queensland Brisbane River Session #3

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi all

Last night I put in another session on the Brisbane River with my Dad and brother. We were fishing, near Green Bridge. Overall, it was a pretty successful night, here is what happened. 

So, we rock up to the fishing destination (jetty, don't tell anyone) and see it's as crowded as we've ever seen. Two guys fishing together, and an older couple taking up the spot we'd normally go in. After a quick throw of the cast nets, we decided to fish off the side and back of the jetty. One rod out for bream, the other live baiting for salmon/jew. We started throwing the nets for about 10 minutes after I had chucked out a whole dead herring and a cube of prawn. Initially throwing the nets, we were catching nothing, so we went to have another sit down with the rods. We got our first take on the dead herring with in 2 minutes of us doing that, and the fish felt good. Sadly, after some vicious head shaking, it spat the bait and we lost the fish. I re-baited and we started throwing the nets again.

That's when we started getting some good prawns, we realized to be successful we had to throw our net right in the shallows/mangroves. After numerous bait checks, we got another take on the herring, which felt considerably smaller. It pickered the bait off the hook, making me think it probably wasn't a trophy fish at all . Now, it was about 7:30 and the prawns really started coming in. Unfortunately,   the older couple hadn't left yet, nor had the other guys, taking up most of the jetty. In fishing situations like these, I probably should've gotten there earlier to get a better spot. After a couple more tiny takes and a few more prawns, the older couple hooked up to a decent fish which turned out to be a fairly big pike eel. Then, they got a double hook up, a pike eel and a little bull shark. Then, they caught another little bully. This happened in the space of say, 45 minutes. It was about 8:15 and I guess those other guys decided that the fishing was good 'cos they called in one of their mates, and in within fifteen minutes of that, they called in another one of their mates. These guys started to get a bit annoying/rude, throwing their lines directly over mine and trying to take my spot and swearing a bit too loudly for when there's little kids around (another guy had rocked up with his children, about 4-6 I'd say). It was then about 8:30PM, so we did a final bit of netting, caught a couple prawns and frog mouth pilchards then packed the nets away in the car. 

With the final half hour of fishing, I just chucked out a whole herring on my light line to see if a big bream/cod was sitting in the mangroves. It ended up turning into a small pike eel, which was about 50cm and released because no-one seemed to have a donga and we didn't really need any shark bait. The bloody thing nearly bit me twice (once on the shoe, once on the glove) and then we decided just to 'nudge' her back in. Here it is - 

After skull dragging it in, we began to pack up and just left the last line out with a live mullet on it. Well, nothing smashed it, and I spent about 10 minutes untangling it from the guy who threw his line over mine. At 9:00PM, we decided to leave just as it began to rain. Overall, it was a pretty good session, here are the nights statistics (tide, time, moon, etc)

Statistics of Night

Tide: 1.2M - 1.7M (halfway high to high)

Time Fished: 6:40PM-9:00PM

Fish Caught: Pike eel, 50cm

Bait Caught: Prawns, frog mouth pilchard, mullet

Moon: Third Quarter Cycle

Tackle used for the night:

30lb mainline, 100lb mono leader, size 6 ball sinker, 80lb trace (mono), 6/o circle hook, large barrel swivel

14lb braid mainline, 20lb fluorocarbon leader, size 2 ball sinker, 2/0 suicide hook.

That's everything, hope you enjoyed this report.

Cheers Hamish  

 

[ellicat]

Thanks for reporting on your session.

You can have your evil eel ! haha

Nice to hear the prawns were on. Didn't know you could get Frog mouth in the river.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi ellicat

Yeah, I think all pike eels are evil  

I'm happy to hear the prawns are going too, they were mainly big ones good for eating/live bait with a couple ones good for bream bait/curries. (I don't eat them)

I've actually caught frog-mouth a fair way up from there too in decent schools so yeah, they are in the river  

Cheers Hamish

[Towknee]

Great Job on the report! 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi Towknee 

Thanks for that  

Cheers Hamish

[kmcrosby78]

Great job Hamish, sounds like a fun night despite the at times rude company. Good you had your Dad & brother with you - be very careful if fishing locations such as these alone at night and go home if necessary as you never know what could happen, particularly given most fishermen have a knife as part of their gear. Oh and great idea recording the vital stats (moon, tide, etc) as they will serve you well to look back on and work out patterns (something I have been VERY lazy with ..... ). 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi kmcrosby78

Thanks for that, it was a still a very fun night  

Yeah, I'm probably no where near old enough to stay at one of those spots alone at night, though I think in most fishing situations when I'm a bit older I'd be with a mate from school, because as well as it being easier to land fish, it's a lot safer  Yeah, it's my first time recording the stats though seeing as every man and there dog are there I thought it must be a good night.

Cheers Hamish