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Enoggera Creek Windsor - Weekend Stuck at Home.

Alexx

By Alexx
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Alexx Newbie

Alexx

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Hi all.

So I just got my car back from the shop, after burning a MASSIVE hole in my bank account. With Christmas coming I decided to limit my spending, which meant no big trips to land based spots around SEQ, and staying home. However the fishing craving never subsides... the addiction is too strong...

SATURDAY

I had never tried the closest body of water to my house being Enoggera Creek behind the RBWH, so I decided to give it a crack with some bread on light bream gear after seeing some of @curranboy99's posts up at Kedron Brook. So a shout out to him, as without his post I wouldn't have a report to post, thanks mate.

I walked down yesterday afternoon with a loaf of white and gear in hand, to the the spot just under the Lutwyche Road foot bridge. I decided to aim for structure, hoping for some bream.

Rather than using a float set up, I decided to option for a weightless single hook setup instead. I was using my new Stradic 1000HG, Gloomis DRS820 GLX, Sunline Super PE 8 braid in 6lb with a meter of 12lb leader tied on with my altered slim beauty knot, and a size 4 Penetrator hook. 

The tide runs slowly this far up the system, and it was halfway through the run-out tide. I used the crust of the white bread to burley up the water, then compressed pieces of the white center into a small ball, hid the hook inside the bait, and threw out in with the burley.

At first there was no action, until a few minutes later a heap of bait were fighting over the burley. From what I saw it was small mullet, and maybe some small herring, but I can not be sure. So i decided to throw in just behind the bait, in the hope some larger fish were in behind, trying to have a crack at the live bait.

Within a few seconds of my bread hitting the water, it was hit pretty hard, and the fish ran out to the middle of the creek. It didn't get far, as my setup is a litter overpowered for the smaller fish species, but very fun with the right drag settings. I ended up landing a very healthy catfish. After 4 more, I called up my brother-in-law to come down from our place to have a crack as well. Over the next few hours we ending up going through the whole loaf, and landing roughly 15 catfish. While not a desirable fish, it was still a very fun session in the rain. i believe the biggest one for the day went 38cm.

SUNDAY

After a successful session the day before, my brother-in-law decided to step it up and get some pilchards. So around 9.00am we headed down to the same spot again, this time aiming to fish the last of the run-in tide. With a small bag of frozen pilchards and a couple pieces of bread, we decided to use all the bread first to see if we could find the catfish again first. This time however, my brother-in-law after two casts with bread, produced two very healthy BREAM!. His first was not legal, however the second went 28cm strong. This got me excited as I love chasing bream on light gear, however all I could produce was another 5 catfish. 

After the bread was gone, we swapped to cubing up the pilchards into 1.5 cm chunks, hiding the hook in the flesh around the back-bone, and casting in on the same rig setup. After only landing 2 catfish between us in about an hour, we deiced to move further upstream to a pedestrian bridge near the dog park at Downy Park. We used the same setup however targeting deeper water surrounded by mangroves, hoping for something more toothier.

First cast in, and straight away I get a hit and weight on the line. At first I thought it was a big catty, but as it surfaced we were shocked to see a decent sized FLATHEAD! I was very appreciative of my decision to not go ultra light at this point... 

After my initial shock, I quickly realised I couldn't lift this girl up to the bridge we were standing on, so while keeping her head in the water (VERY important with flatties), I swam her over towards the bank on the Windsor side of the foot-bridge and landed her, JUST. As I got her out of the water, the leader snapped.... After a quick pick myself, and a local walking past who caught all of the action, I decided not to eat her and we let her go. I very rarely keep fish, however now and then I will keep the odd tailor or Flathead as I love the gamy flesh. Today I decided against it, mainly because I didn't know how healthy the ecosystem is in the river, and I don't want to take a bigger breading female and predator out of the system. I'm all for sustainability.

After this not much happened. In the next 2 hours the tide stopped and turned, and still nothing. Using the last of the pilchard we had just cut up, I ended up getting one more catfish, and then to my surprise, a decent sized TAILOR!!

Again I was shocked, but this one I think would had just been shy of legal size, so i decided to try pole it up to where we were standing on the bridge. However this time the leader did not hold up, and it snapped as I watched the tailor swim away to fight another day.

Sorry for the lack of photos, it was raining mostly all weekend and I only had my phone so I did not want to get it too wet. All in all a good weekend. I was left in disbelief as after catching 4 different species and a couple legal fish, left me thinking I may have to seriously reconsider why I travel hundreds of kilometers in the search of fish, when such a fun time can be had literally a couple hundred meters from my house.

Thanks for reading.

 

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Alexx Newbie

Alexx

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Thanks for all the kind words. Really such a good session when compared to my expectations.

