queensland Great Night - Threaddies, Jew and Squire!

[Angus]

Good night, good friends, good fish!

I headed down to the Bulimba spot after work at about 5:30pm. The afternoon was perfect with the sun set seeing the last little bit of the rising tide. Met Ryan, Shelley and young Miranda and Olivia down there who already had lines in the water. Shelley thanks once again for the cheese muffins and red bull! Ryan had been to Colmslie to cast some livies earlier in the day so already had a large supply of mullet and herring.

Ryans girls seemed to be getting all the action early on getting quite a few hits on their trusty Anaconda pink (shakesphere???) rods. But hook ups were not to be. Anyway after the sun went down it was time for Shelley to take the young ones home and Ryan and I settled into the evening watching the large moon rise and waiting for drags to peel!

A bit after 8 (and with only a Shovel nose on the board) we met Tom and Kimberly (some fellow AFO members) as they joined us on the river. Nice to meet you guys! We offered them some live prawns if they chose to use them but they were happy with the servo prawns for the time being. It was not a bad decision! After hanging around for only about an hour Kimberly’s rod went screaming off. After a good fight with several strong runs a healthy looking 50 something cm Jew was landed (sorry Kim ill have to wait for the picture to confirm that size)! After sitting there for a good couple of hours with only vermin to show, and after Mooky’s efforts with her Jew on Wednesday night, Ryan and I were thinking this location was beginning to belong to the fairer sex!

However not long passed and another angler fishing further down landed a small (maybe 30cmish) squire. Comments were passed around the group about the coolness of the diversity in this location when I heard what I had been waiting for, a nice tick tick tick zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I was happy to hear it was on my lighter set up (Twin Power on my Lemax Black Rose) as well for fight value as I ran over to the rod. After some solid runs, a few jumps and close calls on the rocks, Ryan netted for me a healthy looking threadfin of 73cm. Woot! After some pictures I decided this one was for the table and anymore I catch would go back (wishful thinking so I thought). Anyway I was pretty chuffed at this stage and anything else caught was going to be a bonus!

After landed my fish I had sent a quick PM to Juls (tobie10). Juls was originally meant to come down with Isabella and “The Real” Tobie but had to turn around because Isabella was not feeling to good. Hope you are feeling better this morning!!! Anyway, the text was all the convincing Juls needed to get back in the car and she was down in no time. Not long after Juls arriving it was Ryans turn. Ryan had a 20cm+ mullet out there which all of a sudden went off with a bang! Based on the bait (and the wire) I originally called this for a Shark. But after several powerful runs a yellow back breached the surface. Low and behold, 94cm Threaddie . A few quick picks and back she went.

By this stage we were thinking, “if Juls gets one now it will be a perfect night”. We must have done something to rack up some Karma this week (maybe my dismal duck on Friday) because before long Juls’s line went ballistic. This was a pretty light set up so Jul’s jumped down on the rocks with Ryan and I and fought the fish left, than right, than left! Ryan and I were literally juggling the landing net between ourselves until it became apparent where the fish would come in. After some skilful netting (with a net not big enough for the fish) and some bold lip gripping in bare feet on the rocks (yes people Angus wore shoes last night ) Jul’s had landed her first ever threadfin as well! This fish measured about 86cm and was sent on its way with some powerful kicks of the tail. Well done Juls!

We all sat back thinking “perfect night”. But ah, it was not over. After another half hour or so, about 40 meters out from the shore there was a mighty eruption of water. Easily 12 feet (based on the casting area of a 12foot net) worth of water would have been displaced by a large tail and body. As out heads snapped around to see what the hell was going on, once again my trusty Lemax Black Rose and Twin Power start screaming. Based on my last fish I knew this was a much bigger fish so I climbed down over the rocks to improve my chances of a successful landing. This fish gave some much stronger and longer runs. I actually saw some braid I have not seen since I spooled my reel! Once again with some trusty lip gripping from Ryan the fish was landed. This was a nice upgrade on my first measuring 93cm. This one took a bit longer to release (about 3-4 minutes), but based on some of the boater reports I don’t think this is to long, just longer than the ones previously that night. After some bite downs on my thumb away she/he swam to fight another day.

