queensland BRISBANE RIVER JEWFISH

[rexy]

HI THERE,

CAN ANYONE GIVE ME SOME POINTERS ON CATCHING JEWFISH IN THE LOWER END OF BRISBANE RIVER

[blue_mako]

All you need is livies and luck. Target creek mouths with eddies and holes.

Troy

[Angus]

Mate ask Ash he is the resident Jewy pro

I can only tell you what i learn from the reports here, bit the mouth of Norman Creek produces Jew usually on prawn. Both Simon and ash have caught jew here with photographic proof. And boggy creek near the mouth i have also seen quite a few pics of decent ones caught.

James also has pics of numerous jewies caught from the mouth of Breakfast creek. While this was a couple of years ago no reason they would not still be there.

My thinking is after cosidering these three locations, target some of the creek mouths in the river with, well i prefer cast net caught prawns, but maybe some poddy mullet and you are in with a shot

Good luck!

Angus

[rexy]

blue_mako wrote:

All you need is livies and luck. Target creek mouths with eddies and holes.

Troy

THANKS TROY

HAVE ONLY CAUGHT 2 JEW IN THE RIVER

BOTH ON DEAD BAITS AND PROBABLY BY MISTAKE

WILL TAKE ON BOARD YOU ADVICE THANKYOU

[Ash]

Mate the only jewie ive caught in the river was just inside the mouth of one of the little creeks of the river.

On a dead prawn that was floated down between the bridge pylons on the incoming tide. Caught one, got beaten up by 2 of the buggers.

Alot of old fellas reckon the sunken wall etc. Only fished them once, and got snapped off by something, but dont think it was jewie

[rexy]

BIT DODGY ABOUT THE PODDY MULLET ALOT OF THOSE MULLET ARE SEA MULLET WHICH HAVE TO BE 30 CM TO BE LEGAL

THERE ARE OTHER MULLET BUT I CANT TELL THE DIFFERENCE

THE FISHERIES TRIED TO FINE A MATE OF MINE FOR UNDERSIZED MULLET CAUGHT IN A CAST NET IN BOGGY CREEK A WHILE BACK.

ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECATED

[werewolf]

hey Warty, welcome to the site and a nice ID pic there mate:P

I know bugger all about jewies, but your comment on undersize mullet is interesting. I've just started using a castnet recently and I had know idea there was a size limit on mullet:blink: Is this just on sea mullet or on others as well?

[rexy]

THANKS WEREWOLF

THERE IS A SIZE LIMIT ON SEA MULLET

30 CMS NOT ON THE OTHER ONES

I RANG UP THE FISHERIES ABOUT THE SUBJECT AND THEY TOLD ME THAT THERE ARE 3 OR 4 SPECIES OF MULLET IN THE BRISBANE RIVER

I ALSO ASKED THEM HOW TO TELL THEM APART

THAT INFORMATION THEY SAID IT WAS UP TO ME TO FIND OUT

AND IF I WAS CAUGHT WITH PODDY MULLET ( THAT ARE SEA MULLET UNDER 30 CMS) THEY WOULD HAVE ME

SO AS YOU CAN SEE UNLESS YOU CAN TELL THEM APART

ITS A DANGEROUS PASTIME WITH PODDY MULLET ONBOARD YOUR BOAT

[jeff f]

hi warthog, do you know what sort the other types are, if you can give me the names ill have a go at finding out how to tell them apart, got a few good reference books and a mate whos a bloody good amatuer marine biologist.

[werewolf]

thats a crap response from fisheries. They should be more proactive in helping us do the right thing, cause thats what the majority of us fishos want to do

[rexy]

JEFF

I THINK ONE OF THEM IS A YELLOW EYE MULLET

THE OTHERS I CANT REMEMBER. BUT I WILL TRY TO FIND OUT.

THE AMOUNT OF MULLET (PODDY MULLET) CAUGHT IN THE RIVER

WOULD BE HEAPS I ALWAYS USED THEM MYSELF UNTIL I BOUGHT MY BOAT AND DECIDED TO RING THE FISHERIES ABOUT IT.

WENT AWAY FRIGHTENED TO KEEP THEM

[rexy]

WEREWOLF

THIS HAPPENED ABOUT 5 YEARS AGO AND THE

I THOUGHT I WAS DOING THE RIGHT THING JUST AFTER BUYING MY BOAT

I WOULD BET THAT THEY COULDNT TELL THE DIFFERENCE

OUT OF A HAND FULL OF PODDY MULLET

BUT I KNOW I STILL CANT

THATS WHY I MEASURE THE MULLET AND ANYTHING UNDER 30 CMS GOES BACK

[jeff f]

well the yellow eye is the easiest to I.D.

its a slender fish compared to the sea mullet lighter in colour and no black spot at the base of the pectoral fins and it has teeth,. the sea mullet doesn't.oh and it has a bright golden yellow eye of course.

the others are probably tiger mullet(gold spot on back edge of gill coverand dark stripes running head to tail.

fantail mullet really shiny silver with a thick upper lip, faint gold blotches on the face and a very pale blue blotch between eye and pectoral fin.

these are the most common mullet in our area.