11 hours ago, Luvit said:

When you said a decent flatty I was thinking 45cm, there abouts, 66cm what a cracker.

Haha yeah sorry for the misleading comment. It was a good fish! She looked very healthy too. No lice, great colours, no sign of worms and her stomach felt like it was full of roe, good signs for the waterway.

10 hours ago, curranboy99 said:

Wow that's a good report. Very well written, easy to read, want to keep reading it, did you get straight A's in english at high school?!

Quite the opposite mate. Barely passed English in high-school, thought manly due to lack of motivation and caring for the subject itself. It has only been due to my job where I write reports everyday, that my report writing has actually had any time to develop.

37 minutes ago, Binder said:

Often see good bream and flatties caught off the bridge at Downey park, and the mouth of the drain a little further upstream.

That is the next step. We are planning to catch some live bait and make them swim out of the drain into the main creek at the high tide when the drain is covered, in the hope of catching some predators camped out on the drain.

7 hours ago, John said:

great report. thanks for sharing :fishing2:

9 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Mate, seriously one of the best written and easy to read reports I've ever seen on this site, well done!!  That's an incredible flathead for suburban Brisbane, truly mind-boggling. Beats my PB by 2cm!!!

Again thanks all, appreciate the feedback!

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Thirstyman Newbie

Thirstyman

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Awesome report! I have fished downstream under the ICB and around the back of the train yard and caught a few cool things. Flathead, Estuary Cod, bream...but oddly never caught a catfish in this creek! I love how close it is to the CBD and Home but lost my enthusiasm for after a couple of trips donuting, this has renewed it so thank you!

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Alexx Newbie

Alexx

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2 hours ago, Tybo said:

Great report and thanks for letting me know. I work a two minute walk from here, back up on Lutwyche Road, and have fished this area only a couple of times for very mixed results. Considering the amount of catties you got I might have to get myself down there, I need to replenish my crab bait supply.

Plenty of cats there. I would refrain from cast netting here though as there are a heap of trolleys, rocks, scooter wheels, witches hats etc, at the bottom of the creek as seen from our daily walking-of-the-pups past at low tide. 

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  • 3 years later...
MikeJ Newbie

MikeJ

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Great report. I live on the creek just up from where you were fishing. I haven’t tried to fish here as I am concerned about the health of the ecosystem. Not sure if the fish here would be safe to eat. Does anyone have a comment in regards to this? Greatly appreciate any feedback.

Keen to try it and would like the company.

Cheers

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Drop Bear Community Regular

Drop Bear

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3 hours ago, MikeJ said:

Great report. I live on the creek just up from where you were fishing. I haven’t tried to fish here as I am concerned about the health of the ecosystem. Not sure if the fish here would be safe to eat. Does anyone have a comment in regards to this? Greatly appreciate any feedback.

Keen to try it and would like the company.

Cheers

I would eat them... but that is not a recomendation haha. 

Worth going for some sport anyhow. 

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  • 2 years later...
Fisho Heino Newbie

Fisho Heino

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On 12/07/2019 at 2:27 PM, MikeJ said:

Great report. I live on the creek just up from where you were fishing. I haven’t tried to fish here as I am concerned about the health of the ecosystem. Not sure if the fish here would be safe to eat. Does anyone have a comment in regards to this? Greatly appreciate any feedback.

Keen to try it and would like the company.

Cheers

Hey mate. I've been fishing Breakfast/Enoggera Creek for a while now. I've eaten a just legal bream and a roughly 45cm flathead out of there and they tasted beautiful! Very clean and white flesh despite being from a river in the suburbs! I noticed though that they have a bit of a richer flavour than the ones you might catch out of the surf or a more 'pure' coastal creek/estuary.

Thanks,
Will.

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Drop Bear

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21 hours ago, Fisho Heino said:

Hey mate. I've been fishing Breakfast/Enoggera Creek for a while now. I've eaten a just legal bream and a roughly 45cm flathead out of there and they tasted beautiful! Very clean and white flesh despite being from a river in the suburbs! I noticed though that they have a bit of a richer flavour than the ones you might catch out of the surf or a more 'pure' coastal creek/estuary.

Thanks,
Will.

Nice one Will, Thanks for the update. 

Got any pics you could share? 

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Terry H Newbie

Terry H

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I'm not going to pretend to know what this is all about, but these reports suggest our creek water systems aren't doing too bad: https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/pollution/management/disasters/pfas/sites/brisbane-airport/water-sampling

but the seafood sampling shows periods where certain fish like Flathead are above Recreational trigger points for certain chemical groups: https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/pollution/management/disasters/pfas/sites/brisbane-airport/seafood-sampling

 

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