Visiting Brisbane In December From Canada

[Esox_angler]

Hello all, I'm coming to Brisbane for the month of December for my sisters wedding, and I going to be doing some fishing! Since I am about 20 hours from the nearest coast line I have done very little saltwater fishing in my life  and am wondering if any of you kind fellows could help a fellow fisherman out. Any ideas on pointers, spots to try, or what gear to use would be very appreciated. Or if you want a fishing partner I would be happy to tag along on any type of fishing expedition!

I would love to catch a shark while I am there, but would be happy catching any type of salt or freshwater species. I would also like to catch some mud crabs while I'm there if anyone is into that! 

If any of you are on Instagram give me a follow @Esox_angler and send me a DM so I can follow you back!

Thanks, and tight lines!

Aaron 

[Old Scaley]

I am sure if you update this post closer to December there will be a few kind skippers on here who would be happy to take you out for a trip. Where abouts in Canada are you from?

[Esox_angler]

What section of this forum would be the best to message on come closer to December?

I live in Rosthern, Saskatchewan a small little town on the prairies. Still some great fishing around, but completely different then what I imagine its like fishing there! 

[Old Scaley]

I am not an expert but you could either just use this topic or start a new one under saltwater. Might be useful at that time to say where you are staying as Brisbane is spread over quite a big area. Looking forward to seeing your post In December.

[Esox_angler]

Thanks! We will have a rental vehicle so if I have to drive a couple hours to fish thats fine by me. Any good recommendations for areas to stay in along the coast for good shore fishing? I think we are going to be renting a beach house somewhere within a couple hours of brisbane for the first week.

[Old Scaley]

The Sunshine Coast (1 to 2 hours north of Brisbane) and the Gold Coast (about the same distance south of Brisbane) are both good destinations with nice beaches and lots of beach and estuary fishing options. My pick would be to spend at least a few days on North Stradbroke Island. My daughter has lived in Toronto for about 12 years now and whenever she comes home for a visit with a new boyfriend we do all the local beaches and their favourite is always Stradbroke. There is good surfing (you can take lessons there), swimming and lots of fishing options. The locals are friendly and there is so much wildlife with kangaroos roaming around the village in the afternoons and evenings and heaps of wild koalas if you know where to look. The walk around the headland at Point Lookout is beautiful and you will see dolphins, turtles and rays cruising around below you.

if you do go there and want to be sure of catching a fish, there is a guy there called Mal Starkey who does charters in a boat from the beach. At least I think he still does, and he will put you onto a few good fish. Straddie is usually really quiet, so don’t expect much in the way of nightlife or fine dining, but I am guessing Rosthern is not exactly New York either. Depending on how early in December you are coming you may be looking for accommodation during the school vacation which will make it more expensive and harder to find. Might be good to get your sister to look at booking a couple of months earlier. 

Here is a link to more info on Straddie http://stradbrokeisland.com/straddie

 

[Drop Bear]

Great post Old Scaley,

I second everything he said. Straddie is tops and should be on your list. here are some rental places. Anywhere at Point Lookout will do you well. 

http://raywhitestraddie.com/holidayrentals/about

https://straddiesalesrentals.com.au/

If I am around I will gladly take you out for a fish

[Esox_angler]

Thanks guys! Stadbroke is definitely on the bucket list for the trip!

We aren’t the nightlife kind of people. So straddie sounds like our kind of place! 

Thanks for the heads up about your holidays! We are looking to book fairly soon so hopefully that won’t be an issue. Already been looking on Airbnb scoping out some places close to some jetties and points. :-p

Thanks Drop Bear for the offer! I am planning on bringing some fishing gear along, what would you guys recommend I bring? From what I’ve read it sounds like a lot of guys use live bait around there? That makes it easy for me to pack! But casting is a lot more fun. What size of reels are you guys running over there too? I have a pflueger president xt 40x as my biggest reel would that be big enough for threadfin, Jews, snapper and the like? I’ve caught fish the same size as them around here, but I don’t think freshwater fish put up as much of a fight as their saltwater cousins.

sorry about all the questions!

[Drop Bear]

16 minutes ago, Esox_angler said:

Thanks guys! Stadbroke is definitely on the bucket list for the trip!

We aren’t the nightlife kind of people. So straddie sounds like our kind of place! 

