queensland Looking For Land Based Fishing Spots.

[KoRnage1]

Hey guys, just looking for some decent local spots to go land based fishing. I live 5 mins from Lake Samsonvale (kind of near Strathpine) but have not had an ounce of luck fishing up and down it's shore lines. Ive tried worms, prawns, squid,  mussels, and the odd lure all to no avail. What am I doing wrong, or, where else should I fish? The more local the area, the better. Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions

[samsteele115]

There are definitely fish in there. Bass is probably your most likely target species casting from the shore.

You have to understand that fishing isn't luck (maybe only a little bit). Through persistence and practice you will learn and get better. No one who is starting out has regular success straight away, for example I think it took me about a month fishing 2 or 3 times a week to actually catch my first bass and from there you just keep on learning and getting better.

To answer your question about what you are doing wrong; probably a lot. But you will slowly work things out for yourself. When you have success make sure you remember the little details and why you might have had that success and try to replicate that next time. These small building blocks of success connect with each other and fast forward a few years of being a dedicated fisho and you will certainly know how to catch fish on a more regular basis. The best thing is you never stop learning and are always getting better.

I don'k know about the baits you are using either. I would personally be using lures and covering lots of ground casting around a large section of the dam until you find a patch of fish. Eventually you will pick one up that way.

The best people for advice on this are @Dinodadog @rayke1938 @bersim @Binder @Joe K and a few others so hopefully they can help you out more than I can.

 

[KoRnage1]

Thanks for your help. What type of lure would you recommend? Being land based, I find it hard to cast more than 15 metres out using lures because there are no sinkers attached, and that's why I normally use bait instead and manage a good 30+ metre cast. The water appears to only steadily get deeper which is why i feel the need for a decent cast. Might have to give my spinnerbait another go as at least it has some weight, and any bibbed lure seems to just scrape the bottom no matter how slow I reel it in. No luck with plastics either and they are extremely light. Thanks again, and if you or anyone else has any thing else to add, that'd be great. 

[natang]

KoRnage1 it's not all about how far out you cast... Look fro structures and cast around those. As samsteele115 said take note of things that happen whilst your fishing. The moon, the wind, the time of day and time of tide. Loads of things are a player in the feeding or catching a fish.

[samsteele115]

First of all what rod and reel combo do you have and what line? That will make a massive difference in casting distance. You should get a long cast in with the right gear. 

The bibbed lures bouncing on the bottom isn't a bad thing. But yeah for that kind of fishing blades, vibes and spinnerbaits and plastics (depending on jig head size) are the best option for casting distance. 

[KoRnage1]

16 hours ago, natang said:

KoRnage1 it's not all about how far out you cast... Look fro structures and cast around those. As samsteele115 said take note of things that happen whilst your fishing. The moon, the wind, the time of day and time of tide. Loads of things are a player in the feeding or catching a fish.

I get what you're saying, and thanks for the tips. There doesn't appear to be many structures at all from the banks of North Pine Dam and certainly no tides. I have read on other threads here that people are doing extremely well catching bass from boats though so I guess thats why I was thinking longer casts might equate to more fish. 

16 hours ago, samsteele115 said:

First of all what rod and reel combo do you have and what line? That will make a massive difference in casting distance. You should get a long cast in with the right gear. 

The bibbed lures bouncing on the bottom isn't a bad thing. But yeah for that kind of fishing blades, vibes and spinnerbaits and plastics (depending on jig head size) are the best option for casting distance. 

I have a $70 Jarvis walker 5 foot-something rod with a baitcaster reel combo that came together. I am using fairly high grade mono line after trying braid for a while and seem to get a better cast with the mono which is weird (and a lot less birdsnest tangles on the reel after casting). Yesterday, i did manage to find a new spot straight off of Winn road (for the locals who know the place well). It's a bit of a pain to get to though, as there's a little bit of long grass and shrubs to trek through and not a lot of room to work with at the bank. There are a lot of branches and sticks in the water there though and on my third cast I finally got a hook up. It was big too and putting up a great fight. It broke the waters surface after a short while and looked to me to be either a big Catfish or possibly a Saratoga (which Ive never caught before) but then it snapped my line

Going back there now to have another crack with a stronger leader line. Will post back with results. Wish me luck! 

