queensland Indro Cast Netting 11/11/09

[jangoe]

Hey Guys.

Went and got myself a cast net the other day and thought i would use my day off to go and break it in. I had planned on waking up pretty early but for some reason i didn't set my alarm. Usually i'm pretty good at waking up early but not today. I open my eyes and its 7:45. Bugger!!! So jumping out of bed and grabbing all my gear, not forgetting to put on my remembrance day badge i was off.

Get down there at around 8:00, gobbling down a cornetto ice cream for breakfast i throw out 2 lines with some old re-frozen prawns as bait while i try for some livies. Go to put in the $9 shrimp pot and bugger it i forgot the cat food again! oh well not to bad just baited it with some of the old frozen prawns, they seem to work alright.

Now down to why i was here, to try out my new cast net. I had tried a practice throw the day before in my font yard and was successful at catching a ton of leaves so how hard could a few measly fish be? haha!

First cast was actually not too bad and i caught a good sized prawn. Was nearly tempted to take it home and eat it for lunch. Into the bucket he goes.

Subsequent casts were not quite as good, definitely need more practice needed though i'm sure i could be doing alot worse...

Mid way through one cast one of the rods starts screaming. I hurriedly pulled the net in and run over to it just as it stops. Bringing the line in the bait is gone and the leader is covered in slimey mucous stuff so im guessing it was a catty or an eel. Would of been decent sized by the way the rod was reacting to it.

By this time the shrimp pot had a couple live shrimp so baited the rods with them, recast and went back to the cast net.

Not alot was coming up in the net but i was happy just to be practicing my technique.

Eventually i pulled up some kind of little blob that looked a little strange. Is it some kind of egg or baby jelly? It had little vein like lines running through it.

I also pulled up a small nasty looking bait fish that i couldn't identify. Had a scary looking spike on its back... Maybe you guys could ID it for me

Anyway the rest of the day was pretty quiet. Achieved my goal of getting down there and wetting the net so i was happy.

Caught a toadie in the shrimp pot, does that count...

Jangoe.

[kiara_poltegerist]

haha. good one mate. some more practise with the castnet would see you being proficient in it's use.

the catties there are normally the larger versions, so they do give you quite abit of fun compared to the average brisbane river cattie. but good session there mate. you might be lucky enough to get a thready there if you persist. a dead or live prawn hooked through the tail, cast out about 10 metres out, one 'o clock from the front of the pontoon normally will get you a few.

those jelly things... hmm.. i've always wondered myself. anyone got any ideas?

[brisbane_boy]

catty egg id say, delicious eating LOL

[51MPL]

get those jelly things all the time @ newstead park when i castnet, no idea what they are though?

i heard that theres a snag at indro? thats why i've never castnetted there im scared of losing my net lol? which sides did you throw your net on mate?

[jangoe]

kiara_poltegerist said:

you might be lucky enough to get a thready there if you persist. a dead or live prawn hooked through the tail, cast out about 10 metres out, one 'o clock from the front of the pontoon normally will get you a few.

Yeah we actually got a little thready down there the other day casting out into the spot you described. No Joy there today though but that's the way it goes.

51MPL said:

i heard that theres a snag at indro? thats why i've never castnetted there im scared of losing my net lol? which sides did you throw your net on mate?

I had read that too that there is supposed to be one halfway out on the lefthand side or something though all the snags ive hooked on to down there are further out of my cast nets reach. I tried all over the pontoon today with no snagging. Except for one branch which came out easily. Haha might just be beginners luck that i didnt latch onto something...

[51MPL]

haha ok, how big is the net your using? i think i bit off more then i can chew starting with a 10 but it opens sometimes.. just need a new rope as sometimes it gets stuck onto the net as im casting out and stuffs up the cast

[viclick]

I think that little blob is a comb jelly.

Victor

[jakhunta]

The first cast is always the most important cast when netting an area as the bait have not yet been alerted to your presence . If the size of the area is limited maybe a couple of cast and then maybe a 20 -30 min break in between.

[jangoe]

51mpl: mine says its 6 foot depth with max spread of 2.8+ meters. Small end of the range but seems a good size to start with.

Jackhunta said:

The first cast is always the most important cast when netting an area as the bait have not yet been alerted to your presence. If the size of the area is limited maybe a couple of cast and then maybe a 20 -30 min break in between.

Yeah i agree with that. I was just more keen on getting practice more than getting bait to be honest.

Jangoe

[kiara_poltegerist]

brisbane_boy wrote:

catty egg id say, delicious eating LOL

hahaha. sure. you first. hehe