queensland 23/12/2006 Upper Bris. R. Bullies

[werewolf]

Howdy all. The old man and I got to the water at about 4:45 or so. The plan was to fish the run out (low tide at 8:30 AM or so) until it got too hot or the skiiers move in.

I start off castnetting straight away while the old man puts some Slimey Mackerel fillets onto his rods. It took him about 10 mins to land to fat forkies lol while I was struggling to find any decent bait. I ended up getting a handfull of poddies and a Winter Whiting which were added to my portable live bait well.

I thought I would be clever and try a new rig today, which kinda worked... I pinned the livies with a circle tied to 80 lb Black Magic leader, thinking that the circle's famed ability to jaw-hook fish would keep me safe! Half an hour or so in and the whiting got nailed! I started winding in the fish hoping its not a catfish when I see it splash out wide on the surface. Shark! I call the old man over for a hand landing it and after a respectable battle (on 14 lb) a 78cm, 3.5kg bullie was pulled up the bank:) The circle worked sweet, pinned the shark in the corner of its mouth, I couldn't believe it.Soon enough later it was cleaned and iced down. Dinner.

Probably 10 mins after landed the first shark, I'm on again! This time I start playing it in and a few seconds later it goes limp, bugger the hook has falled out. After retrieving my rig it turns out that the shark bit through the 80 lb! Stupid worthless circle and its jaw hooking.... :evil:

About 40 min or so later, some chappy fishing next to us informed me that he had been bit off too! This time the shark had completely swallowed his wire trace and severed the mono! It wasn't long before my rod was hit again! This time I was using wireB)

Right from the start this one felt meaty, and I could see it swimming on the surface out wide. Shark! This fella really didn't want to visit the esky and I had a fair bit of trouble getting it near the bank for the old man to tail-grab! Finally its in, and it streches 84cm and 4.3kg! My new PB Bullie:woohoo: Its cleaned and into the ice it goes! (this one was jaw hooked with the circle, but I had wire anyway)

After that the boat traffic started increasing, the sun was getting hotter and livies were getting harder to find so we called it quits probably 9ish or so. We also had several livies smashed throughtout the morning without connecting.

Pic: the two early catfish [img size=336]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/100_1140_web.jpg

[werewolf]

The first shark, 78cm, no wire. You can just make out the hook in the corner of its jaw. [img size=336]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/100_1143_web.jpg

[werewolf]

Pic: my PB shark, 84cm. Still not a big shark but I was stoked. He really fought better than some of the smaller ones I have caught too!!! [img size=336]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/100_1147_web.jpg

[Feral]

Sounds like an excellent morning was had!

Congrats on your PB!

[James W]

nice one man! bet lunch at your joint was good....im jealous:P and a p.b to boot! cool....

[jeff f]

nice catch wolfman well done what stretch of the river were you fishing:whistle:

[werewolf]

The Junction mate. But from other reports I've heard, the top end of the river is firing at the moment. A local fishing club put boats in at Kookaburra a couple of days back, and using big live bony bream they landed something like 17 sharks between them. Not sure exactly where they fished, old mate who was telling me was a bit coy;) I think some of their sharks were a fair bit bigger than mine too!

[Angus]

Awesome mate.

Its always been one of my favourite places to fish for sharks. Chuck a crab pot in there some time, it is seriously rampant with crabs. Although as someone who has fished dead bait for sharks there in the past im sure you know this already!

angus

[jeff f]

not wrong there angus took a mate and his kids out there for a bit of fun saturday arvo, every bait that hit bottom got monstered by crabs, i managed to derag one especialy stupid one right up the bank and poiunce on it,a buck 200mm across:woohoo:

[werewolf]

they are sure a nuisance. The old dude fishing beside us was using live catties and they only lasted about 10min in the water before the crabs monstered them. Suprising the mullet/whiting that we used seemed to keep away from them:)

[jeff f]

maybee they smart enough to stay trace length off the bottom

[Simon Harmon]

Great report Werewolf!

Simmo

[Line Tangler Dave]

Hi Werewolf, where abouts exactly is \"the juction\". TIA, Fisher_191

[Terry H]

Ever tried using floated baits? Nothing better than watching a bully smash a floated bait from underneath!

Edit: Floated baits do work for some people at some locations, so if they work well for Kookooburra Park, that'd be a bonus! That way you wouldn't have to worry about any crabs

Post edited by: TerryH, at: 2006/12/26 13:10

[werewolf]

Fisher, The Junction is where the Bremer flows into the Brisbane. It is in the Karalee area.