[Dinodadog]

Take the time to look up and read some articles I have put on the PFRMA site. They are under articles and contributions. There is a heap of tips to get you started from boat or landbased.

Dino

[KoRnage1]

No luck today unfortunately. 3 hours with lures and bait, not a single bite, except the damn turtle I caught.

[Luc53]

"have a $70 Jarvis walker 5 foot-something rod with a baitcaster reel combo" that's somewhat of a short outfit for landbased fishing. A spinning rod around 6.5 feet with a matching reel would give you better casting.

[natang]

Sorry champ didn't realise you were just talking about the dam. Pine River isn't far from where you are either. 

[samsteele115]

If you want casting distance you definitely need something around the 7 foot mark. A 2-4kg or 3-6kg rod matched with a 2500 size reel would suffice. Check out something like the shimano raider in that size and match it with something like the shimano sedona 2500 or the likes depending on your budget. You definitely get better distance on spin gear using braid so that is a must. 8lb-10lb would be perfect for that depending on what rod you go for. 

The combo you have is literally only good for short accurate casts out of a boat or kayak where accuracy is all you need and being shorter it means fighting and landing a fish out of a boat a kayak is easier. Sorry to tell you. It is like you are trying to eat soup with a fork, you can sort of do it but not really. 

I don't think you would be getting much distance at all with that setup and a long cast is pretty important for the dams I would think. Sure, you can catch fish right on the edges but having the option to cast an extra 20m could definitely mean the difference between fish and no fish. 

[KoRnage1]

Hey guys, thanks for the comments. 

Finally had some success today, mind you i had to go to the river to finally get it. At the fishing platforms at deepwater bend off Wyampa Road.

Took your advice and brought my larger rod with a spinning reel, but it's been a long while since I last used it and I noticed the ring at the tip of the rod was crooked and upon trying to adjust it I unfortunately snapped the tip of the rod. Lucky I brought my usual baitcaster along as backup! 

Got there just before high tide at 7:30am and there was no current to have to contend with. Cast a few prawns out and before long I had a little Bream. It wasn't much but it was a good feeling after the 2 consecutive, very unsuccessful days I had prior. Some nice bloke then offers me a couple handfuls of freshly caught (but not still live) baitfish. Pretty sure they were herring. Between those and the prawns I ended up catching 9 Bream from 4 hours of fishing. I'll bloody well take that! 

3 were of legal size, the biggest being 29cm. I gave all 3 to the bloke who gave me the bait... Yes, I'm one of those weirdos who loves fishing but doesn't actually eat fish... I'll probably cop it now from you blokes for admitting that

All in all, other than a broken rod and a fairly bad case of sunburn (got to remember sunscreen next time!!), it was a great day and I would still be there if my bloody missus didn't need a lift home from work  

 

[curranboy99]

16 minutes ago, KoRnage1 said:

Got there just before high tide at 7:30am and there was no current to have to contend with. Cast a few prawns out and before long I had a little Bream. It wasn't much but it was a good feeling after the 2 consecutive, very unsuccessful days I had prior. Some nice bloke then offers me a couple handfuls of freshly caught (but not still live) baitfish. Pretty sure they were herring. Between those and the prawns I ended up catching 9 Bream from 4 hours of fishing. I'll bloody well take that! 

3 were of legal size, the biggest being 29cm. 

 

Seems like pretty good session . I was there at the same time today and found the current ripping thru there, mind you I was using sz00 ball sinkers so that's most likely the culprit and had to be speed walking from one end of the platform to the other.

It's one of the best feelings catching fish after multiple unsuccessful sessions. But I did beat you by 1cm on the biggest bream

Great Job!!   

[KoRnage1]

2 minutes ago, curranboy99 said:

Seems like pretty good session . I was there at the same time today and found the current ripping thru there, mind you I was using sz00 ball sinkers so that's most likely the culprit and had to be speed walking from one end of the platform to the other.

