queensland Brisbane River Session #33 And #34

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hey all

I'm going to put up the report from Thursday arvo/night, where I was at the normal haunt (local park). I'll say it straight up - it was a donut. It was also pretty cold, and despite putting in my best effort I could not catch one at all. I'll go from the start though, and try to make this a not so long report  

I arrived at about 2:45PM, and got the lines out. The two smaller lines were baited with good dead prawn, and I needed to get some livies for the bigger line. It wasn't the best tide, about 3/4 full, but I decided it didn't matter to much. The first cast I got a small prawn, and in about 3 more casts I got a couple more. These were then baited on the lines. I kept getting a consistent amount of prawns, around 1 or 2 a cast. 

The first take was a while away, where the line went off. I was too slow to set the hook and whatever it was, it was just a small one as it didn't pick up/take the full bait. This happened about five more times over the session. I was doing a bit of cast netting in this time, and I got a good silver biddy. It was immediately deployed, and I hoped for the best.

Eventually, after many more prawns and some missed strikes, it was getting dark. My mate was still yet to come down, so I'd decided I'd do something I haven't down in a while - a night session.  I put everything back into the cart except the rods, so it would be easier to leave when we did. The line in the cod spot was baited with a live frogmouth pilchard, the heavy salmon one with the biddy, and the lighter one with a prawn. "We're all set", I thought.

My friend came down soon after and we were set. While I was a bit chilly, he was all set, with a puffer jacket (lucky). The first action came about 15 minutes in, with a run on the lighter line. I'd assume it would just be another perch/picker, but I'll never know, seeing as we didn't hook up. The next hour or so was fun, we just sat there and waited. Nothing. At. All.  

At the end, when my dad came down, we reeled in the salmon line. The biddy was still lively and swimming, which was really quite annoying. I would've thought it would make the perfect bait, but obviously not. 

Here are the statistics of that 'short' report. LOL. 

Statistics of trip -

Tide: High tide, 1:40PM, 1.7M, Low tide, .4M. 7:50PM

Moon Phase: First quarter

Weather: Cold, slightly windy

Tackle used: 14lb mainline, 30lb mainline (both braid), 15lb fluorocarbon leader, 30lb fluorocarbon leader, 80lb trace, size 4/o suicide and circle hooks, size 1000 and 2500 Shimano Sienna and Nasci, Size 650 Penn reel, size 2 and six ball/bean sinkers, large barrel swivel, 6"6' and 8" Ugly Stik, 2M Rogue Firepoint boat rod. 

Bait used: Live prawns and silver biddy

Fish caught: - 

Bait caught: Prawns and biddy

Overall Success Rate: 30% - A nice fish

That's that one done, which, I admit, was quite boring . Here is the next one, which thankfully wasn't a donut. I woke up at 5:40AM after going to bed early and setting an alarm. I ended up departing at about 6, and had the lines in at about 6:15AM. My dad was down for the first part to do some cast netting (and he also didn't let me go by myself when it was still dark). The first cast he got some prawns and a good sized frogmouth pilchard, which I live baited straight away. We now had all the lines in, with a mix of live prawn and frogmouth pilchard. Dad kept getting good prawns, but while this was happening, nothing was (happening) on the lines. 

By about 10 past seven, Dad had gotten plenty of prawns, and he headed off. In about five minutes, I saw some nibbles on the line. It was while I was cast netting, so I quickly pulled the net up and ran up. The rod was now going off, and line was screaming off the reel. I picked it up and striked. Realising it was a perch, I was surprised - it actually had ran pretty fast. This prompts me to think whatever was taking baits from the report above must've been small perch. I landed him, de-hooked him with a couple pulls with my hands, and then got a photo. I noticed he was bleeding, so I thought he might not swim off. Fortunately, after a proper swim off the jetty, he swam off fine. Here it is - 

After the perch, everything went quiet again. There was one more run, and the cod line was repeatedly pickered to bits. It seemed I was just wasting prawns on this, but I kept going because I wanted to see if I could entice anything with size. I also just kept getting prawns, which was good. 

My dad had caught a big prawn when he was throwing, and after a couple bait checks the frogmouth pilly seemed a bit, well, dead, so I put it on. I will say it looked great, with the prawn clicking around like no tomorrow. It was fired out, and after I caught a few more prawns off the end of the jetty (as well as one herring which found its way to the top of the net), I saw the salmon line go over, but then come straight back up. "Pickers!" I thought. I was right, as the prawns eyes and legs had been ripped off obviously killing it. I threw it back out, hoping a salmon might like an extra fresh bait. No fish wanted it though, so I let the prawn join the frogmouth pilchard in the esky and put on the live herring. It was fired out and left in the holder (a hole in the jetty which my rod fits very snuggly into). 

