queensland Nudgee Creek - Father's Day 06/09

[baheath]

The council appears to have resurfaced and re-marked the Nudgee bostrsmp carpark - nice job - would be helpful if they put some "No Parking" signs on the ramp end though to keep the ramp area clear.

Set off from the ramp at sun-up.

First stop - check the crab pots I dropped on Friday night - sure enough, they'd been "share farmed" but at least the farmers had re-set the baits :silly: (catfish). No crabs to keep, so out to the mouth of the creek.

Fished for about an hour :fishing: with not much to talk of and then picked up a little lizard (45cm) on some blood worm followed by a couple of diver whiting (bait! :woohoo: ).

Decided to pull up the pick and head out a bit further off the front. Went about 500m off-shore in about 5m of water and drifted, floating one of the divers about 20m from the boat. After about 10 mins of drifting, the diver got hit (tap,tap,tap .... whizzzzzz) :ohmy: grabbed the rod and leaned - didn't feel too heavy so just started to skull-drag the beastie in. Got it to the side of the boat - a small (75 cm) shark (don't know the species, but greyish with lots of teeth ). Dropped the noah off the hook and back in the water. Reset the bait.

Fished for another 15 mins and jagged another small noah, also tossed back.

Positioned myself to drift back over the sand-bar and got a solid hook-up in about 1.3 metres of water. Using a light rod (1-3kg spinstick) with a 6lb braid and 8 lb fluoro leader with a bit worm, I was hopeful for a good size flathead - couldn't have been more wrong. The sodding thing dragged like a mofo and then came up next to the boat - a sea-toad (puffer) well over 40cm long and teeth that made the shark's look small :X

Decided to head back in and anchor off the chanel just off the second red marker. Cast around with some servo-prawns and picked up another small lizard (kept), a couple more divers (bait!) and a couple of small sole (thrown back). Final cast landed a nice (30cm) summer whiting.

Headed back to the boat ramp and saw the best and worst of humanity - the best was a family (about 8 in total) in an old glass boat (about 7m) watching a dolphin and it's calf that live in the creek - they were just drifting along beside the dolphins, occasionally throwing a fish into the water for the dolhins to eat. These critters play around the creek all the time and are fairly well known.

The worst - some moron in a large aluminium plate jetboat (also about 7m) doing power donuts and figure eights about 10 metres from the same set of dolphins and about 30 metres from the boat ramp. There were other boats in the area, a couple of PWCs and crab pots throughout the creek. People like this just give me the sh1ts.

Anyway, all in all a good father's day - a couple of decent fish and some other interesting hook-ups.

[straddiebrad]

mate sounds like you had a great day is that ramp on nudgee rd been meanin to go there.brad

[adambris]

nice one mate, at least u got a few fish, i flicked around brekky creek this arv for one flatty of about 20cm,

didnt even hook it, it grabbed hold of the back of the shad and wouldnt let go!

just good to get out!

adam

[baheath]

Yeah Brad - it's the ramp on Nudgee Rd. Closest to home for me.

I'd like to try the ramp at Boggy Ck too - looks like an easy way to the mouth of the river.

[Do$tylz]

Mate good report there

Does it usually fish better out there?? I've been eyeing off that are for a yak fish sometime. What do you usually get 500m offshore??

[baheath]

Nudgee fishing is "variable" - there are certainly flathead around (the sandbank dropoffs are usually productive) and the creeks produce mudcrabs and sandcrabs throughout the year (sandcrabs can be there in plague proportions and will take strip baits off the hook mercilessly).

Further out the front there doesn't appear to be much structure (silty bottom) though there are patches of sea grass off towards the airport runway zone. Typical bread and butter species (bream, whiting, flathead, sole) - quantity and quality are seasonal - and pest fish - sea-toads, grinners, pike, grunters. I've caught small squire and been busted off more than once by some seriously large unknowns. Have decided to try and make an underwater vid-cam (usb powered comp cam in a can) to see what I can see.

As the water warms up there are usually reasonable shoals of herring and other bait fish - these get chased down by predators (sharks, shovlies, rays) but also tailor and jew. I am told (can't confirm) that threadies have been caught at the mouth in the channel - it wouldn't be surprising - there are certainly some decent hits in the spring / summer on live bait.

Looking forward to this summer - my first with a boat (12 ft tinnie) - to try my luck.

Bruce

[reef_raider]

sounds like a top day..

have seen the same guy in that plate jetboat down there a couple of times doing the same thing... obviously has no respect or brain cells

[Do$tylz]

awesome. Thanks for the info baheath Definitely sounds worth a trip

[aidanwebb]

Adam are you South African? Just wondering as you mentioned you were fishing with Shad as bait?

[fishguru5]

Mate i Saw Some Dick Smack check ur pot in an old run down Aluminium punt i was heading up checking my pots as i saw him he took the bat out and drove off i rebaited it with a catfish that i got around 35 cm's i dnt think he got any crabs he just took ya bait damn asians mate if i new it wasnt you i woulda stopped him. good luck next time mate

btw if u want to catch crabs successfully overnight chuck ur float into the mangroves the people give up cuz it gets shallow and its dark good luck again

pat

[baheath]

Thanks Pat,

I appreciate the heads up! Interesting that he'd dump the bait - must have been hard up if he was dropping chicken frames

FYI, my 12ft is an old white coloured tinnie with a small tohatsu on the back (soon to be replaced with a larger johnson). I'm out on the water about once a week-end (and hopefully more when the missus is away).

Thanks again.

[uglyfish]

fishguru5 wrote:

Mate i Saw Some Dick Smack check ur pot in an old run down Aluminium punt i was heading up checking my pots as i saw him he took the bat out and drove off i rebaited it with a catfish that i got around 35 cm's i dnt think he got any crabs he just took ya bait damn asians mate if i new it wasnt you i woulda stopped him. good luck next time mate

btw if u want to catch crabs successfully overnight chuck ur float into the mangroves the people give up cuz it gets shallow and its dark good luck again

pat

shouldA got his numbers and repoted him,big fines for share farming