queensland BRC PREFISH 0200 - 0630

[51MPL]

Hey everyone, as far as im aware there's nothing wrong with trying to suss out a few new spots to try once the BRC starts right? Anyhoo.. went down to a new patch of water near bulimba, nothing in the castnet so used frozen prawns for:

* zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz first hookup within 20 minutes of setting up, then fish swam into a snag and it wasnt moving anywhere.. stupid me what do i do? tighten the drag and try to unsnag it - unknown to me fish was still there just not moving and took off with the drag set tight and snapped everything

* second fish about 10 minutes later, drag is screaming pulling line out and i pickup the rod wait a few more seconds and strike. i get weight on the rod and it starts pulling even more line out, soon as it stops i start to retrieve and it instantly starts running again and all the weight is gone.. wind in to find whatever fish it was bit through my 30lb mono braid and so i cut the rest off and re-tied my paternoster

* re-tied rig is sent out and keeps gettin picked at slowly and i call it for a crab and let my gf wind it in haha! she somehow got it the hook stuck between some legs and im able to lift it up. grab the hooks out and throw it back in lol

* nothing happened for agess after this (couple hours) so i was just practicing skipping soft plastics around haha

* my mates rod gets a few bites then loads up and he strikes, fish is running all directions and i havew no idea what it is.. first run goes for only ~10 seconds and then we start to make some ground until it makes a run to the right.. then the left.. then even more left towards a big ass snag and the drag gets turned up wayyy more then i feel safe but what other options are there? at this rate it'll snag us up so we start to steer the head towards us until it turns around and swims in and the line snaps - after reeling it in the line snapped right at the knot to the hook which was dissapointing :'( no idea what fish it was but the runs it took were short/abrupt - it'd change direction really fast move a bit then stop.. but for the whole ~10minute fight it never came to teh surface so we have no idea what it was? any suggestions

* finally i get another bite after the sun is out and i played this so safe after not being able to land a fish all night! fish takes a few short runs but after a few minutes is close to being landed.. what comes to the surface? a damn catfish (you know its time to go home when this happens haha?) .. get it up and it comes in at a healthy 62cm so if i can get a repeat of this i'll be happy for the brc!

good few hours of landbased fishing and i hope i can find a few more spots to try for the brc anyone else landbased that wouldnt mind me and a couple mates taggin along?

mainly have a couple live-bait rods setup and the rest of the time flicking lures around

cheers! no pics as we all know what a catty looks like

[Davo_Dinkum]

u get some nice big cattys in the river.they can be fun when they are big

[ryanyoung]

Sounds like a heart-stopper of a night, hearing that drag going off! I love nights like that, it makes for a great night, I bet you are itching to get back there!

Thanks for the report,

Ryan.

[rumrunner]

hi mate

sounds like the clean bite off may have been a little shark and the other one may have either been a stingray or maybe a threadie or big cattie?

either way sonds like a interesting nite mate so thanks for the report!

cheers Ian

[51MPL]

thanks guys, sorry i forgot to say that my mates rod - after the 10minute fight and the fish getting closer and closer to that stupid snag!! the last run it took snapped the line at the hook which i said but when we wound it up; there was some yellow stuff all over the line? it wasnt mucus like a cattie but i've never caught a threadie so is there a way that some of the yellow from its mouth got onto the hook?

just a really sucky night because after all those times of whatever fish pulling our bait out (too tired to throw lures aruond last night lol) only got to land 1 mud-crab haha, and one cattie.. like the entire time it was running around it never surfaced. In the past when i've caught stingrays they either take a few runs, or like suck onto the bottom and its really hard to get them off - whereas my mates fish would slow down then run left and right, then towards the middle of the river and come back.. ah well hopefully we can land it once brc starts up!

cliffnotes - basically every fish that we didnt land was because of our own stuff-ups? knots letting me down, my first fish soon as the line took off i grabbed the rod waited - striked then had weight for a second and nothing; line snapped at the swivel.. (on a paternoster rig)

second fish snapped the line because i thought the fish snagged me because it suddenly just stopped and i had a lot of weight but no movement, this is the one that was maybe a ray? cos once it took off the knot failed and line snapped

ps - does everyone just use a blood not to tie onto swivels? .. never had a night where my knots let me down so much and i always take that little extra time to put a couple extra twists into a bloodknot and tighten it hardout and test it before it goes int he water.. ah well still waiting for that first threadie

[Eug]

if you are using mono and i take it you are because you mention swivels, always remember to lubricate the knot with a bit of saliva before tightening it out. this lubricates the knot and causes less friction allowing the knot to seat properly.

[51MPL]

wow.. thanks for that haha! i think wire trace for this area is a bit overkill but maybe i'll run some next time and see what happens. at the moment the setup i've been using is:

1 rod - mainline > swivel (tied onto the top of the swivel is a short leader <10cm of 30lb mono with 1 running hook and then blood knot onto the other hook) > then a random long length of line between the bottom part of the swivel to my sinker

second rod just has; sinker>swivel>30lb mono and hooks

thanks for the tip mate! it cost me a few fish ><

[zan0_15]

hey man....reckon u may hav lost a threadie out of all that! are you using heavy mono line or an actual leader line?

[51MPL]

yeah well anyone off here's guess is as good (most likely better) then mine.. we had no idea what it was

the line is just some spare 30lb mono i have.. thinking about a dedicated leader line - what are the advantages? i just assumed the 30lb mono would be good enough for most things in the river (bar sharks, and mayb jacks?)

[rayke1938]

How old is the mono? It could have gone brittle with age. Snapping at knot is first sign.

Cheers

Ray

[zan0_15]

leader is specifically designed to be more abrasion resistant which helps with the threadies trust me! until recently i was also only using heavy mono as my leader (50 pound in fact)and consistently got rubbed off just above the hook....changed to a 40 pound leader line and thus far have not had a problem....40 pound is probably a bit of overkill...you would get away with 30.

[51MPL]

ahh okay, nah it seems fairly new ray i think the fish must have rubbed the hook on a different part of its mouth or off a rock or something as the knot didnt fail straight away (lasted the 10minute fight until it got close to some rocks)

thanks for the help btw everyone, any brand leader in particular u recommend zano? i was gonna head down to bcf today to grab a brag mat (easiest measuring device to send my photos in), get some more hooks and sinkers and then i'll have a look around for some leader