After numerous picker attacks in the cod hole (only one real strike), the line there got snagged. Luckily I had a fourth rod ready, but instead of putting it in the cod spot I put it on the other side of the wooden part. This meant that the current would be pushing it under the jetty, so I thought it might be good for a bream or cod. When I went down to the cast net next, this thing fell out. It just so happens that when reading old threads on this forum about the park, an ID thread came up with this fish. I couldn't remember the name then, but now I know it is a Butis Butis, or Crazyfish. Here it is (it looks and acts very much like a stick) - 

I threw it back, and it swam off. I caught some more prawns, and for the next twenty odd minutes I spent my time doing this (one time I got a few glassies which were annoying, but only one of them ended up as berley ). Then, I looked up. The rod positioned next to the pylons was going off. I yanked my net up as quick as I could and ran up to the rod. Luckily, it was still on. The fight began. I first got it out of the pylon area, so now I had a clean fight. When it surfaced, I realised I had an OK bream on. It ran around for a good couple minutes, and once I got it on the surface I waited a few more for some people to pass me my landing net. They netted him up for me, and then I took it from there. The photo of me wth it is dodgy because I needed to take a selfie. Here he is (a tad over 32cm and very fat). 

Solid! a nice BR Breambo!  

(I also just realised he is a bit further back than the start, so it might've been a 33cm model). 

It was just starting to rain, and despite being soaked, I wasn't cold at all because I remembered the thermals. It was another half an hour before my friend came down, and in this time I had basically caught a few more prawns. After my mate came down, I held the rod in the cod spot. It was getting relentlessly pickered. A couple times the rod would load up, like it would with any other fish, but then whatever it was the fish would drop it.

 This happened until about 11:30AM, and then it was time to go. In the time, the only exciting thing that happened was that I watched a catfish (about 30cm) come right up into about 10-20cm of water, to the edge of the river, and have a go at something... And I finally figured out what was pickering me in the shallows. Baby bream (or so I think). I managed to get one to the surface, and it was having a go at a prawn the size of its body! That was a waste of time! Here is a shot of the esky at the end of the day - 

On the way home, I managed to loose my landing net without me noticing so I called down my dad when I noticed (just about to leave the park, which is about a 700 metre walk away from the spot) and he came riding down. It took all of 3 minutes for him to find it, and then we walked home together. I was pretty satisfied with the session, so yes, that is this report done. Thanks for reading everyone, I hope you all enjoyed! Here are the stats - 

Statistics of trip -

Tide: 2.2M High, 3:50AM, .4M Low, 10:40AM - I fished the run out and then the change

Moon Phase: First quarter moon

Weather: Rainy, overcast, and cool

Water Temp: Quite cool - not very humid and rainy, miserable day

Bait caught: Lots of prawns, frogmouth pilchards, herring

Fish caught: Yellowfin Bream x 1, River Perch x 1

Bait used: Live prawns, frogmouth pilchards, and herring

Tackle Used: 14lb mainline, 30lb mainline (both braid), 15lb fluorocarbon leader, 30lb fluorocarbon leader, 80lb trace, size 4/o suicide and circle hooks, size 1000 and 2500 Shimano Sienna and Nasci, Size 650 Penn reel, size 2 and six ball/bean sinkers, large barrel swivel, 6"6' and 8" Ugly Stik, 2M Rogue Firepoint boat rod. 

Overall Success Rate: 60% - Some good fish

Cheers Hamish  

[GregOug]

I can see why it is called a crazy fish. What a weird looking thing!

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

3 minutes ago, GregOug said:

I can see why it is called a crazy fish. What a weird looking thing!

Yeah, agreed GregOug. I doubt I'll ever see one again unless I get another one in the net! 

Cheers Hamish

[Hweebe]

Solid Brizzy river bream

[ellicat]

Nice one Hamish. That's a decent bream, would have given a good fight with the extra padding on it.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

1 minute ago, ellicat said:

Nice one Hamish. That's a decent bream, would have given a good fight with the extra padding on it.

Hey ellicat

Yep, it sure had a good tussle about it. Probably would've been more fun if I loosened up my drag a bit more, but I didn't want to lose it to the pylons.  

1 hour ago, Hweebe said:

Solid Brizzy river bream

Hey Hweebe

Thanks for that, yep, I was pretty happy with it!  

Cheers Hamish

[Hweebe]

How does the current go where u fish? Is it the Brisbane river or a creek?

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

10 hours ago, Hweebe said:

How does the current go where u fish? Is it the Brisbane river or a creek?

Morning Hweebe

Yep, the current rips through. It is the main Brisbane River. 

Eventually you work out how to fish with the tide, and even though it goes through so fast you can still manage some... 

Cheers Hamish  

[Hweebe]

7 hours ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Morning Hweebe

Yep, the current rips through. It is the main Brisbane River. 

Eventually you work out how to fish with the tide, and even though it goes through so fast you can still manage some... 

Cheers Hamish  

Humm do you find you get better catches around slack tide when your bait doesn't have to be naturally weighted (heavy) down?

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

10 minutes ago, Hweebe said:

Humm do you find you get better catches around slack tide when your bait doesn't have to be naturally weighted (heavy) down?

Hey Hweebe

Honestly, it depends on what you’re targeting.

All my larger fish (salmon, sharks, and even cod and bream) are mainly caught when at any given time in the tide cycle. I find very much that it is more what position opposed to the flow of the tide. In terms of having less weight, I don’t change it as the tide gets lower - the main solution to not having it look natural is live bait, which makes it look natural again.

I also find (at this spot) that it is more where you position your lines opposed as well. One up in structure, and two out deeper with live baits help me generally go OK.

Catfish and perch seem to bite a lot better around the change of the tide, and it always seems like there is slightly more activity. When my dad and I went out together here a lot all our trips would be based around the changing tide - we still did pretty good.

Cheers Hamish