How to catch cherabin?

[tiotony]

Hey all,

With all this heavy rain up here in Cairns, my fishing options have been very limited and am getting way sick of catching tilapia in the creek next door, and want to do something different. Down in the salt is pretty useless at the moment as its brown floodwater, but have noted absolutely heaps of big cherabin in the creek lately. I know the usual method is to spear them at night, but this is not really an option with a 2 1/2 metre croc still at large in the creek (I saw some slide marks down there this morning!). Have chucked in a redclaw pot baited with a fish head but they aren't going any where near it, and honestly some of the ones I am seeing have claws about 18 inches long on them so I don't think they could get in anyway.

Any ideas?

[crazywalrus]

I have heard of people catching them in the opera pots. It is surprising how yabbies can get into places. Maybe try some different bait like fruit and maybe some dog biscuits in a small plastic bottle with holes in it. there is a guy on here that goes up the cape all the time and gets them regularly maybe he can help you. I will see if I can find his posts.

[tiotony]

Cheers crazywalrus, I've heard of them being caught in redclaw pots too, so reckon I'll try something different for bait.

[jon]

when we go to arnhem land we get em in shrimp pots with with fruit bait and that, or if you can find a snag free stretch you can net with a cast net or long scoop net if the visibility is ok

[crazywalrus]

the guys username is http://www.australianfishing.com.au/community/profile/8156-al-r

and this is one of his reports

/>http://www.australianfishing.com.au/forum/77-north-queensland/288509-cape-york-with-the-family#288509

[tiotony]

Unfortunately cast net is illegal in freshwater in QLD, but I think ok in NT. Could get them easy with a scoop net as they are everywhere out in plain sight at the moment, but a bit scared of getting too close to the water due to old mate salty croc living in the creek!

[Thirstyman]

yeah you wouldnt catch me doing any scooping if there was a croc lurking

[jeff f]

i have seen them caught in a clump of dead grass using pure sunlight soap for bait all they were doing was grabbing a good double handfull of dead grass about 2 feet long they put the piece of soap on the grass, fold the grass over the soap and then wrapped a piece of string around it and weighed it down in the water with a rock on it to weigh it down the cherrubin force thier way into the grass after the soap and get stuck after a couple of hours the pulled up the traps and untied them and just shook the cherrubin into a bucket