queensland Great Disappointment.

[Tybo]

It's true what they say about high expectations, they only let you down.

Having yet to land a legal fish this year, or even land anything decent, I'd been planning tonights fishing adventure for a couple of weeks now. It was to be the first serious fish I've had, and was planning to try something new in an old haunt, Cabbage Tree Creek.

With a good moon phase, decent run in the tides and staggered shifts at work, I planned a late night fish, fishing the dropping tide with fresh prawns, whole dead mullet and live bait. I prepared everything this morning, including fueling the boat, getting new batteries for the torches and live bait pump, and with the plan of getting home from work, hooking up the boat and hitting the water. Being a ten pm start on a Thursday night, I was definitely solo on this one.

Apart from a few minor glitches I was on the water just after ten. I put in at Baxters jetty and a slight SE wind was blowing up a bit of chop outside in the bay, but was nice up the creek High tide had be around 9:30, so it was still a little slack. I threw my net and ended with a dozen mixed livies including herring, trumpeters, poddy mullet and some biddies. The fish alarm on my sounder was going off as motored up the creek, so in the end I turned it off. With a little run in tide, but still mighty high, I soaked some baits under the fingers of the yacht club for a little over half an hour. Nothing on any of the baits.

Deciding to try somewhere else, I motored past the entrance to the new forbidden zone, Nundah Creek and shook my head at what a waste. Motoring half way up the creek, the smell of sewerage eventually got me and noticed the water was alive with bait, especially mullet. I even saw a decent size water rat swim past me. Alive with phospherence, it's good to see nothing has changed in the cleanliness of the creek.:S

I fished a certain bend that has held decent fish before, and is supposedly the place to get jacks out of cabbage tree(I've never seen one or even met anyone that's caught one). The water here was alive with mullet, and the water teemed with the rainbow effect of phosporence. I fished there for another 45 minutes. Zip.

I motored up even further into the creek and was eventually clear of the phosporence. I fished another bend that has landed me more fish out of Cabbage Tree than anyone. By this stage the water was mid tide and was really moving. I eventually got some good bites on the prawns and the one run I had the knot joining the leader broke through. While I was preparing my new trace and leader, I had my dead and live bait rigs out. Thats when I noticed that the run in the tide had tangled them together. I wound them both in and had a birds nest of braid and leader, which could only be fixed by cutting. At around 1am, I was done. I packed up and headed home. I let all my livies go, and the only fish I did end getting was a foot long mullet that jumped in my boat.

But the worst bit was yet to come. As I got back to the ramp, I noticed my toenau cover undone. Someone has been through the tray of my ute. On closer inspection, my thirty kilo+ tool box(full of tools) is missing, and nothing else. Oh! yes and it has a lock on it, still it's gone. F#@*en punks!! I only left it in there 'cause of renos at my place at the moment and there's nowhere to store it. I'll file a police report tomorrow, and if I find who took it....

I swore that after trying so hard that this was it, I was chucking in the towel. But I know I'll be back, and I've learnt a heap of things. First don't leave stuff in your tray at the boat ramp. Second check your knots. Third Cabbage Tree Creek is still rubbish fishing, still is polluted as hell and still doesn't hold anything decent to catch. To anyone reading this, please prove me wrong and try and pull something decent out of the oversized sewerage outlet known as Cabbage Tree, or learn from my mistakes and fish somewhere else.

[noname]

low life scum bag bastards.

[faulked]

mate i feeel your pain we got back there one night to find the doors kicked in and the windows busted on my mates old rocket i thought those sort of idiots had buggered off that was years ago

if you want to catch something try from the bottom of the tide up with a fair tidal movement it seems to get them going

ive pulled 2 jacks out both in the cast net:blush: both went back

recently i pulled in a half dcent cod and a small jew both on live poddys

i havent caught much on the troll though

and near the main ramp next to trawlers i lost a plastics outfit so keep and eye out lol

itll be on the bottom there somwere

[EMP]

Sorry to hear about it, Tybo.

Lowlives those guys are.

[obone]

That sucks hey. There's nothing more disappointing than getting yourself all ready and ramped up for a big night, then having all that happen. That really sucks. Feel your pain.

It might be worth going and checking out some flea markets on the weekend to see if you can identify any of your stuff being palmed off. Give the cops something to work with cause that's the sort of place they'd end up I reckon.

Joel

[Davo_Dinkum]

that suck a dud trip and some bugger going your car .

i would also check prawn brokers (cash converters) and second hand shops .some of our and mates stuff that has been nicked has turned up in them places and we got it back .

anyways all the options are worth a try ,unless your insurance will cover it ,then stuff it let the cops look for it and get new gear.