Terry: we have played around a fair bit with floated baits with varied success. One rig was essentially a float near the hook, and a large running sinker (generally sliding on the mainline via a swivel). This allows the bait to sit on the surface, but stays anchored in place due to the sinker (which has run down the mainline to the bottom). Anchoring the bait is necessary when using floats as the large currents in the Bris will be a pain otherwise.

The more successful floater is the mainline joined to a swivel. From the swivel there are two droppers the same length, one with leader the other with light line. The light one has a heavy sinker (enough to sink the float) and the line is lighter than the mainline such that if it snags, you don't lose the whole rig.

The leader dropper has a float and the bait. When in the water, one dropper sinks, the other floats such that if you are using 5 foot droppers you can fish 10 foot of the bottom (ignoring current that is). This rig has been very successfull on the small bullies we target when fished with strip baits/whole poddies on gangs etc.

Both these rigs are \"relatively\" snag free and avoid most vermin such as crabs and catfish. They are both proven shark catches too.

[Line Tangler Dave]

Thanks for the info Werewolf, I'm going to give that technique a go. Sounds like it's just the solution for crabs intent on getting your shark bait.

[werewolf]

no probs Fisher. I dug up a rough drawing I made of the second rig I mentioned. I think I posted it on Ausfish a year or two back. The first rig is pretty self explanatoryB) I find I can get away with 5 foot droppers using my 7 foot uglystick, but go shorter or longer as needed depending on the distance you want to be above the bottom and how long your rod is! I find a rather large lead is needed to hold the bottom as the float creates a lot of drag in the current. For this reason I use a torpedo style foam float (rather thin).

[img size=423]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/semi_floater3.jpg

Post edited by: werewolf, at: 2006/12/26 17:50

[Terry H]

I've only ever tried a float around April time, off a bridge that crossed the creek I was fishing in.

I used a real simple mainline - wire trace - hook. coming off the swivel on the wire trace was a float.

So the bait sat probably 30cm under the surface, (this was enoggera creek - so no where near as much current!). I only tried it a couple of times, but would like to give it a shot now though, since it's bully time. Out of the couple times I used it, I once had a 4ft bully smash it from beneath. Like I said earlier, good fun to watch!

[Line Tangler Dave]

Thanks for the pic Werewolf ... makes it nice and clear what to do.

Bit off topic, but since this rig is good for keeping your bait free from crabs, does anyone know how to avoid having \"sea lice\" eat your bait up? I don't know if this is the problem, but I've put out whole mullet to try and get a shark, only to find the entire bait gone. Other's have told me this is caused by sea lice:S

[werewolf]

TerryH wrote:

I've only ever tried a float around April time, off a bridge that crossed the creek I was fishing in.

I used a real simple mainline - wire trace - hook. coming off the swivel on the wire trace was a float.

So the bait sat probably 30cm under the surface, (this was enoggera creek - so no where near as much current!). I only tried it a couple of times, but would like to give it a shot now though, since it's bully time. Out of the couple times I used it, I once had a 4ft bully smash it from beneath. Like I said earlier, good fun to watch!

That would have been awesome Terry! I've seen a handfull of sharks jump after being hooked, but have never been in a location where you can view the bait during the hookup.

I was recently reading Neil Schutlz's article on fishnet \"Small Bore Sharking\" and he reckons bottom fishing is the go during the day mix it up a bit at night. That said we have caught at least one on the surface during daytime, but normally we get them straight off the bottom or midwater using the rig I outlined previously.

Fisher: I've never heard of Sea Lice removing baits. IMHO I think its not likely but hey you never know. If your bait was bottom fished I would think it more likely that pickers or small crabs found it.

[jeff f]

a good trick i found to beat the crabs when using livebait is to drill out the hole in the sinker to let the line flow freely through it use a standard rig and hook your live bait behind the anal fin this tends to make them swim upwards and away from the sinker, if your live bait dies he sinks and the crabs let you know its time for a new one;)

[werewolf]

We use small snapper leads (but still big sinkers!) and tie them to a swivel. The swivel is then threaded onto the line so it can run freely. Its a bit easier then drilling sinkers out!

I haven't tried hooking livies where you describe though, but I might give it a go. Normally I have just been hooking em 2/3 way down their back, and as high up as possible. It seems to work okay and the livies stay away from the crabs for quite a while. Interesting I find live catfish hooked in this fashion sit on the bottom regardless and get crabbed in minutes.

