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Baits - Live Yabbies/frozen Baits/beach Worms


Kat

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Hi All

After watching numerous videos, reading articles and speaking to fishos I am still wanting further guidance.  I have heard from so many people that live bait is the best and as I live 5 min walk from prime yabbie territory I finally decided to buy a yabbie pump.  My brother in-law pumped yabbies as a kid and was a champ.  I will master the art in time - BUT , my two fishing trips with the live yabbies were completely unsuccessful.  I think I have now mastered the art of rigging them so they are reasonably secure and still wriggling - but I am not even sure if they are still on the line after casting.  I caught two miniature bream.  Mostly I don't even feel nibbles.  

I am going to the beach tomorrow to try worming (don't laugh) .

I haven't looked at catching live bait fish yet - I thought I would try a trap but then found out they are illegal in QLD.

Any advice on bait and baiting the hook or links to good videos or articles would be appreciated.

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Hey Kat

Yes, in general livies are the best bait. I've never used live yabbies personally, but I know many on here use them with great success. I'm sure when they see this thread you'll get a good bit of information. 

Light line (from what I've heard) is key with the yabbies. And then for you it should only be a matter of patience. 

I have tried beach worming once with my dad. It's very hard I must admit. Good luck to you on that one. I have caught many whiting and bream on servo worms, so if you get some good fresh ones I'd imagine they'd be an excellent bait. Opera House traps, which are these - 

Typical opera house trap

Are not illegal in Queensland. I used to use them a heap to get live river shrimp, but rarely did I catch fish. Another type of trap that you could use is the simple bottle trap, which seems to go OK for some - 

If you really want some live fish (i.e. poddy mullet, herring, garfish) which are a prime bait for flathead, cod, bream, and most estuarine predators, a cast net is a very common method. 

In terms of worms and baiting them, I thread them up the hook and then leave the barb exposed so whatever eats it will be hooked. This also provides a natural bait presentation. 

When rigging live mullet, herring, or other baits, you can pin them through the nose, jaw, tail, or just below the pectoral? fin. All work, but normally with a mullet, gar, winter whiting, and bait fish that have a thicker mouth you rig them through the lip. With baits such as herring, you rig them through the nose... Or at least that's how do it -

Five Ways to Rig Live Mullet | FISHTRACK.COM

Mullet rigged through the lip

Fishing With Live Bait: The Rigging Ultimate Guide

Herring rigged through nose

Also, I just found this video on catching worms. Hope it helps -

Hope all of that helped a bit. Sorry if it's a bit long/big. If there's something else I can try to answer it 🙂 

Cheers Hamish

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8 minutes ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Another type of trap that you could use is the simple bottle trap, which seems to go OK for some - 

Hi Hamish 

Thanks for that.  I was thinking of the bottle trap as it is cheap and I have seen heaps of places near me I could use it.  But when I looked at the fishing regulations it seemed that you could only use traps for Crabs in Queensland - have I got that wrong?  I did read it about five times to be sure?

Cheers Katrina

Edited by Kat
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3 minutes ago, Kat said:

Hi Hamish 

Thanks for that.  I was thinking of the bottle trap as it is cheap and I have seen heaps of places near me I could use it.  But when I looked at the fishing regulations it seemed that you could only use traps for Crabs in Queensland - have I got that wrong?  I did read it about five times to be sure?

Cheers Katrina

OK, so what I found on funnel traps on DPI is that there isn't any regulations on them in the salt -(I'm assuming that's what the 'bottle' trap would classify under. 

Funnel traps

Freshwater

  • The maximum funnel trap size is 70cm long and 50cm high or wide.
  • The maximum mesh size of funnel traps is 25mm, with up to a maximum of 4 entrances made of rigid material.
  • The maximum entrance size is 10cm. The following restrictions apply: 
    • Funnel traps with a maximum rigid opening size of 5cm in all dimensions can be used in all Queensland fresh waters.
    • Funnel traps with a rigid opening size of between 5cm and 10cm can only be used in fresh waters west of a line following the Great Dividing Range and west of the Gore Highway (A39) or in the following impoundments—Atkinsons Dam, Baroon Pocket Dam, Beehive Dam, Bill Gunn Dam (Lake Dyer), Bjelke-Petersen Dam, Boondooma Dam, Borumba Dam, Burdekin Dam (Lake Dalrymple), Callide Dam, Cania Dam, Connolly Dam, Cooby Dam, Coolmunda Dam, Cressbrook Dam, Eungella Dam, Ewen Maddock Dam, Fairbairn Dam, Fred Haigh Dam (Lake Monduran), Glenlyon Dam, Gordonbrook Dam, Hinze Dam, Kinchant Dam, Koombooloomba Dam, Lake Awonga, Lake Gregory, Lake MacDonald, Lenthalls Dam (Lake Lenthall), Leslie Dam, Maroon Dam, Middle Creek Dam, Moogerah Dam, Mount Morgan Big Dam, North Pine Dam, Peter Faust Dam, Ross River Dam, Sideling Creek Dam (Lake Kurwongbah), Somerset Dam, Storm King Dam, Teemburra Dam, Theresa Creek Dam, Tinaroo Dam, Wivenhoe Dam, Wuruma Dam, Wyaralong Dam

