Jump to content

fig tree pocket boat ramp / newbie sharker

AlsHilux

By AlsHilux
in Saltwater

 Share

Recommended Posts

AlsHilux Newbie

AlsHilux

Posted
Posted

G'day guys,

I'm pretty new to this site and even newer to overhead reels (bought one last week when up at hervey bay under the impression i'd catch something... i was wrong).

So, I'm going to admit I reely (yeh it was a lame pun) suck at casting these things. I had to resort to spooling about 15 metres out and hand lobbing my hooks out. This worked, twice. Then the dramas with birds nest line tangling begun and I ended up getting pretty pissed off and just using my little crappy 10 pound eggbeater. If anyone has any tips on casting the overheads, I'd love to know.

I should probably admit that I generally suck at fishing anyway, but I seem to try and go at least once a fortnight. Getting a bit tired of driving out to the hornibrook bridge and deep water bend just to catch bait fish and snags so I was pretty stoked to learn there were fish (let alone sharks) in the Brisbane river.

I live about 3 minutes drive from the fig tree pocket boat ramp and figured the guys up at lone pine do daily catfish feeding for the tourists which would attract more sharks, or at least some cat fish. So, I did my reading and made a plan.. get some hot dog rolls, catch some cat fish and use the cat fish for shark bait.

The hot dog rolls were easy, the catfish were almost as easy.. but the sharks. Well I'm not to sure, I think I might have hooked up one (in 5 hours) but it was only on my line for a minute before shredding my line (with a metre of 50 pound leader onto 40cm nylon coated trace) above the leader when something fairly large broke the surface and splashed around. My mate got a couple of hook ups that looked fairly promising but also lost them. Apart from the catfish all I managed to actually land, was a 4' eel.. oh, and 1 prawn that somehow got stuck in my crab pot.

Has anyone else tried sharking down there at the boat ramp and had any luck? Or is anyone keen to go down for a fish there and show me how to use this damn reel?

Cheers,

Al

Link to comment
Share on other sites
blue_mako Newbie

blue_mako

Posted
Posted

What reel is it? It should have an external adjustment knob on the outside of the reel around the handle. Don't get confused with the drag. The drag controls the presure on the spool when it's in gear, the free spool knob controls it when it's in free spool.

Loosen the free spool knob so it's only slightly tight. Make sure you've rigged up your lure or rig on the end of the line and put the reel into free spool so that your rig/lure falls to the ground.

If your spool gets a birdsnest then your free spool knob is too loose to tighten it up slightly little by litte until your rig doesn't bridsnest the spool.

Troy

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Feral Newbie

Feral

Posted
Posted

As Troy said, but when begining do up that knob until your lure only just does not go to the ground (will limit your cast a little but almost bullet proof against birds nests during casting.

Also get your thumb ready and just as your lure hits the water stick it on the spool, also prevents over run birds nests.

Your reel may also (almost certain) have a second set of clutches that work on the free spool, but adjustment is different from reel to reel, so you will need to read the instructions, or find someone with the same sort of reel to give you some advice (probably someone here will either have one or know it well enough)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
rayke1938 Experienced

rayke1938

Posted
Posted

Good report Al .

With reference to your overrun problem its just a matter of setting your reel up correctly and then LOTS of practice.

If you go to Tackleworld or maybe your local tackle store ( dont bother about BCF or Supar A mart they are too busy to spend time with a non buying customer ) they will assist you in how to adjust your reel. Tackleworld at Tingalpa are excellent but are on the other side of town to you.

Ray

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Angus Rookie

Angus

Posted
Posted

Dont forget many overhead reels are not made for casting.

Baitcasters are overhead reels made for casting..

Many others are used for deployment from a boat. Hence you will see many references on teh site to people using Yaks, boats, pool toys etc to delpoy baits.

What sort of reel is it (brand, size etc) that would help the most.

