Hello from Brisbane

[Brenchen]

Hi all,

Seeing many discussions and activities already on this forum, suggest that I came to the right place.

My name is Brendan and I've always been fascinated by fishing and what's under the water. Like many kids, I fished quite often when I was young (before the reliable internet age), but due to a lack of knowledge and I guess the 'will' to seriously learn fishing (rather than just kids play), I could only barely get very small breams, flatheads, puffer fish and the occasional mullet.

After some number of years (now), my interest to get fishing again was sparked by my housemate, who is semi-serious about his fishing (yet to see him bringing anything home though), I would like to start to learn from scratch.

After reading some posts here, I see very useful information and locations for fishing, however, I can't seemed to grasp some slightly more complicated terms or fish-talk, so it would be very much appreciated if someone could point me to some ideas as to what I essentially need to learn and read up before my first time heading out?

I don't have any gear related to fishing (rods, reels, boats etc.,) but I may be able to have access to basic tackle. And I would like to do more saltwater fishing without floating devices (boats, yaks etc.). Can experts like yourselves give me some pointers as to what to look for for beginner fishing please?

Thanks in advance,

Brendan

[squeak6969]

hey brendan welcome to the site, to get the right advice, on what gear etc to use the best thing would be to start with what species of fish you were targeting, also where abouts in brisbane your based and if your willing to travel how far are you willing to go, but there are plenty of posts that will cover these questions in the forum if your willing to have a look through them, also try get along to the socials, i havent been to one yet as im normally away working when theyre on but alot of the guys here go to them and its supposed to be a great way to meet people and improve your knowledge on this awesome sport.

[Brenchen]

Thanks for the quick reply. Social outings are definitely something I target. I live very close to the city on the South side, and essentially if I was to fish during the week, it'll probably be around Wynnumish Manly area (where I live), or up near the airport area (where I work). During the weekend on dedicated days, I'm happy to travel up to 2 hours to fish.

I would hope to target any fish that can put on some fight that can be caught on land, but hopefully not bottom feeders like rays or flatheads, catfish I guess are OK as they can put on a fight I think. Not sure if I'm asking the impossible here.

However, looking into specific fish maps, most of the time I can only find whitings, breams or flatheads, I would prefer species like snappers, tunas, barras that type of fish (again not sure if I'm asking the impossible here).

I will continue reading, but thought I ask these questions to kind of tidy up the thought process a bit so I know what I should be looking for in order of relevance.

Thanks again for the quick reply

[squeak6969]

were a bit far south for barra although if you believe the roumors they have bin sighted in the comera river, as for snapper and tuna you really would need a boat or a kayak to get out to them, they do get some small snapper (squire around the manly jetties, but around wynnum manly your best bets in my experience are whiting, bream and flathead, a good place to get them is at the mouth of lota creek, you can walk out there at low tide and pump fresh yabbies to use as bait and then cast out from there, the other option is to go for sharks, they often get small hammer heads around that area but its a bit hit and miss, in the summer bullsharks are quite common in the logan river, i quite often go to alexander clark park as do quite a few guys on here do to try get them. the other option is the brissy river, there are several places which you can google around colmslie way etc, there you might get some catties ( you also get alot of those in the logan river) and you might be lucky enough to get some threadfin, other people will probably be able to add to this, but if you are going to start with some of these suggestions you will be able to start with pretty basic outfits with samll 1-3kg rod and depending if your going bait or lures (hard body or soft plastics) will depend on what sort of tackle you will want, the watertower bati and tackle store (by the bp in wynnum would be able to givve you advice for the local area and what you might need) the other option is in the canals around raby bay and birkdale, you can pull out pretty decent fish on a good day. hope this helps

[squeak6969]

also if your jsut starting fishing again, bream flathead and whiting are good fish to start with to hone your skills and they make a good feed :cheer:

[Bill_V]

Hey Brendan,

Welcome to the site mate, you are in the right place for sure. Sounds like you want bigger sized fish and since you are land based it is a little harder but not impossible. The Brissy river for instance has heaps of big critters lurking around but you will need to learn how to throw a cast net and get live bait. You can go to places like brekky creek and colmslie jetty. I have seen heaps of kids catching big threadfin salmon and jewies off there at night when I am launching or recovering my boat.

Just go through all the old posts on Brissy river reports etc on this site.....it is a wealth of info.

Cheers,

Bill

[Brenchen]

Thanks all for the reply, indeed very helpful. This gives me some directions as to what to look for. As for tackles, I will see if I can borrow some from my housemate, but I may need to get some for myself.

From all these info, it opens a another load of questions which I would probably be better of going to a tackle shop and ask.

With these shops, any of them are fine? Or some more privately owned will be more honest with their opinions?

[samsteele115]

Also look out for the decky spots that pop up every now and then! Will be a great way to learn and you will be able to target the bigger species

[Brenchen]

Sorry please excuse my ignorance, but what's "decky spots"?

[samsteele115]

Sorry please excuse my ignorance, but what's "decky spots"?

When you head out on someone else's boat to give them a bit of a hand. Launching, cutting up bait or whatever and usually you get a bit of fishing done as well . Great way to learn. Slang for 'deckhand' I think.

Personally I havnt been out with anyone on afo yet, only other people I know, but I plan to!

[Brenchen]

Thanks for clearing it up, will definitely keep my eye out on it.

Has anyone had any experiences with this page: http://www.fishing-mates.com/fishingbasics/index.html Are the methods mentioned in it a good start?

I ask this is because in other hobbies that I'm into, there are always good starting points, some more like a beginner's bible that everyone should know about.

Do we have any equivalent in fishing, particularly for SEQ areas or Australia in general?

[Angus]

Thanks for clearing it up, will definitely keep my eye out on it.

Has anyone had any experiences with this page: http://www.fishing-mates.com/fishingbasics/index.html Are the methods mentioned in it a good start?

I ask this is because in other hobbies that I'm into, there are always good starting points, some more like a beginner's bible that everyone should know about.

Do we have any equivalent in fishing, particularly for SEQ areas or Australia in general?

This is a can of worms but...

I think fishing is by far and away to broad to have a beginners bible to fishing in general. In all honestly I would equate that to saying there is a beginners bible to ball sports... What someone wanting to get involved in say for example, blue water fishing, and someone wanting to get involved in freshwater bassing are just not similar except there is a fish involved. Much the same as a prospective soccer player needs different information to a prospective golfer. The balls are round but that is about it!

Mate I think your beginners guide is right here. Sift through the reports and advice sections and I think you find from a novice to experienced level there is very little not covered here. Some people may not release their "spot x, y, z's" but that wont help you if you do not know how to fish those locations anyway. More valuable is taking into consideration:

* when they were there

* what were they using (bait, lure, line, rod, everything)

* how were they doing it

* have they done is many many many times before

And so on.

This information will not likely be encompassed in any one report... But that is why its called research

Good luck.

Angus

[PWR2W8]

Hi and welcome,

As crazywalrus mentioned in another thread, the Moreton Bay Classic is coming up soon, maybe head down on the Sunday to meet up with a few fellow AFO members. I will try and get there for the competition myself too.

/>http://www.australianfishing.com.au/tournaments/moreton-bay-classic/633-2013-moreton-bay-classic

Cheers, Matt