Thanks for the heads up about your holidays! We are looking to book fairly soon so hopefully that won’t be an issue. Already been looking on Airbnb scoping out some places close to some jetties and points. :-p

Thanks Drop Bear for the offer! I am planning on bringing some fishing gear along, what would you guys recommend I bring? From what I’ve read it sounds like a lot of guys use live bait around there? That makes it easy for me to pack! But casting is a lot more fun. What size of reels are you guys running over there too? I have a pflueger president xt 40x as my biggest reel would that be big enough for threadfin, Jews, snapper and the like? I’ve caught fish the same size as them around here, but I don’t think freshwater fish put up as much of a fight as their saltwater cousins.

sorry about all the questions!

Questions are welcome.

Lures work well here too. Live baits are hard to beat though. We catch a huge range of fish from Whiting that take a 2lb gear up to xxos. Hard to say exactly what you should bring as it depends on what you are targeting. 

If you have lure type great that works on pike that would be good here.

Sharks will want your heavy stuff but if you are fishing with me I can have that covered for you.

 

 

[Esox_angler]

Guess I'll bring a little bit off everything. I don't know what I want to target either. EVERYTHING! haha A shark is definitely at the top of my list. but I'm game for anything. 

I think I'll probably bring along one spinning rod and a fly rod just for fun. and then a tray of soft plastics and a tray of hard and some terminal tackle for the live bait and see what I can catch.

Is there any species in particular you guys would recommend I try and go for? I would like to try for a barramundi as well as I feel that is a fairly iconic Australian fish.

Thanks @Drop Bear I well definitely send you a message closer to December and see if we can work out a time to go fishing! 

[Drop Bear]

2 hours ago, Esox_angler said:

Is there any species in particular you guys would recommend I try and go for?

If you do some searching on the site you will find lots of reports on any fish you are keen to target. The problem is if you are not from here you don't know what to target. 

I will put in a few options and see what tickles your fancy;

Freshwater (sweet water) 

The topic below is  great report of a mixed bag of fish 

--------------------------

Here are some thing you can target

Australian Bass

We have a native Bass that is fun to target. You could look at getting one of these on surface with your fly gear. They grow to about 55cm... I think there will be quite a few people on here that will tell me they have bigger

Here are some reports you can read about bass.

 

 

Saratoga are a prehistoric looking fish that are a highly predatory. I am yet to catch one...  This one is on the bucket list.

They are fun to target on top water and many use spinner baits. Here is a report from a dam about 2 hours north of Brisbane. 

There are other Freshwater fish. Yellow belly, Murray River Cod and Barramundi are 3 good ones. We don't get Barramundi this far south so you would need to do a road trip north to get amongst them. We do get a Mary River Cod down this way but they are endangered and you are not aloud to target them. The Murray River ones are a few hours away from Brisbane. You will get Yellow Belly in most dams especially if you use baits like live prawns (shrimp)

Salt Water

We have hundreds of fish you could target in the salt. I will just add a few. This is by no means a comprehensive list. 

There are bread and butter fish;

Flathead, whiting, Bream, Snapper

Bottom type reef fish;

Snapper, Moses perch, Pearl Perch, Spangled Emperor, Grassy Emperor, tusk fish, Wrasse, threadfin salmon. 

Larger Reef fish

Cobia, Sharks (many types) Trevely (Golden, Big Eye, Giant, Diamond, Silver, bludger... etc) Many varieties of Cod.

Pelagic Fish

Tuna (Long Tail and Yellow fin are most common here) Mackerel (Spotted, Sschool. Spanish, Grey, Shark)

Let us know if there are some you want to know more about.

[Esox_angler]

The problem is you have to many options! haha I want to catch everything. If the Barramundi are to far north I'll probably focus on salt water. 

 

4 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

There are bread and butter fish;

Flathead, whiting, Bream, Snapper

This is 99% of what ive read about people catching in and around Brisbane! and what I figured I'd be fishing for. I caught bream on a hand line the last time I was in Australia, but I would not complain about  catching them either. I am just excited to catch something different then my normal pike, walleye, and trout.

Is there any chance of catching a GT from shore? They is also on my Bucket List, but I didn't realize that they came that far south! I would definitely have to upgrade my setup to get one of those in!

I'm for sure going to be soaking up everything I can on this site in the next 6 months! This is a great site.