In between all this excitement a few other things happened that sort of blended into the haze of adrenalin, energy drinks and screaming drags.

1. saw Darcy out in his boat with his Dad. Hope you went ok mate.

2. Caught what I think was a baby thready. Photo Id later. I know some people “don’t” think are threaddies, but they are yellow, have whiskers, the same nose just more pronounced, eat prawns and you don’t see threaddies this size, Im sure it is.

3. I have two other solid hook ups which were dropped. One actually got all the way to rocks after a good 2 minute fight. I saw a good swirl of silver and Im pretty sure it was a 50-60cm jew.

Massive thanks to Tom, Kim, Juls and Ryan for the good company and fantastic assistance while landing these fish. Congrats to Juls, Ryan and Kim (and me) on the firsts and PB’s. Yet another sensational night in our own back yard.

Angus

P.S. Sorry for the long report.

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[Angus]

First (73cm) Threaddy and Gear.

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[Angus]

On the mat.

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[Angus]

Ryan's 94cm.

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[Angus]

On the mat.

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[Angus]

Juls with her first ever and 3rd for the night

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[Angus]

Release.

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[Angus]

Upgrade 93cm.

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[Angus]

Back to bare young hopefully.

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[Angus]

Baby Threaddy?

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[Angus]

Thats it from me guys (if you made it this far).

On a personal note. I hope Braddo's research helps put some tighter restrictions on these great fish. I kept the smallest fish. I filleted it and gave one fillet to Juls. One getting home I cleaned up the fillet I kept (and stored the body for Braddo) and I portioned it so its a 4 sizable portions. If this is the meat you get out of a 73cm model... there is certainly no reason IMO to keep several over a meter! But thats not one for me to decide. Just sharing my 2 cents.

Cheers for reading.

Angus

[bmxdirtjumpa]

Awesome session there guys!

[ryanyoung]

That had to have been the best night I have had on the river (or river-bank)! The Threadies were certainly on the bite. Thanks for the good company Gus and Juls, fantastic night :woohoo: !

Even the fact that Juls had car trouble at the end of the night couldn't put a dampener on the night.....EPIC!!!

Can't wait to get out there again!

Great report Gus.

Cheers,

Ryan.

[bmxdirtjumpa]

Angus I agree with you about the amount of meat you get off them, half of a 120cm one got about 8/9 big portions

[elops]

Angus wrote:

Baby Threaddy?

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Angus your fish is Polydactylus plebeius the puttynose perch.

Regards Steve.

[Angus]

elops wrote:

Angus wrote:

Baby Threaddy?

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Angus your fish is Polydactylus plebeius the puttynose perch.

Regards Steve.

So thats a putty?

So what are the ones that looks like little jew? Are they the supposed "River Perch"?

Seems weird that we have minuture versions of the two main big species as well

Angus

[Angus]

I just got my pictures through from Juls.

How is this for a hairy hook up on my larger threaddy.

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[ryanyoung]

Have just researched the scientific name and came up with a link.

/>http://www.fishbase.org/comnames/CommonNamesList.php?ID=7901&GenusName=Polydactylus&SpeciesName=plebeius&StockCode=8212

Here is a pic.

Also called a Common Threadfin, Northern Threadfin, Striped Threadfin and Putty-nose Perch.

Honestly, I don't know, it looks similar to the picture, however I am not drawing on a great deal of experience here

[sehrguht]

Epic session!

Good size and numbers of threadfin, hopefully someone will pull out a large jew from there.

Ill be keen to get down there some time soon.

[nadders]

fairly sure thats a puttynose, baby threadies don't look similar they look exactly like the biguns lol. you'll know what i mean if you ever net a 5-10cm threadie, carbon copy miniature version

you're not wrong angus it pisses me off to no end when people keep heaps, case in point that clown down at newstead park who brings like 5 blokes with him every time he fishes so he can keep 8 in a night.

[Angus]

nadders wrote:

fairly sure thats a puttynose, baby threadies don't look similar they look exactly like the biguns lol. you'll know what i mean if you ever net a 5-10cm threadie, carbon copy miniature version

you're not wrong angus it pisses me off to no end when people keep heaps, case in point that clown down at newstead park who brings like 5 blokes with him every time he fishes so he can keep 8 in a night.

