queensland Mud Island, Brissy River Sunday 18th July

[Beejay]

Went out in my mates Yalta on sunday, launched at Fishermans about 5.00am and headed straight out to Mud Island. Found a spot and was fishing by 5.30.

Got a couple of small snaps on the first 2 casts on squid then I stumbled on a patch of moses perch because I caught about 20 of them in half an hour all on squid but all fish were too small for the pan and released.

From there we went back into the river mouth and fished around the end of the rock wall only for another 4 small squire, so moved up the river a bit and found a nice drop off in front of the parked dredger which we had previously GPS marked from an earlier trip.

Got onto some more small squire and a couple of flathead that unfortunately went 38 and 39 cms and had to go back.

From there we went back out the mouth across to the left and there was a fair few boats all congregated in the one spot, I think we were out in front of Nudgee cos there were plenty of airplanes going over our heads to the airport. The wind had really dropped off at this stage so we were on the drift and werent really moving anywhere at all but the warm sun and stillness was a welcome change from the early morning chill of the southerly breeze. Had no luck in this spot, not even a bite, tried everything even jiggin some plastics.

From there we headed back over into the shipping channel about half a klm from the mouth and we decided to drift from the shallows across into the channel and kept repeating the process. Had plenty of bites there but couldnt hook any fish so told my mate I thought it was whiting and a hook change to smaller size was warranted. I changed hooks for both of us while Brett positioned the boat and before we had drifted back in the channel we had 12 pan sized whiting in the boat which we were happy about cos all we wanted was a feed for the days effort anyhow. I also got my first slatey bream that went 35 cms but I let that one go as I wasnt sure on size limits or what there eating qualities are, I put it down to a slatey bream after seeing a photo of keel holding one up in a post a while back and from memory it was in the same area around mud island.

The first 2 squire that I got were actually PB,S for me even though they were only around the 30cm mark and were released, both these fish hit with incredible force and fought well, making me think they might be bigger....lol

We used a few baits yesterday which were pillies, servo prawns, servo squid, moses perch fillets from one that didnt survive and whiting fillets, with the only bait that caught all the fish being the servo squid. It was also good using braid for the first time and I noticed the diffrence in that and mono straight away as far as feeling the bites go it was awesome to feel practically every vibration from the fish come through the line to your rod tip and up into your wrist and fingers, I learned how to join braid to mono as well yesterday so now im gonna be more likely to make the transition from mono to braid because ive learnt a few more knots.

Cheers guys, sorry for not putting any photos up, just that all the fish were small and the action was pretty much on all day and i didnt want to stuff around taking photos of small stuff youve all already seen plenty of times, although I did specifically take my new digital camera with me yesterday, next time I wont be so lazy and use it.....cheers Beejay

[Freshy]

Still sounds like a good day mate... well done.

Brett

[crazywalrus]

looks like you covered a bit of water there. I also moved over to Braid about 8 months ago as I was also concerned about tying the knots. Now I love it. Would not go back. Every now and again I pick up the kids rods and I hate mono now. There have been some nice whiting around at the moment. well done Ted

[wesfish]

great read mate! sounded like a fun day out on the water.

[Beejay]

Yeah was a fun day, I hadnt been out since the Moreton Bay classic, which was interrupted for me, so I fished pretty hard all day and left the beer at home for a change....lol Cheers Beejay

[Do$tylz]

nice one mate. The weather was a beaut on Sunday. Were the whiting winter whiting? or summers?

Just a mod note, I deleted your other post that you put in the correct section to fix this one that you had in the wrong one, and then moved this one to the correct section for you. Better to move this one as it had the comments and views already

[benno573]

sounds like a good day out mate.

slatey bream/morwong are perfectly good eating (despite what others say). they do need to be bled and iced immediately upon capture. the legal size of these would be 25cm as they are actually a sweetlips. their actual scienticition name is painted sweetlips. according to dpi all sweetlips ahve a size limit of 25cm and a bag limit of 5 per species. they are a coral reef in fish though so make sure you fin them too. they do grow to about 15kg though...

bait tip - head to the fish shop where you buy fish to eat and get fresh squid, prawns and mullet fillets. throw in some pillies and you can't go wrong! the fresh stuff works waaaayyyy better than the frozen servo stuff.

[Beejay]

Do$tylz wrote:

nice one mate. The weather was a beaut on Sunday. Were the whiting winter whiting? or summers?

Just a mod note, I deleted your other post that you put in the correct section to fix this one that you had in the wrong one, and then moved this one to the correct section for you. Better to move this one as it had the comments and views already

The whiting were winter whiting mate, I made a point of checking that out in my fish guide cos i needed to know legal length.

Thanks for sorting out the post for me mate....cheers Beejay

[Beejay]

benno573 wrote:

sounds like a good day out mate.

slatey bream/morwong are perfectly good eating (despite what others say). they do need to be bled and iced immediately upon capture. the legal size of these would be 25cm as they are actually a sweetlips. their actual scienticition name is painted sweetlips. according to dpi all sweetlips ahve a size limit of 25cm and a bag limit of 5 per species. they are a coral reef in fish though so make sure you fin them too. they do grow to about 15kg though...

bait tip - head to the fish shop where you buy fish to eat and get fresh squid, prawns and mullet fillets. throw in some pillies and you can't go wrong! the fresh stuff works waaaayyyy better than the frozen servo stuff.

Yeah I could have kept him then (SLATEY BREAM) cos he went 35cms and fought like a snapper but because I had already released all the others I gave him a life line, but it was good to get my first one. Thanks for the size limits and eating tips.

When I said servo I just generalised because the pillies and squid were prepacked just like servo stuff, but I did buy it from the fish shop on lytton road at colmslie. Your right about the fresh stuff though, most times if im planning a big day out, I will take the tinny down to Tingalpa creek and cast net a load of mullet, herring and fresh silver biddies for my bait but this trip was organised pretty quickly so had no time to throw the net. I suppose i could of thrown my cast net into the boat and thrown it around in the river but i left it at home....lol Cheers Beejay

[benno573]

for mud island i have not had too much success on livies strangely enough. i pick up the odd fish on a live herring or hardyhead - usually cod, but mullet are a waste of time from what i've found. dead silver biddies work a treat on grassys and not a lot else for some reason. stick with some fresh peeled prawns, fresh squid, fresh flesh baits (they all work, mullet, slimies, bonito, tailor etc) and pillies. the fresh stuff usually works out cheaper than the frozen stuff for some reason, i get green prawns for about $13/kg, frozen 200g packs will generally set you back $4 - $5.

i'll shoot you a pm next time i'm heading out there mate, see if you are able to tag along.

[Beejay]

yeah mate pm me anytime, wouldnt mind tagging along with someone in the know....cheers Beejay