[Drop Bear]

16 minutes ago, Esox_angler said:

Is there any chance of catching a GT from shore? They is also on my Bucket List, but I didn't realize that they came that far south! I would definitely have to upgrade my setup to get one of those in!

We catch GT on lures over at Straddie off the rocks and beach. Not every time but it is not uncommon. They are not the monster trophy fish you can see but they are fun to catch. 

We often catch them in the Manly Boat harbour also on lures but live herring are good too. 

Its not that far north where you can catch Barramundi. December is one of the best months for it too. Lake Lenthal stock them and that is near Maryborugh. Its about 3 hours or so. There would be more that I don't know about. Others here might help?

You could do a trip out of Bundaberg and go for a Coral trout or too as well? Like this little one that @aussie123 caught. 

 

[Esox_angler]

Nice GT @Drop Bear! I would be happy with any size of GT. Are they more common to catch at Manly then on stradbroke? And do you fish the rocks on the NE side of straddie for the GT? From some google mapping that looks like the best point to me. 

Ok that is not to far of drive. We are planning on heading north for a bit. I'll have to see if I can tear my wife away from the ocean for a day to go for some Barras! haha

Coral Trout is delicious! I've eaten Coral Trout that my wife caught there. But is was a Hens party so I did not get to go.  That is a good looking Trout @aussie123!

So many options so little time! 

[Drop Bear]

6 hours ago, Esox_angler said:

Are they more common to catch at Manly then on stradbroke? And do you fish the rocks on the NE side of straddie for the GT? From some google mapping that looks like the best point to me. 

Well I have caught nothing at both places and done really well at times at both. In Manly if they are there you will catch 6 or so in an hour but they are only small. I struggle to identify them properly but I think the ones in the harbour are mostly Big Eye Trevally not GT's. They look similar and I am not sure soz. The fish in the photos are some I caught one afternoon in the harbour. I think they are Big Eye...???

Your googling served you well. The rocks NE side of straddie are where we fish. This whole area is called Point Lookout. The map shows my favourite part of it.

The headland that is south of the map has deeper water and @Angus catches king fish there but I have not spent much time there.

Fave spot is the rocks between Frenchman's and Deadman's. It's the bit closest to the top right courner of the pic. 

Any deep water, larger soft plastic and you are in with a shot. Mind you if you hook a really big one you wont get it in. You will catch Jew Fish (Mulloway more PC name) and flatheads here as by catch. 

6 hours ago, Esox_angler said:

Ok that is not to far of drive. We are planning on heading north for a bit. I'll have to see if I can tear my wife away from the ocean for a day to go for some Barras! haha

Do both. Go to Bundaberg or even further to Townsville etc., get a reef charter and do a Barra lake charter. Hopefully someone will tell you what is the best spot for Barra up that way. I don't know soz. 

One thing to remember is that Brisbane is heavily populated with over 2million people so there is a fair bit of fishing pressure on the area. It is a good place to fish and you will catch but it is not a fishing Mecca. Many of us travel to other places to fish as it is more consistent. 

[Esox_angler]

Nice! Everyone wants to catch a giant, but I would be happy some that size! No such thing as by catch for me. I'll be happy with whatever I can reel in since I really have not done any saltwater fishing. 

Thanks for the pointers on Straddie! we are wanting to rent an AirBnB somewhere for the second week of december, and stradbroke is at the top of the list. So hopefully I can convince them to stay around the Point Lookout area. 

That would be the dream to do both! We have some friends in the Atherton Area, but we are undecided if we will make it up that far yet or not. 

17 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

One thing to remember is that Brisbane is heavily populated with over 2million people so there is a fair bit of fishing pressure on the area. It is a good place to fish and you will catch but it is not a fishing Mecca. Many of us travel to other places to fish as it is more consistent. 

It is the same way around the cities here.   We are hoping to get out of the city for a week or 2, but I am hoping to get out a couple times while we are stationary in Brisbane because that will be my best chance of doing some scouting and planning ahead for where to fish. And really I'll be happy with anything i can catch.

[Drop Bear]

4 hours ago, Esox_angler said:

We have some friends in the Atherton Area, but we are undecided if we will make it up that far yet or not. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinaroo_Dam

Big Barra up that way. Do it  Or do a salt water fishing trip out of cairns. Northern Conquest run out of there. 

http://www.nccharters.com.au/