Also FTP Boat ramp is a goos spot. I used to catch plenty there including lots of bream. And yeah you are right, because of the feeding up at loan pine there are some MONSTER catfish in that area. Someone from the site also god a very respectable Estuary Cod from there not to long ago.

Angus

Link to comment
Share on other sites
shaggy Newbie

shaggy

Posted
Posted

Hey Al, great report.

Listen to the advice above, these guys know there shirt.

Couple of things that might help on the casting side that really helped me out are

a. Watch your lure/bait through the air while you are in the motion of casting, this will really help your timing.

and b. make sure your hand is turned so the back of your palm is facing up, this will help get your wrist into the cast.

Good luck mate, you'll love your overhead when you get it going.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Brian D Newbie

Brian D

Posted
Posted

Come on Als - you are killing me - what sort of reel?

I luvvve over heads because they are that little bit more complicated - but if I was to give any advise it would be to get some live bait and heavy wire trace. Learn some good knotts and hang on.

Fishing is a buzz but catching fish is even better -if only I could remember how:pinch:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
AlsHilux Newbie

AlsHilux

Posted
  • Author
Posted

G'day again lads (and maybe the occassional lass?)

I've taken your advice and been down the boat ramp just about every spare hour I have practising casting my over head and thanks to you guys I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.

I must admit though that k-mart are having a 25% off rod/reel and 20% of tackle sale so I couldn't help myself buying an equivalent weight penn egg beater which just means there are more rods to sit in the rod holder on the front of the hilux.. not a crime right?

The overhead is an abu garcia by the way, I forgot what model.. damnit.

Lately have been having really bad luck at the boat ramp, having a hard time even catching a few little catties. As usual the odd big hook up that gets away. Actually my best luck has been teasing mudcrabs in on the fishing line. For some reason they don't go anywhere near my crab pot but will hold onto a catfish head until they get to the waters edge which is where you get your mate to run down there and sting them with the landing net. Bobs your uncle, and if bob is allergic to crab like my mate is then it's more muddies for you!

Does anyone live in the local area around there keen to go down for a bit of a fish. I seem to be there at least 2 days a week now.

cheers,

Al

Link to comment
Share on other sites
AlsHilux Newbie

AlsHilux

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Unfortunately catfish are our main catch... I think after about 6 trips there our tally is about 25 catfish, 1 eel and a couple of mudcrabs.

Like I said, had some big feeling hook ups that snapped me off a couple of weeks back now and she's been pretty quiet there since.

The plan is always the same, go down catch some catfish, cut the catties down the middle and throw them on some 6/0's and try and catch some bullies (or anything big enough to take half a catfish really). Problem lately has been that after about 10 minutes sitting on the bottom the muddies grab your bait. We tried unsuccessfully to float some baits out (unsuccessful because you can imagine floating baits from the bank just swings them around in an arc with the tide back to the bank).

I'm down there about twice a week now in the arvo/evening. I'm pretty easy to spot. I'm the guy sitting on the esky in front of the white hilux fourby. If you see me down there come over and say g'day.. she can get a bit boring when nothing is happening so always keen for a chat. I'm starting to get to know the regular afternoon walkers.. it's a bit sad when they ask me if i've had any luck and everytime all I can say is more catfish..

Think i might be down there Thursday night? I'll see what the tides are doing and post again and let you know when I reckon i'll be down there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
rayke1938 Experienced

rayke1938

Posted
Posted

Good on ya it now will only get better.

Main thing for filleting is to have a very sharp knife. I just cut into the backbone cartelege near the tail and take a slice off the side up as far as the gfins just behind the gills. Then turn the fillet over and cut down as far as the skin and holding blade at an angle remove flesh from skin. I usually remove the 2 anal fins before I fillet and skin.Once you get the knack its easy.

The skin is very tough and hard on your knife.

When i am boating and am going to take a fish home I dong the shark with a priest and head it ( the guts and liver usually come away with the head) and tail it straight away and place the carcase in a bucket of water to bleed out for about 10 minutes and then ice it down this seems to improve the quality of the meat.

