queensland Belated Boys Valentines Report

[kmcrosby78]

Took my 4yr old son Liam and my dad out in the tinny last Sunday (Valentines Day .......)  in Tingalpa Creek for a much overdue fish together (only our second outing together which is a bit slack so need to rectify that and do it more often).  Was hoping we would find some prawns as I'd heard they were catching some there so tried on deep hole but only got a couple of mullet (kept them for livies).  Found some small prawns in the shallows so kept them for bait, set one pot where we'd previously caught muddies then made our way to the mouth where we set 3 more pots and then pulled up on the mud flats on the Lota side to pump some yabbies (Liam was more worried about searching for crabs so left him to it while we got some yabbies).

Had planned to fish near the mouth of Lota Creek (or what I consider the mouth - near where the little channel running from Tingalpa Creek joins Lota Creek) but it was pretty dry (low tide) so anchored up in Tingalpa Creek and threw our lines towards a little channel that would feed into Lota Creek as the tide rose.  There were a couple of kayak fishermen and one seemed to lose a pretty reasonable flatty as he was preparing to net it so was starting to feel confident we were in a good spot as I hoped to get both whiting and flathead (and no doubt small bream). 

We fished with whiting rigs with either prawns or yabbies while I chucked a lightly weighted live mullet out the back (eventually - once Liam stopped getting bites or catching fish .......).  Liam caught a small bream in no time and then a couple of minutes later "Wow, Daddy I've got a big one, it's really big".  "Oh yeah, I'm thinking .... until I realise it is stripping line off his reel quite quickly and realise he needs help".  Turns out to be a little stingray which he thought was cool - released unharmed (upside down so took it a while to flip back over and swim away).

I eventually found the time to put the BBQ chicken carcass into the scaling/berley bag and throw it in the water which kept the bites coming.  I got a just legal bream but opted to let it go and in no time we'd caught about ten fish between us - bream, tarwhine and Dad got a little flattie.  My mullet rod came to life and in the distance I thought I could see the tail of a decent flathead but it turned out to be a reasonable sized long tom - unfortunately it spat the hooks (or possibly only had the fish and not the hook in it's mouth) before I could get it close enough for Liam to see which was a shame.

As we decided it was time to start packing up Liam caught a legal bream which we were all excited about and he was keen to keep it to eat so we fished for 'a little bit longer' and he got another one which was fatter and in better condition - he wound it in and lifted it in to the boat all by himself with his tiny Tackleratz rod so was very proud of him.  Things then went quiet so we brought the lines in and had them all in except for my whiting rig when a legal tarwhine decided it wanted to join Liam's bream in our esky so was a good finish to a fun session.

Caught two legal sandies (one was a good size but only had one nipper) and got a muddie in the designated muddie pot but only about 13cm so back he went - Liam was nonetheless impressed that we caught one in the pot we thought we might.

Got home and took a couple of photos before having a swim - hadn't noticed how hot the day was when we were in the boat because it was reasonably windy.  Can't wait til the next family outing - really enjoying getting back to basics (and actually catching some fish - surprising how you forget how well small fish fight when using light, whippy rods). Also was good to see how keen he was to put his hand into the bucket of prawns and yabbies and select his own bait - got nipped once by a pretty decent sized yabby nipper but didn't slow him down for long!!

[kmcrosby78]

Steamed the fish (and crabs - first time steaming them and came out nice and salty and tasty) whole and had them on a bed of rice with steamed veges and a sauce/topping consisting of ginger, shallots, coconut oil, soy sauce and kecap manis (sweet soy) - YUM! Was going to take a photo but the natives were getting wrestless (I never seem to cook quickly enough to have it ready in time for them ...... working on that ... ).

[Old Scaley]

Nice report Kelvin. Some of my best fishing memories are with my boys as they were growing up. 

If only the fish grew as quick as the kids do.

[kmcrosby78]

Cheers Steve. Yeah looking forward to many more years of it - will just take me a while to get used to the idea that I will essentially be the deck-hand for quite a few years ..... Will have to hope the livey rod gets some action....

[tugger]

1st of many qaulity trips with your boy Kelvin it won't be long and he will need a gaff to land his fish

[Luvit]

Nice report Kel

So good to have kids into it. Always have reliable Deckie's in years to come.

Might try steaming the next mud crab I get based on your recommendation.

[samsteele115]

Nice! Great to get the young fella onto some fish, well done. I hope fish still exist if/when I have children of my own. What a way to spend time with them.

[kmcrosby78]

Thanks guys and yep, I'll have 2 very reliable deckies as they grow up. Hopefully they'll be as keen as me and then look out on school holidays - the wife will barely see us .....   And yes Mark, he's always talking about mackerel so won't be too much longer til he can have a crack at them.

Took him for a quick landbased fish this morning at Redland Bay as we stayed at his grandparents over night. Were fishing in behind some mangroves/trees expecting little bream and instead he pulled in a tiny tailor which is a new species for him so he was quite excited.  So that's five species for him now - toadfish, bream, squire, stingray and tailor.