[rexy]

I WOULD HAVE TO SEE THEM WITH THAT INFO

I HAVE A FEELING THAT A LOT OF THE MULLET ARE SEA MULLET

NOT THESE OTHER ONES

BUT IF YOU CAN GET SOME PHOTOS IT WOULD BE GREAT

AS I HAVE A FEELING MOST PEOPLE THINK A MULLET IS A MULLET AND THATS AS FAR AS IT GOES

THANKS FOR YOUR INFO

[werewolf]

mmm after a quick glance through Grant's, the Sea Mullet have a distinct upper jaw compared to the others.

Yellow-eye mullet is not distributed in our area and the only other likely ones are fantails and tigers (the pics I have don't have strips, so they are still possible, except I don't remember the gold patch on the gill cover).

Grant offers some good idea points between them (and the pics alone are easy enough) but I couldn't pick them from memory. I don't think they are sea mullet because the I don't recall the tail having such a deep v.

I will however take a good close up profile shot of the next one I catch, and make sure we all know what they are!!!!

[James W]

if ya going to use dead baits...try whole squid rigged so the look nice and straight(with a keeper hook), whole banana prawns(if ya can get em)or talior fillets(of legal size of course) that is the dpi knows what a tailor looks like....mind you the first jewie we caught at breakky creek was on a hook full of blood worms (belive it or not) it was a accident and fluke to start with! then we started targeting them with bigger baits as mentioned above and live mullet of course....ahhh those were the days.....would love some time to really test out if they are there still...

[Cowfish13]

The legal size limit on the mullet are only if you are going to take them home and eat them. You can use any size for bait, with any fish. So your could use a 10cm snapper (legal limit 35cm) for shark bait and that is legal. But you cannot take them home to eat them.

[blue_mako]

Are you sure about that Cowfish? :dry: .

Troy

[rayke1938]

Cowfish13 wrote:

The legal size limit on the mullet are only if you are going to take them home and eat them. You can use any size for bait, with any fish. So your could use a 10cm snapper (legal limit 35cm) for shark bait and that is legal. But you cannot take them home to eat them.

Sorry mate the ruleing is in possession that applies if you have it in your boat,bait bucket and even if you have it attached to your line as bait. NO EXCEPTIONS.

I have been asked to wind in my line whilst fishing to see what bait i was using after they had checked my live well.

Ray

[Angus]

Yeah cowfish i hate to burst your bubble, but i think thats really inaccurate information you have there.

Where did you here that?

Size limits apply to all and any fish in your possesssion.

Please stop using 10cm snapper for bait if you have been doing so coz teh fisheries will not be leniant.

Angus

[Cowfish13]

I though that you could use any size. Any way, if they ask you to wind your line, just say \"I'm on\" and pull in the fish/bait. Say it hooked itself, on a 12/0 some how, with a hook in both the mouth and tail.

Angus: I would never use a 10cm snapper as bait. I hardly ever use live bait at all. I was just using that as an example, but I was was wrong about the mullet thing according to you guys so I guess i'll only ever use sand and tiger mullet as bait from now on.

Post edited by: Cowfish13, at: 2006/12/19 15:02

[blue_mako]

You can usually tell if a Mullet is a Sea Mullet since they are on average the heaviest species of Mullet. So if you get a hefty Mullet it would probably be a Sea Mullet. Also if you see or catch a massive school in a cast/drag net they are probably Sea Mullet. That's why commercial Mullet fisherman target Sea Mullet, they are the heaviest and move in the biggest schools.

Also Sea Mullet don't eat bread so if you can catch one on bread then it's not a Sea Mullet. Most likely a Diamond Scale Mullet or Freshwater Mullet. But I think probably everyone here has used a Mullet that was probably a small Sea Mullet as bait :whistle: . If you've targeted Bullies anyway .

We had a discussion at Jones' about fisheries and people using undersized live baits and how it's pretty stupid how they should make you reel up your line to prove what's on the end. Ando do you remember what Neil said people could do to remove it? .

Troy

Post edited by: blue_mako, at: 2006/12/19 15:22

[Angus]

Yeah but Troy i think you will find that the discussion is about juveniles. Like if you caught a 10cm juvenile sea mullet would you know its different? I certainly could not tell between a 10cm sea mullet and a 10cm poddy mullet.

As was pointed out to me by the president of the Brisbane Sports Fishing Club, fisheries officers have the ability to use discretion. If they catch some guy with 10 undersize bream, well they are likely to fine them. But you would have to find an inspector thats having a really bad day if you were live bating a with a mullet that you clearly thought was a poddy and he did something about it.

However the problem still stands, as however you look at it it is illegal to use undersize sea mullet.

Angus

[Tim a]

Interesting stuff . Do all the mullet inhabit the same area ? Or do the sea bullet move out of estuarys/rivers into the open ocean when they grow up and come back to breed?

Tim

[werewolf]

hey Gus, I thought a \"poddy\" mullet was just a juvenile mullet???

[rexy]

looks like i opened a can of poddy mullet with the size limits

thats good

because no good fishing and then getting in the shit for having undersize bait

worthog

[roobs]

i remember reading that you could have up to ten poddy mullet in possesion for live bait. i guess that's changed but i don't know why- probably because of the huge amounts of mullet that are netted for cat and dog food and sustainable fishing. kind of strange as i don't know of any cat that would rather eat a tin of cat food than a piece of mullet...

[Oztrav]

according to fisheries website 30cm min of sea mullet in freshwater no mention of these guys in tidal waters so you may be in the clear....