Great fillets and no bones.

Ray

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Oztrav Newbie

Oztrav

Posted
Posted

yeah that guy will taste awesome and you get a real good amount of feed out of them im still hoping to get my first but might have to wait till next summer:(

HEY LOZZEL this guy has caught 25 catties in 6 trips he is the king of catties not mwah:cheer: :cheer: :cheer:

Post edited by: Oztrav, at: 2007/03/16 16:15

Link to comment
Share on other sites
werewolf Newbie

werewolf

Posted
Posted

AH congrats on your first shark its a big achievement if you knew how much effort and sharkless trips I put in to crack my first shark lol:pinch: I have learned a lot since and fair a lot better now when the bities are in seasonB)

If there is one piece of advice I can give you is experiment. We are constantly trying different rigs, method of rigging baits, depth fished, hook pattern etc. About your problem with your floats, try adding a large free running sinker above the float. The sinker will anchor the rig so the float and bait stays put on the surface. You can then add smaller sinkers below the float and by modifying the trace length can set the depth that you want to fish;) Even better attach sinker to mainline via a free running swivel and a foot or so of line that is lighter than you mainline. If you get snagged, you will only loose your sinker:cheer:

Don't be scared to fish the surface during the day, given that most the river is pretty murky. Big strips of eel and big livies will work a treat. The bigger the livie on the surface the better. A foot long bony bream will pull my float under for a bit, go for a swim and pop back up to the surface repeatedly. It must be like one of those big Maccas signs for sharks!

I hope to read about plenty more of your shark encounters in the future!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
AlsHilux Newbie

AlsHilux

Posted
  • Author
Posted

no sharks last night, but took the cast net out and got a few little 2-3\" livies near the edge and put them out to see whats happening. got a nice litle cod which we threw back and a few of these suckers...

ran into a couple of vietnamese dudes the other night who seemed to think eel was a bit of a delicacy, dunno if i'm gonna try eating it or using them for surface shark bait? the put up a fairly decent fight though.

this is my friend mick, eel was 2kg at 119cm. [img size=324]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/mickeel.jpg

post-958-144598408862_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
werewolf Newbie

werewolf

Posted
Posted

Feral: our most common bony size is 5-6 inches and we hook em with a single hook about 3/4 down the back OR at the ventral fin. For the big guys I would like to use two hooks, one just past the shoulder and the other in the 3/4 spot again. The big baits that worked well (wells sorta!) for us a couple of weeks back were unfortuently only rigged on singles (didn't have anything else! :unsure:) which sucked for hookup. Got huge runs but no baconB) I have since made rigs with 2x10/0 which was used with eel strips (couldn't get any decent livies) during the night a while back with Terry. The eel scored three sharks at least and two of these rigs got biten off through the wire:pinch: . At least the rig is proven!

AH surface eel! surface eel! make sure you have the point, barb and a nice amount of gape sticking through a juicy strip of fillet. Make sure you take some old rags with you to wipe your hands off after baiting up:sick: I am sure you have leaned what eel is like by now thoughB)

PS - for each trip you go on, please make a new report:silly: :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 12 years later...
Luvit Newbie

Luvit

Posted
Posted

Welcome to the site @toughmars2.

There is a lot of information on the site and quite a history of posts that are still very helpful when using the search function. This thread is from back in 2007 and you might not get a response to your information.

I have done it myself on occasions and then realised some of the members involved in the thread may not even be members anymore.🤫

Look forward to your future reports and ask as many questions as you like the AFO community will answer as best they can.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Drop Bear Community Regular

Drop Bear

Posted
Posted
On 27/05/2019 at 11:05 AM, toughmars2 said:

I have had a lot of luck out here with bream. Catfish are also a great fish to catch at the boat ramp which are NOT something that I like to catch. this area is a great place to go as you could grab some of the small bream and use them as live bait at the boat ramp at other places. The boat ramp is great.

Great info thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...