say around the metre mark. Unfortunately, he made one last attempt for freedom and managed to cut me off on some pylons below. Bugger!

 Soon after that event, the people started doing big flips off the walkway. The whole duration one of them was trying to do an 'elusive double flip', which was quite amazing to me. I can't even flip into the water! It was very quite, with not a single nibble on the shark line. I got a tangle on their line by accident which made it look like they were on a big one. Sooner or later, they had set off, and prior to that popped about five balloons on the jetty. A couple ended up in the water, the rest on the jetty. So when they finished up I collected up the discarded hooks (free tackle, woohoo), and the rubbish so I could wash the jetty off. The overhead line also hooked up in this time. It seemed like something half decent, but unfortunately only ended up being a forky to get me off the donut. 

After that one, it was hot, and the fish weren't biting, so I set off earlier than usual to get home on time for dinner. It was an OK session, but a bit of a shame that the other people didn't have the courtesy to clean up. Here are the stats - 

Stats of Trip -

Tide: 11:50AM, 2.5M, High, 6:40PM, .4M, Low

Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous Phase

Bait Caught: Bugger all

Bait Used: Herring, prawn

Fish Caught: Catfish x 1, Bully x nearly

Tackle Used: 12lb, 20lb, 30lb braided mainlines, 20lb and 80lb fluorocarbon and mono leaders, 80lb mono trace, size 3/o, 4/o, and 6/o circle and suicide hooks, size 2 and 6 ball sinkers, large swivel, Diawa Shinobi and Abu Garcia Veritas rod, 3-5KG, Abu Garcia Barra King, Ugly Stik Rod, Rogue Firepoint Boat Rod, Penn SSM 650.

Weather: Sunny, few clouds drifting 'bout

Time Fished: Around 2:30PM- a bit past 5:00PM

Overall Success Rate: 40%

The next session I can hardly remember a thing, probably because it was so boring. Lol. It was another arvo session. I was there at the normal time to hopefully catch some bullies, seeing as though it was the opening day of my little comp. The tide was high, so I deployed the baits, baited with some mullet that was supposed to be crab bait. The salmon line was deployed with the mullet, and the lighter lines with prawns. After many bait checks and re casts, I finally hooked up to something. It was on one of the light lines, and after a little fight I got a donut saving perch. I got the hook out and speared him back into the drink.

Perch

After that, I noticed the tide was rather low. I decided to give the net a throw. On the first few throws, I started to gather some OK prawns. I decided I may as well bait some on the salmon line, so I put two bigguns on the 6/o hook. Sooner enough, some others rocked up. They were maybe about 18, and unfortunately had followed the 'net tillie for bait' trend. They chopped him up on the jetty and were doing it messily, and sooner or later were throwing a net. They got some prawns, but weren't getting much.  Sooner or later, I left after a very quiet day, so gave the jetty a wash off too. 

Top Baits

Here are the trip stats - 

Statistics of trip:

Tide: 12:30PM, 2.5M, High, 7:20PM, .4M, Low

Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous - not much run

Bait Caught: Prawns

Bait Used: Prawn, mullet

Tackle Used: 12lb, 20lb, 30lb braided mainlines, 20lb and 80lb fluorocarbon and mono leaders, 80lb mono trace, size 3/o, 4/o, and 6/o circle and suicide hooks, size 2 and 6 ball sinkers, large swivel, Diawa Shinobi and Abu Garcia Veritas rod, 3-5KG, Abu Garcia Barra King, Ugly Stik Rod, Rogue Firepoint Boat Rod, Penn SSM 650.

Fish Caught: Perch x 1

Time Fished: A bit past two till a bit before six

Overall Success Rate: 30% - better than being home

Alright, now this is the final session. It had been a while between fishing at the local park, with some great boat trips and a beach day (not very eventful except getting stung by some bluebottles and seeing a big something jumping out 2 metres away from me body boarding!). I set the cart up to go for the morning, and woke up a bit past five today. I had some eel that @Old Scaley had given to me after the most recent session, which proved fruitful (ish). Dad decided to come down too, so after I got down he was there shortly after. The water was nice and serene, and with all the rain we had lately there was clearly a fair bit of fresh about. I saw a nice little duck or six swimming about too.

Duck

He started doing some throws of the net, and each throw he got a rather large prawn. That was great - it meant I had some good livies to go for the session. By now, the salmon line had bait, and the other rods were rigged up. Since the tide was rising, I put one rod in an area that got deeper as the tide went up. This proved to be worth it, somewhat, throughout the sesh. The first run of the day came while I was on the jetty - Dad picked it up but unluckily there was no fish to be seen on the end... Probably just something tiny. Dad left sooner or later leaving me with a good stockpile of prawns, so I baited the cod line up (I'd tried something different and put a wide gape bass hook on instead of a suicide hook) and the other line.

After a bit of time sitting on my chair, I heard the unmistakable sound of the line squealing off on the bait caster. I ran over and set the drag, and started fighting. It had some nice headshakes and weight, and went all around giving me a bit of an adrenaline rush. I was hoping for at least a solid bream, but a bloomin' catty came up. He was fair size though, so I got him and he was about 40CM. The hook was flicked out of his mouth and he was given a nice big throw away to be never seen again  

Uuh!

