queensland At last I'm legal!!!!!

[kmcrosby78]

Took a couple of mates out to the river mouth on Sat arvo (once we solved my lighting issue .....) and were met with pretty lumpy, unpleasant conditions. Had hoped to troll the front rockwall to try and locate some tailor but turned back around before the end of the wharves. Found a good show near the green beacon at the sunken rockwall and managed to anchor in a good spot but 10 mins later the wind shifted enough to uplift our anchor so we gave up and tried the wharf side in between wharf sections, but this area was absolutely dead (right on sunset we couldn't lose a bait!!).

So ..... we went to the pipeline. There was an oil ship in so we couldn't get right into the corner I normally like to anchor in. Pretty quiet til my mate got a cattie (the only one for the night surprisingly). Moments later my rod in the back rodholder that had an unweighted, ganged pillie sitting near the pipeline went beserk and I was flat out getting it out of the rodholder. Got it out, the run finally ending and from there it was quite a dead fight so I was assuming ray or shovel. Came to life a little when near the boat and seemed strange like it was tail wrapped (still thinking ray or shovel at this stage).

Leapt for joy when I saw the beautiful, silvery flanks of a decent sized (previous PB of 50-something cm - strange how I was rapt when I caught that one but months later have forgotten it's length!!!). Netted this one and became immediately apparent that it had absolutely impaled the ganged hooks well down into it's throat. My mates were backslapping me and telling me it was huge but deep down I had a fair feeling it would almost certainly be between 70-80cm and therefore no definite keeper. Put it on the bragmat and it was smack bang on 75cm. My mates were yahooing again whilst I was deliberating what to do. Reason for the deliberation was a tailor I kept recently that seemed to shrink almost 1.5cm when it's throat was cut and put on ice. After careful consideration I decided to keep it as it was a full 75cm (if it was just under this it would have begrudgingly gone back even though it would have almost certainly not have survived the hook removal).

So I am one very happy chappy as a legal jewie has been high on my agenda since getting my tinny 3 and a half years ago. This is my third one and each time they have gotten bigger so next stop hopefully is one metre (although I won't complain if I get a 80cm and 90cm along the way .........). Was caught smack bang on 6:30pm which according to Seabreeze was high tide) so I'll lock that info into the memory bank.

Photos were taken on my mates phone so not the best quality - thanks for reading.

[Bri The Pom]

Great jewie mate. Well done.

[kmcrosby78]

Cheers Bri now I just need a flattie that long (or will it need to be longer ......?) at the Flathead Social in 3 weeks!!!!

[RUSSIAN]

Top Stuff! Thats a great jewie :cheer:

congrats

[tugger]

Congrats Kelvin on your PB Jewie the first of many to come I'll bet it tasted just as sweet as the feeling upon capture

The humble pillie strikes again ohh I love pillies

[camokazi]

Nice Jew mate ... Did ya get that one near the poo Shute ??? We got some good one there last year up to 8 kilo land based ... Bloody honey hole at the rite time ... Good to see there smashing pillies hey , we've onli got em on live potties hey ..... Good to see ther still around hey .....

[JarrydA]

Good work mate, Nice fish

[nick01077]

Cracker fish mate, I'm still persisting to grab myself one! Just curious with this pipeline is that one that's halfway down the pinkenba Rockwall?

[Old Scaley]

Nice fish Kelvin. Just an observation on the tide. Around that area, I reckon the change of tide is about an hour later than the published tide time even though it is just up river from the bar. So that would mean you probably caught it in the last hour of the run in. Hope this helps.

[kmcrosby78]

Cheers guys. Forgot to add that I checked out it's teeth the next day when I filleted it and given that I was using 10lb fluro leader and it swallowed the hooks way down, I'm pretty darn lucky that everything stayed together.

Mark - yep the humble old pillie is pretty versatile alright!!!! Actually that's what our conversation revolved around after it was slipped in the esky and we got back to fishing. I was reiterating to my mates that to get legal jewies on bait it is generally accepted it needs to be live or fresh. Got lucky I suppose!! And yep it tasted good alright - had half of it Sunday night including the head baked and it was bl00dy delicious!!!

Comokazi - got it at the oil pipeline in front of Boggy Creek. An 8kg one would be very nice!!

Nick - as above mate. It is an oil pipeline that runs from just down from the poop shute on the northern bank of the river all the way across the entrance to boggy creek to the BP Oil Refinery and is supported by pilons every 10 metres or so so provides good structur and has some good dropoffs and is widely recognised as a good area for jewies and threadies.

Steve - cheers mate. Yeah I've heard that about the tide being later also. Was a bit hard to tell Sat night as the wind was swinging us around a fair bit so our lines kept crossing. Where is the 'Brisbane Bar' considered to be?

[Old Scaley]

Kelvin, I think the Brisbane Bar is at the mouth of the river, so somewhere just on the bay side of the poo shute. I'm sure some of the older salts on here could give a more exact location. I know that I always seem to be waiting forever for the tide to change - I have found the best fishing is the end of the run in and the start of the run out tide in that area.

[getrigged]

The bar is prob a km from the mouth, better using the Brisbane port office for accuracy, it's 40 min after the bar times.

[benno573]

Brisbane bar is where the yellow special marker is on the left heading out of the river towards the bay, about 800m or so past the poo shoot.

Nice fish mate... and here was me thinking you'd just turned 18...

I caught a similar sized one (think it was about 78?) on a pillie in the river last November, swam past a live herring and a live mullet and took the pillie. Go figure!

[Old Scaley]

Benno, I reckon that pillies are the most successful bait in that area and it doesn't seem to matter if they are on their second or third trip out either. Livies are good too, but I like to drift the drop-offs and live bait is better if you are anchored (not a great idea in the main channels). Recently deceased herring are also good.

[kmcrosby78]

... and it doesn't seem to matter if they are on their second or third trip out either ......

In that case I have got half a chest freezer of prime bait Steve ........