Kat, if I've missed something, would you mind showing where you read it?🙂

Cheers Hamish

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Hi Hamish

Yes.  So the way I read the regs is that the list of equipment allowed to be used for fishing is  listed in the regs under fresh and salt or tidal waters.  It is not a list of prohibitions.  There are certainly some specific prohibitions written in the regs but it is mainly listing what is allowed.  They have only listed traps for crabbing in saltwater or tidal or trapping in general in freshwater.  Therefore traps are not allowed in saltwater or tidal waters except for crabbing.

That is how I read it.  

I will do some more research and let you know.

Cheers

Katrina

 

 

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Hey Kat

Yep, that makes good sense. I interpret it more like, 'if it is a grey zone, and nothing covers it, then as long as you are doing it in a legal area, how can you be in trouble for it?'. If the DPI rules do not mention it, then I think it'd be OK...

If you ever buy an opera house trap, the store that sold it to you should probably give you warnings about the laws for it, or that's what I think anyways. I'll be interested to hear others opinions about this matter. 

Cheers Hamish

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  • 3 months later...
On 17/08/2020 at 8:30 PM, Kat said:

Hi Hamish

I would like to hear from others since I was a lawyer in NZ before coming to GC - wouldn't it be embarrassing if I was interpreting it incorrectly! 🤭

Cheers Katrina

P.s. hope I am wrong cause really would like to use a cheap homemade bottletrap...

Hi Kat,

Give the local QLD Fisheries Office a call.

Like you, I read it as a list of allowable equipment in fresh or saltwater. ie if it isn't listed, it isn't permitted.

Don't worry, I will also be more embarrassed as I am ex-NSW Fisheries 🙂

https://www.daf.qld.gov.au/business-priorities/fisheries/compliance/queensland-boating-fisheries-patrol

 

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On 17/08/2020 at 8:30 PM, Kat said:

Hi Hamish

I would like to hear from others since I was a lawyer in NZ before coming to GC - wouldn't it be embarrassing if I was interpreting it incorrectly! 🤭

Cheers Katrina

P.s. hope I am wrong cause really would like to use a cheap homemade bottletrap...

Logically , but not necessarily legally, a bottle trap should be OK as in NSW cast nets are a very serious offence, yet they are permitted in Qld. Ditto bait haul nets.

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7 minutes ago, SuperHans said:

Hi Kat,

Give the local QLD Fisheries Office a call.

Like you, I read it as a list of allowable equipment in fresh or saltwater. ie if it isn't listed, it isn't permitted.

Don't worry, I will also be more embarrassed as I am ex-NSW Fisheries 🙂

https://www.daf.qld.gov.au/business-priorities/fisheries/compliance/queensland-boating-fisheries-patrol

 

Lol.  Yeah but not Queensland.  I am pretty sure I am right - and would win an argument in court (but who would bother).  A local tackle shop guy also confirmed my reading of it.  

While we are on this subject about a month ago I noticed saltwater yabbies do not have any restriction on numbers collected.  I could have sworn that there used to be a possession limit of 50?  Can anyone confirm so I know I am not going mad?

Cheers Kat

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6 minutes ago, Kat said:

Lol.  Yeah but not Queensland.  I am pretty sure I am right - and would win an argument in court (but who would bother).  A local tackle shop guy also confirmed my reading of it.  

While we are on this subject about a month ago I noticed saltwater yabbies do not have any restriction on numbers collected.  I could have sworn that there used to be a possession limit of 50?  Can anyone confirm so I know I am not going mad?

Cheers Kat

https://www.qld.gov.au/recreation/activities/boating-fishing/rec-fishing/rules/limits-tidal

scroll to the bottton and under Tidal  Bait Species, there are no limits. If you live near the border with NSW you may have mixed up the rules 

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11 minutes ago, Kat said:

I know there is no limit but did there used to be a limit?  When I first started fishing about 6 months ago?

Actually correction I thought there was a limit of 30 - I remember counting them when I was first Yabby pumping.  Also when I had a few more than 30 a couple of months ago a young lad said be careful you don't get caught by fisheries.  

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29 minutes ago, Breaming with bro said:

The only thing I hate about yabbies they are a pain in the back side to rig up I try to get the hook point as close to the head as possible without killing it because the fish always go for the head or the claws first. I use size 4 long shank hooks for yabbies with 6lb mono or FC leader excellent live bait

You might have better results in rigging if you go to a size 1 or bigger. That's what I generally successfully use with yabbies and the longer shanks certainly help.

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