It's one of the best feelings catching fish after multiple unsuccessful sessions. But I did beat you by 1cm on the biggest bream

Great Job!!   

Forgot to mention that although I was there before the current started, I was still there when it started sweeping fairly strongly too. Oddly enough, I seemed to get the most fish after the current picked up... was using a size 3 sinker and I just let the current take it as I'm not sure what else you can do in that situation. Adding more sinkers doesn't help at all. 

Which platform were you on, left or right when facing the water? What time were you there til? I was on the right hand side of the right platform. Probably saw you there...?

[Doyley]

Good effort mate.  Also try along the boardwalk to the right of the ramp. A few other ok spots a short drive from you are the caboolture river and nudgee beach in the main channel on a low tide

[samsteele115]

Glad you had success. It's not weird at all not keeping fish. A growing number of people are becoming catch and release anglers now (well, in your case catch and give to someone else haha). I love eating fish but am mainly catch and release for sustainability reasons so it is a real treat when I do keep a fish or two. There's something special about letting fish go but each to their own. 

[Luc53]

Well done on your catch, the best fisherman I know never eats fish. So that's nothing strange.

Re your broken rod tip, if you see your local tackle store, just fitting a new one should be fine.

 

[kmcrosby78]

2 hours ago, samsteele115 said:

Glad you had success. It's not weird at all not keeping fish. A growing number of people are becoming catch and release anglers now (well, in your case catch and give to someone else haha). I love eating fish but am mainly catch and release for sustainability reasons so it is a real treat when I do keep a fish or two. There's something special about letting fish go but each to their own. 

Catch and release is better than keeping them, but my fishing method is even kinder to the fish ......... I generally 'seem' to keep my hooks well clear of them  

Nice work on the bream mate.

[curranboy99]

19 hours ago, KoRnage1 said:

Forgot to mention that although I was there before the current started, I was still there when it started sweeping fairly strongly too. Oddly enough, I seemed to get the most fish after the current picked up... was using a size 3 sinker and I just let the current take it as I'm not sure what else you can do in that situation. Adding more sinkers doesn't help at all. 

Which platform were you on, left or right when facing the water? What time were you there til? I was on the right hand side of the right platform. Probably saw you there...?

I got most of my fish as the current picked up as well so the bream must like the strong tidal flow.

I was on the left platform walking from side to side to keep up with my bait drifting and I was there till 12.00ish, I think I saw you there on the right platform pulling up a undersized bream when the current was ripping thru but that was all I saw as I was trying to watch my bait drift, feeling/watching for bites and trying to keep it off snags concentrating greatly.

[KoRnage1]

19 hours ago, Doyley said:

Good effort mate.  Also try along the boardwalk to the right of the ramp. A few other ok spots a short drive from you are the caboolture river and nudgee beach in the main channel on a low tide

Do you mean on the right of the boat ramp? Haven't been that far down there, wasn't aware there was spots to fish there? I'll have to google map those other spots and give them a go, cheers. 

 

33 minutes ago, curranboy99 said:

I got most of my fish as the current picked up as well so the bream must like the strong tidal flow.

I was on the left platform walking from side to side to keep up with my bait drifting and I was there till 12.00ish, I think I saw you there on the right platform pulling up a undersized bream when the current was ripping thru but that was all I saw as I was trying to watch my bait drift, feeling/watching for bites and trying to keep it off snags concentrating greatly.

Think I might have seen you early on. Well if you see me there again, feel free to say hi  .Im the guy with the man bun so shouldn't be hard to find haha. 

[PineRiverNoob]

13 minutes ago, KoRnage1 said:

I'm the guy with the man bun so shouldn't be hard to find haha. 

This made me laugh... not that there is anything wrong with a man bun!

[samsteele115]

47 minutes ago, KoRnage1 said:

Im the guy with the man bun. 

Remember to bring some scissors next time @curranboy99  (sorry, this comment was inspired by a hilarious video I saw once of a guy going around and cutting off peoples man buns. Couldnt help myself)