[thousandyards]

mate that sucks! unfortunately on the insurance side of things i don't think you'll be covered - had $4K worth of music gear nicked from my car once....insurance didn't want to know about it. might be different if you're a tradie......dunno.....

hope you catch them though. show them some other uses for wrenches

[Tybo]

Further update, I filed a police report this morning, with the police coming out soon to take fingerprints. I'm not that confident, but you never know. My car insurance doesn't cover the loss(apparently the extra premium package does though), and although I might've been able to swing it somehow through my contents insurance, the excess is three hundred dollars. Not worth it. I'm going to check out ebay, the trading post and couple of local pawnbrokers over the next week, see if anything comes up. Thanks for all the wishes fellas!:blush:

Still, I'd be more pissed if my car ended up like yours Faulked. I'd be absolutely ropable.

So there is faith in Cabbage Tree, with little jacks being caught in the net.:ohmy: The only jack I ever caught was also in a net out of Curramundi. One day....

I've always though Jacks like clean water, and based on last night there wouldn't have been one in sight. Thanks for the advice again Faulked, I knew last night that there was just too much water and didn't have the patience to sit around until 4 in the morning. There was good run, with a 2 metre drop in the tide, but still too much water.

I've pulled a couple of cod out of Cabbage Tree too, and have seen heaps more. Nundah used to prolific with them(probably still is). I've never done too well trolling at all, the only fish I've caught trolling have been just outside the mouth. Looking back on it now, the majority of the fish I've caught have been 2 hours or so before low tide. It's funny, the big lizards(over 70), I've caught at the top of the creek and the smalls around the mouth.

At the end of last year, I was concentrating flicking soft plastics around the mouth some afternoons when the tide was right(an hour before low) around dusk. I almost always ended up with a lizard around the 50s. This year I've been working the same area with hard bodies, and have decent luck with the lizards but nothing over 40. The best fish I've got was a bream around 30 down near the air sea rescue.

I guess I'll have to keep trying, but might go investigate the Pine one night with the same method of attack.

[Davo_Dinkum]

what area is cabbage tree creek in ?

and what is phospherence ?

google will not answer my questions.

[Cowfish13]

He might mean Phosphorus?

And Cabbage Tree Ck is near Carseldine, isn't it? not 100% on that one though

Bad luck about the tools mate Hopefully the cops might be able to find them...

[kreel]

Tybo. I'm very impressed, normally a report like yours would start with a tirade about the vermin at your car but you chose to speak about the fishing. That shows some character.

I was caught up in your report, the only thing it lacked was a positive fishing outcome - but that will happen. Good luck with your losses mate, I hope that works out for you as well, I think you deserve a win and it will come.

[Tybo]

Shorncliffe, northside of Brisbane. Google Map Shorncliffe and it is the headland at it's mouth. It runs west into suburbia, while Nundah creek which flows into it, runs south through the Boondall wetlands.

/>http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

Phospherence is a fluroescent rainbow effect that can be seen in the water at night under no light. Any disturbance of the water will set it off, including bait or even your line. It's caused by high levels of nitrogen in the water and is significant of high levels of algae. Hence the reason baitfish are abundant around it. The high levels of nitrogen can be attributed by a many number of things, including having a sewerage outlet close by. I'll say no more, because certain people believe that it's pure water that's pumped from these outlets.

[Keechie]

i have gotten a few bream 25-30cm fork length,small jewies, flatties to about 60cm in cabbage tree creek but the better fishing is in nundah creek which is the new greenzone:(. i pulled good bream and flatties from there also a few little jewies, cod and flounder, also seen a mate pull in a 56cm grunter from there and 80cm flatty, 2 jacks, 50cm tailor. Man that was a great creek wish it wasn't a greenzone:(

[davefishmad]

Bad luck

sounds like you had the good live bait too.

I am finding it a little quiet with bait now and then too, somtimes i throw my bait back not used.

The next couple of weeks we should be seeing some good fishing if it doesn't rain and give the bait a chance to move upstream.

also mate there is only one thing you leave in the back of a ute when fishing..air.

dave

[jeff f]

Davo_Dinkum wrote:

what area is cabbage tree creek in ?

and what is phospherence ?

google will not answer my questions.

dave try bio-luminescence in google

[waldo]

You sound keen enough mate just something isn't quite clicking for you. What sort of gear are you using? weight line, hook size, sinker size etc. Are you fishing in areas with strong run, no run a little?