queensland Brisbane River Session #19

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi all

Yesterday I went out for another session on the Brissy River, just at the local park. I wouldn't have gone normally because the tides were out, but I had a mate around who wanted to go for a fish so I decided to take my exhausted self down there (I think kayaking, mountain biking, and another fishing trip does something to a weak 11 year old kid because I felt sick last night, LOL). Also, sorry to post up another report after the Moreton Mania one, I think that one was a bit more exciting anyways. 

So, once I rigged up the rods, got the gear ready, and packed the fishing cart we went down to the park. When we got there there were a few people congregating on the jetty (teenagers), so much for social distancing... I then proceeded to chuck the smaller set ups out with some prawn I'd caught there prior to the session, and began throwing my net. The first cast resulted in some prawn, and so did the next few. With about 8 livies, I threw the two biggest out on the salmon line. While my mate wasn't getting hit (mainly because either the prawn he put on kept coming off due to bad presentation, tide, or pickers) I caught a few more prawns. By now we were about 45 minutes into the trip, and I saw a couple pecks on the salmon line. I thought it was a catty, and when it took off a couple minutes later I knew it was. Up came the first fish of the day, +1 for me!  

After I dealt with that, I proceeded to catch some more prawns, and a little river shrimp. For about another half hour, I had some throws where I got some, or got nothing. Our next strike was about half an hour away, but since my friend was taking the prawn off me we missed it (well I saw it and he heard it, LOL). I doubt it was big anyways, but you never know. 

We kept on fishing, still having a chat to passers by. It amazes me how everyone thinks that social distancing doesn't apply because of the eased restrictions, the amount of crowds I saw pass by was quite large. We had about an hours break from any fish, but I was still getting a few prawns. I had a few drinks because it was actually pretty hot in a balaclava, long sleeve top, polo fleece, sunnies, and cap, and I made sure to put some burn cream on my legs (the mud was probably protecting them as good as anything though, I was dirty as). At about 4:45PM, my friend got a hit on my little rod next to the pylons, and then he thought he'd dropped it. Turned out he hadn't, because when I told him to pull the bait up he had a little perch on. It had a lot of go in it apparently, because it hit pretty hard. Here it is - 

After the perch, I caught a couple more prawns, but by this time some fella had pulled up with his little tinny to the jetty, and it was still too shallow to throw from the walk down to the jetty so I had a sit down. Not to long after, the little rod has a big bend in it's tip. I run over, and my friend thought it was snagged, which was partly true...

Whatever this was, I could feel it was big. It had me around some structure on the bottom, I think a crab pot (ironically enough from a member of the WBB, I remember him coming there when I was young and taking all the crabs into his white bucket ) tied to the bottom. It kept trying to go off, and I was just waiting for him to come out. In about 2 minutes though, I felt my line go slack. I reeled it up to see my bloody 9lb leader had been busted off, sigh! I think I'll only be using 20lb leader on that rod from now on, because if there's a big cod I don't want to loose it again, LOL.

In about half an hour, it was time to go home. I proceeded to reel in the big line, but when I got down there the line was going off. I picked it up and I was on. Soon enough though, I saw a thing curling around on the surface. "An eel?!" I thought. Nope!. When I got it up, I realised it was a little log, which was drifting in the current. It just shows how strong the tidal flow is here, because for a bit of wood to be able to take a heap of line (despite the drag being somewhat loose) is pretty impressive. 

I began reeling up the other lines, but as I reeled in the small one it went off. I was on! I quickly proceeded to pull up something that looked a bit like a small lizard, but on closer inspection I thought it might be a rock gurnard. I am still not 100%, but I think it's pretty close to that whatever it is. I catch them in my shrimp traps a fair bit, too. If anyone has a better idea, please tell me. Here it is - 

I got the hook out and packed the gear up, time to go home. It was just getting dark on the way home, and when we were back on the road we had to call a dog's owner because it was on the street, I figured it would've just found it's way back to it's home (turns out the person lived 3 houses down) but I guess it's better than getting them worried or something like getting hit by a car . 

Here are the stats of the trip:

Statistics of trip - 

Tide: 2:40PM Low, .3M, 8:40PM High, 2.1M - I was fishing the rise

Moon Phase: First quarter, so not that much run

Weather: Sunny, light gusts

Bait caught: Prawns and shrimp 

Bait used: Live prawns, dead fresh prawns

Fish caught: Catfish x 1,  River Perch x 1, Rock Gurnard x 1

Tackle Used: Shimano Sienna and Nasci, size 1000 and 2500. 6"6' and 8" rods, Ugly Stik. Size 650 Penn reel, 2M Rogue Firepoint rod. 14lb mainline with 9lb and 20lb leaders, 30lb mainline with 30lb leader and 80lb trace. Size 4/o suicide and circle hooks, size 2 and 5 ball sinkers, big swivel. 

Overall Success: 85%

That's all for this report, I hope you enjoyed. Hopefully I will finish my school work off soon so I can get out for a Friday fish, and by the way, it's my birthday on Sunday. Hooray! LOL. I hope to be getting a charter (it's become a bit of a tradition for my b'day because I've had the same one for two years now and it's great) but hopefully the restrictions are eased enough so they can operate. Sorry for any grammatical errors as well. 

Cheers Hamish  

[kmcrosby78]

Shame about the lost fish Hamish, hopefully 20lb leader stops it next time. Not sure what that fish is but it looks to me like it could possibly have harmful spikes/fins so be careful with them until someone can positively identify it. Speaking of which, @ellicat, what happened to @elops who used to be on here doing exactly that?

[ellicat]

He faded away to Facebook and then moved to the Sunshine Coast I believe.

I thought that fish was a bullrout at first glance, but I think it looks more like some kind of gurnard too.

[kmcrosby78]

2 minutes ago, ellicat said:

He faded away to Facebook and then moved to the Sunshine Coast I believe.

I thought that fish was a bullrout at first glance, but I think it looks more like some kind of gurnard too.

Yes I wondered if it was a bullrout too. I've never seen one but googled them and it's not that, so yes possibly a kind of gurnard.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

9 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Shame about the lost fish Hamish, hopefully 20lb leader stops it next time. Not sure what that fish is but it looks to me like it could possibly have harmful spikes/fins so be careful with them until someone can positively identify it. Speaking of which, @ellicat, what happened to @elops who used to be on here doing exactly that?

Hi kmcrosby78

Yes, a shame it was. I think it had harmful spikes too, so I just jiggled the hook around with some pliers and then picked it up with the lip grips and off it went. I remember in lots of older threads I see someone mentioning elops for ID, he must be pretty good at it to know all those fish.  

9 hours ago, ellicat said:

He faded away to Facebook and then moved to the Sunshine Coast I believe.

I thought that fish was a bullrout at first glance, but I think it looks more like some kind of gurnard too.

 

9 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Yes I wondered if it was a bullrout too. I've never seen one but googled them and it's not that, so yes possibly a kind of gurnard.

Hey ellicat, and kmcrosby78

I have done a bit of searching and I found a bit of interesting information. The first thing that comes up for a google search on mud/rock gurnard is the red gurnard (that's kind of obvious as it seems to be a popular table fish somewhere in Asia) but after a bit more searching I tried searching flathead. This could also be another option of what this fish is because if you search rock flathead it comes up with something that looks vaguely similar. A gudgeon may also be another option. I will just keep searching until I can identify it, but I doubt I will catch another one of them for a while.  

Cheers Hamish