After that one, I put on another live prawn. I'd given both lines a bit of a bait check, and unfortunately had no luck on either. I sat back down, said 'hi' to a few walkers, and kept fishing. I was a bit annoyed that I didn't bother to bring an ice brick as my good prawns were fast becoming thawed ones, and it's no good to keep re freezing. I was at Shorncliffe Pier and as well as seeing heaps of rods, some people were using black prawns. Not what you want!

The overhead went off again, and while they were only crappy catfish, at least they provided some good fun and a nice fight. They don't often get away with pickering your bait, the old catfish, so it meant that I'd be able to have one every little while to keep me from dying of boredom. This one was pulled up, and much smaller, but almost took me into structure and got away so I was glad to land him. 

Fish

After that, I sat back down on my chair. I'd positioned it so that I was on top of the bench, so I had a vantage point of all rods. I admit it looked slightly ridiculous, but saves me having to stand up every time I wanted to see the salmon line. The eel had remained untouched up until about this point, when I saw the rod buckled. I ran down, like speedy Gonzale, and hooked up. I was using a 5/o hook with a crushed barb, and hoping to get at least one shark for the comp today. 

The fight was on - not many runs, but the reward was good after pulling in the weight. A nice little bully surfaced, only 70CM max though. I'd forgotten to bring the net to the jetty, foolish of me I know, so I was holding him there ready to go and get the net when he snipped me off. Sigh. 

I retied the line and sent it back out there, with another bit of eel. I was hoping for another shark, just so I could even get on the board of the comp! I was going to check the bait when the rod sort of started to get nibbles. It was like a picker, so I held the line tight. I felt a hit, hit, hit, then the fish took some line. I tightened the drag and grabbed up the rod, and the fight was on. After one or two winds of the handle, the fish took a massive run - I may have exaggerate when I say one minute, and it was probably more like 20 seconds. But anyways, a big, fast run. Then, after that, I whipped out my phone and tell Dad (seeing as though he wasn't working yet).

"Bloody big fish!!! Get down here ASAP!!!"

Dad raced down on my bike, as it was out the side. In this time, I'd made headway on the now extremely heavy weight. I was cranking against the tide, and he was out in the river now. I was pulling hard to get him up. There were spectators watching on, and I was excited to see what would come up out of the brown snake. He was about 10CM away from being visible now, as I saw the trace , and swivel. Then, heartbreak. The lucky fish managed to chaff through my line and get away. I assume it was a bully, but from the way it hit I wouldn't be too sure. Man, Dad and I were damn disappointed when the result was nothing though. It was on the eel, and that stuff sure seemed to be getting the hits of late.

After that one, I got back to fishing. Crushed the barb on another hook, retied leaders. Then, as I was sitting down, the overhead went off. I was half way through the fight to another forky when the cod line, which had a live prawn on for the whole time, also went off. I assume it was a bream on the cod line, and after getting up the catty hastily and dealing with it, I picked it up. Luckily for the fish, the wide gape hook did not find it's place in it's mouth, which is why I think it was a bream. That, and it sort of hit like a bream too.

Bugger

The next hit came a while later after some more bait checks and recasts. I ran down to the jetty as soon as I saw the shark line bent over. The elderly couple walking by must've thought I was crazy as the line ended up having nothing on it in the end, as the shark missed the hooks. (Or fish). I through the bait back out, and was a bit slack in replacing the leader as it was frayed an incy bit and I didn't bother changing it.

The normal cod line (12LB) had been snagged and busted off, so since I was getting nothing on the line that had landed all the catties today, I switched them up. The tide had changed, and was now running out. Slack tide was sometime between 9:15AM-9:30AM, and then the tide was gushing out. It wasn't very eventful after that, but when I dropped the catty line down, it immediately got a little run (small something) that didn't hook up. It didn't take long for something a bit bigger to take the bait, which I thought would give me a good cod, but instead gave me ANOTHER catfish. 

No Pic

After that one, the bite seemingly went quite. I gave it until about quarter past ten, and with no more hits on any lines I got the bait away, washed down the jetty, wound the lines in and packed up my gear. Thanks for reading those three reports, I sure hoped you enjoyed. Now, after a ripping holidays I'm into Year 8 on Wednesday.. What could go wrong?  

Here are the stats. 

Stats of Trip:

Tide: 2:00AM, .4M, Low, 8:45AM, 2.1M, High (sorry, but for 1KM away that's a bit off Mr Willy Weather), 3:10PM, .7M, Low

Moon Phase: Not much Run, 10%

Bait Caught: Prawns

Tackle Used: 12lb, 20lb, 30lb braided mainlines, 20lb, 16lb, and 80lb fluorocarbon and mono leaders, 80lb mono trace, size 3/o, 5/o and 6/o circle and suicide hooks, size 2 and 6 ball sinkers, large swivel, Diawa Shinobi and Abu Garcia Veritas rod, 3-5KG, Abu Garcia Barra King, Ugly Stik Rod, Rogue Firepoint Boat Rod, Penn SSM 650.

Fish Caught: Catfish x 4, Bull Sharks x nearly

Bait Used: Live and dead prawns, dead eel

Air Pressure: 1012

Weather: Partly Cloudy

Temp: High, 30^oC, Low, 18^oC

Humidity: 66%

Time Fished: About 5:30AM-10:15AM

Overall Success Rate: 60% - fun

Cheers Hamish