[jeff f]

yeah that would work too wolfman but it would be more inclined to tangle when you cast. when you hook them behind the anal fin even catties will swim upwards, i've had catties swiming on the surface if you give them enough line

Post edited by: jeff f, at: 2006/12/27 07:43

[werewolf]

True! I'll definately give that one a go then mate. I had got sick of using cats as they just don't last. I figured that they try and \"hide\" on the bottom or something:)

[Line Tangler Dave]

But using your method as shown in the pic, wouldn't the float keep the catfish up off the bottom, no matter where it was hooked?

[werewolf]

Fisher_191 wrote:

But using your method as shown in the pic, wouldn't the float keep the catfish up off the bottom, no matter where it was hooked?

That is true mate. I find livies tend to swim round in cirlces on it though, causing line twist and tangles. It works a treat with dead baits though.

That said you have to be where the sharks are feeding. We have had success with bottom baits recently and thats why I am keen to refine how livies are fished off the bottom.

BTW I only very recently have started getting keen on using livies such as poddies for sharks. A couple years ago before I came up with the dropper rig I had tried live catties on the bottom only and was quickly discouraged by the crabs:)

Post edited by: werewolf, at: 2006/12/27 08:22

[Line Tangler Dave]

I wonder if an extra swivvel between the original one and the float would help with the catfish swiming in circles?

[werewolf]

I'm not sure if I've actually used cats on that rig; its the mullet who cause problems;)

Yeah an extra swivel would help, or just use a three-way swivel in the first place. Thats what some of my mates do.

[Line Tangler Dave]

Werewolf ... Just after some advice about casting this sort of rig. Two points I'm not sure about:

1. I use a fairly light rod & reel for fishing for sharks, and don't know how I'd go casting with a snapper sinker on the rig. I usually use a smaller sinker, but then again have never used a balloon as well, so I know that you would need a snapper sinker to keep the balloon and bait down. Do I just need to use a stronger rod or is there a trick to this?

2. Not sure about casting when it comes to having the 2 lines (which could be 4 metres in length for example) attached to the swivel. That's a lot to try and cast, so how do you go about this?

Sorry I should have mentioned that I'm wanting to use this rig fishing from bank of river.

Cheers, Fisher_191

[werewolf]

Hey Fisher, I have only ever sharked from the bank too.

Two things, I don't know why you are using a balloon nor why you have a 4 m rig:woohoo:

Pretty much the float I use is a foam torpedo float that you can pick up from Kmart. You want a float as thin as possible to cause less drag underwater or you will never get the bait to sit in the one spot.

The total length of the rig I use is only about 5 foot, maybe even only four foot. As both droppers are say 5 foot, once in the water the sinker dropper sinks, and the other floats giving the 10 foot spread.

What I mean by a snapper lead is just a sinker with the loop in the end for tying line too. It just has to be sized to sink the float and minimise drift of the rig. Too big and you will never cast it, too small and your rig will drift in big Brisbane River currents.

Using 5 foot droppers, I can easily cast it on a sturdy 7 foot rod (something rated for say 6-10 kg). That said I still flick the rod out to the side a bit, cause if you stuff up doing a direct overhead cast with a 5 foot rig, you are gunna wear the hook.

Also if the two droppers are setup properly, when hanging from the rod tip the sinker (on the sinker dropper) and the bait (on the float dropper) will roughly line up such that all the weight in the rig is in roughly the same spot. This aids casting. Anyone who has ever casted a rig with big bait, long leader, and then big sinker with a big gap between bait and sinker will know what I mean, it just doesn't work!!!

Hope that helps somewhat mate. If you are really stuck I could just take photos of one for you.

[Line Tangler Dave]

Hi Werewolf, sorry I meant to write 5foot, not 5metres ...that would be difficult to cast!! I tried this rig out last night and it worked a treat. Managed to get myself on a snag, so I bravely told the people I was fishing with not to worry, as I'll get the hook, trace and bait back, and just sacrifice the sinker with this new setup. Tightened up the line a bit, bit more, then pop... bottom line snapped and rest of it came in. It worked EXACTLY how you said it should. Thanks again for sharing this idea Fisher_191

[werewolf]

No probs mate, glad I could help. If you are getting snagged, keep an eye on whether your rig is drifting or not. The idea is to use enough lead to anchor on the bottom and stop drift completely (less snags), but still be within your safe casting limits.

cheers

WolfB)