Never seen him mate. But yeah, have not been to Newstead Park in aaaaaaaaaages.

A 1 fish per person or 2 per boat would suffice I reckon. With an oversize limit of like 100cm... This would protect the breeding stocks a lot I reckon. But im leaving it at that. Dont want to get to political about it haha.

I guess it bothers me less if the fish is really being eaten... But if you are going on a fairly regular basis, WTF can you do with 8 threaddies worth of meat!!!

Angus

[nadders]

earlier this year a friend of mine saw him get his limit w/o any mates around, so he sold one to a passerby for 20 bucks before trying for more

hopefully natural selection sorts him out sooner rather than later imo

[Feral]

Its been the driest its been for probably 6 or 7 years, the salt is getting a good way up the river, and it is getting stuff all crappy water run off from the suburbs, I reckon that has a lot to do with the current good fishing being reported.

Congrats to all on some great fish! Almost joined the metre Club Fella's, next time!

[fishing_hardcore]

Feral wrote:

Its been the driest its been for probably 6 or 7 years, the salt is getting a good way up the river, and it is getting stuff all crappy water run off from the suburbs, I reckon that has a lot to do with the current good fishing being reported.

Congrats to all on some great fish! Almost joined the metre Club Fella's, next time!

you may be right but I would have thought 2007-08 were dry years, since Wivenhoe was at around 15% capacity.

But its good to see that some good river fishing may come back, the river really has some great fish in it when the fresh has left. I was castnetting good size herring at Indropilly boat ramp last week.

So the bait is moving in too.

Cheers

[elops]

Angus wrote:

elops wrote:

Angus wrote:

Baby Threaddy?

.

.

Angus your fish is Polydactylus plebeius the puttynose perch.

Regards Steve.

So thats a putty?

So what are the ones that looks like little jew? Are they the supposed "River Perch"?

Seems weird that we have minuture versions of the two main big species as well

Angus

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Angus the river perch Johnius borneensis is a member of the same family as Mulloway Sciaenidae. Back before the great flood (74 not Noah)they were very common and targeted by lots of people we used to chase them every august school holidays you could catch hundreds of them all through the middle reaches of the river. Since then they have become less common,with population seeming to fluctuate they grow to 30cm plus but average 25cm. Good eating.

[tugger]

some great fish there guys well done

mark

[Feral]

During the "drought" most of Brisbane continued to get reasonable rain, Worst year we got was only 100mm under average rainfall. Most people still had green lawns. We have had about 15mm of rain in Brisbane over the last 2 1/2 - 3 months, driest spell for an awful long time.

[fishingnut]

hey elops, we used to catch heaps of those off the shorncliffe pier and along the rock wall, I always thought they were baby jew they have a purple sheen across there head and grunt like crazy,dunno what they are now?

[elops]

Thats them mate.

[Davo_Dinkum]

my dad has told me story's about the river perch in the river when he was a teen /young man.

back before i was born .73

[Bommie]

Feral wrote:

Its been the driest its been for probably 6 or 7 years, the salt is getting a good way up the river, and it is getting stuff all crappy water run off from the suburbs, I reckon that has a lot to do with the current good fishing being reported.

Congrats to all on some great fish! Almost joined the metre Club Fella's, next time!

well done,

also since they stopped dredging the river it would of made a big difference to the fishing

[nadders]

something that puzzles me and i'm sure steve (elops) can shed some light,

i've read here and there about the good old days of the 70's and 60's, about abundant trevally and all sorts busting up under the city bridges etc. these days a good school of trevs busting up under the cpt cook would have to be seen to be believed, wouldn't the improved water quality bring more trevs in between then and now?

or were these reports perhaps from pre-dredging days?

[Old Scaley]

nadders wrote:

something that puzzles me and i'm sure steve (elops) can shed some light,

i've read here and there about the good old days of the 70's and 60's, about abundant trevally and all sorts busting up under the city bridges etc. these days a good school of trevs busting up under the cpt cook would have to be seen to be believed, wouldn't the improved water quality bring more trevs in between then and now?

or were these reports perhaps from pre-dredging days?

Hey nadders. I'm no expert here, but I doubt some of these stories. I have lived in Briz since 1970 and have never seen trevally up as far as the city. You also hear about the white sand beaches. My mother's uncle had a boathouse beside the Indro bridge. He is long gone, but he told me years ago that the river has always been muddy and there was some river sand around his boathouse along with a lot of mud. My 87 year old neighbour talks about the annual perch run and catching estuary cod around here (Fairfield/Yeronga), which you can still do. For mine, the river is probably cleaner than it was in 1970 and probably has less pollutants flowing into it thanks to improved laws. Access to the river is better than ever as is technology, so probably these are the good old days. Lets look after it, because when it is gone,we might not get it back.

[Dano]

wow awesome sesh! Is this at the end of Quay Street at bulimba? I was thinking of heading down ther last night but didn't - think I should have!

Might hit it up tonight

[superstryda]

I can't believe how many good fish are being caught there lately, well done again guys, I might have to try and get over that side of the river sometime and say g'day.

[brisbane_boy]

Very well done to all, they go hard when they get up around 90cm, was a quiet night that drag noise would of kept the adrenalin up. nicely released to, threadies value in the water simply is far higher than on a plate, i honestly think there crap eating as well a couple ive taken home for the family that couldnt be released did not go down well and noone wants them again, very soft mushy flesh similar to yellowbelly, let us know what you think of it angus, if anyone needs a better reason to put them back to fight another day, they do not taste like red emperor! LOL

[Angus]

brisbane_boy wrote:

Very well done to all, they go hard when they get up around 90cm, was a quiet night that drag noise would of kept the adrenalin up. nicely released to, threadies value in the water simply is far higher than on a plate, i honestly think there crap eating as well a couple ive taken home for the family that couldnt be released did not go down well and noone wants them again, very soft mushy flesh similar to yellowbelly, let us know what you think of it angus, if anyone needs a better reason to put them back to fight another day, they do not taste like red emperor! LOL

Yeah ill let you know. I have a fillet ready for tonight. But regardless of taste I feel I would still release 9 out of 10 even if they were awesome tasting. Just to cool having having them here. Want them to stay!

Angus

[brisbane_boy]

I think the vast majority feel that way to, the same topic comes up with the jacks but they are far superior eating to threadies and most know that and find it very hard to release them on that basis, the jack stocks are also wider ranging coming from many offshore areas and it would be virtually impossible to wipe them out or reduce there numbers to the point its not worth the effort to go fishing, threadies however id hold less hope for.

[nadders]

yeap, for me with threadies the way i see it is there are alot of guys out there doing the wrong thing that i've witnessed, bagging out on 1m+ fish etc, and big big fish are rare and very important to the breeding stock so they cant realy survive getting bagged out on.

i've kept a few in the past, after trying to release them but looking back i could have handled the fish much better than i did, i did not have nearly the knowledge on safe handling and release practices that i do now.

knowing that there are guys who will go and intentionally bag out on big fish i am pretty worried too, really hope they dont get wiped out or reduced significantly as they are magnificent inhabitants of our river

[Angus]

brisbane_boy wrote:

I think the vast majority feel that way to, the same topic comes up with the jacks but they are far superior eating to threadies and most know that and find it very hard to release them on that basis, the jack stocks are also wider ranging coming from many offshore areas and it would be virtually impossible to wipe them out or reduce there numbers to the point its not worth the effort to go fishing, threadies however id hold less hope for.

Yeah I know what you mean about the Jacks. I kept my first (and only at this stage) legal one as I always intended to. It was pretty sensational eating as far as fish caught up muddy creeks go! I will endevour to release most I catch in the future (touch wood that there are some) but I must confess I would inclined to keep the odd one based on taste.

In saying that, I get pretty spoiled eating fish from the surf at Straddy. IMO even bream and especially whiting from the surf are fantastic easting VS estuary and river fish. Saying that I reckon ill be happy to keep the sporting fish as C&A species and take a feed of "bread & butter" fish when desired.

Angus