queensland Brisbane River Session #55, #56, #57, And Fifty Bloody Eight!

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi all

Here is a mega-donut-report-marathon. If you can read them all you can earn a medal (of Hamish's Donut Report's). Lol. The first session was quite a while ago, and the last session was only yesterday morning on the yak. Unfortunately all were unsuccessful... I wish I caught a fish!

On September 25th, I headed out to a very windy park for a fish. The first three reports are going to be very short as I can not remember much, but I'll try to make them interesting. I dropped the lines in baited with prawns, mullet, and herring. I had one out for bullies, one out for cod, and one out for threadies. The wind was causing havoc, with branches, leaves, and other things flying everywhere. It was lucky I didn't get blown away with the amount of wind we had! 

The bite was quiet to begin with, as the tides were out and the fish weren't showing themselves. I would've been happy with anything, but all I got was nothing... Maybe if I was trying for nothing I would've gotten something?  It was around three-thirty now, and I'll post up the only thing I have on record for that trip - 

Bloody Windy! My new masterpiece  

The fishing was still really slow, and with my prawn supplies dwindling (I'll have to go to Colmslie with dad to stock up) I soon hung my head high in shame because of another donut and came home. At least when I got home, I could clean up by having a swim instead of having a shower. Next time I'm down at the river I'm sure Ill be tempted to do a bomb dive off the wharf with my mates it's that hot. Lol. 

Here are the stats of that very average trip:

Stats of trip - 

Tide: 11:00AM, .57M, Low, 6:00PM, 2.0M, High

Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous, so not the most run

Fish caught: Squat all

Bait caught: Squat all

Bait used: A couple prawns, but mainly mullet, herring, and at one point I tried for an early season shark on eel

Tackle used: 12lb, 14lb, 30lb braid mainlines, 20lb, 30lb fluorocarbon leaders, 80lb mono trace, size 4/o circle and suicide hooks, size 2 and six ball sinkers, size 2500 Diawa Shinobi and Shimano Nasci, Size 650 Penn SSM reel, 6"6' Abu Garcia Venotat rod, Size 2M Rogue Firepoint boat rod, 8 foot Ugly Stik. 

Weather: Bloody Windy

Overall Success Rate: 5%

This next report was almost as dismal. I got to the park at the same time (about) on the 28th of September, and set up the lines for another relaxed fishing session. Like it normally is, the tide wasn't the best for cast netting, so I stuck to half herring and poddy mullet for baits. As soon as I got there and deployed the lines I sat down... You can see what cast netting on a mud bank does to you, haha - 

If only those rods were screaming as well

I kept at it for the next couple hours, but like the last session, nothing was working. I tried repositioning rods, flicking under the structure one side and letting it drift through the other, the biggest casts I could do, letting more and more line out (or in some cases less) but my efforts were all for nothing. I was texting my mate at one point (well I just sent through a pic of the salmon line as he mentioned it like he always does) and it was hunched over. He then responded with, "No way, the salmon line in going off!! ". I found it pretty funny, but I decided against playing along as it would leave me with some explaining to do back at school

If only it was screaming off as well!

I quickly set home after that as I don't like to be here when it gets dark as it's a bit creepy. Here are the stats of another donut trip - 

Stats of trip - 

Tide: 2:31, .4M, Low, 8:53PM, 2.2M, High

Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous, so not too much run

Fish caught: Squat

Bait caught: Squat

Bait used: Mullet, herring. 

Tackle used: 12lb, 14lb, 30lb braid mainlines, 20lb, 30lb fluorocarbon leaders, 80lb mono trace, size 4/o circle and suicide hooks, size 2 and six ball sinkers, size 2500 Diawa Shinobi and Shimano Nasci, Size 650 Penn SSM reel, 6"6' Abu Garcia Venotat rod, Size 2M Rogue Firepoint boat rod, 8 foot Ugly Stik. 

Weather: Slightly windy and warm

Overall Success Rate: 10%

The final landbased session at the park was on Monday (The Public Hol). I got there the same time as always, set up the same gear, and tried the same thing I normally do... I had spiced up the baits a little, with a shark line out with Eel, and salmon/shark/anything line out with a Rock Whiting head (unlikely but could've enticed something), and half herring and mullet out for the rest. The line which is normally out deep was dropped next to the pylons out the front and within a short period of time I got a decent hit. Unfortunately, it either dropped it and the current took me into a snag or it took me into a snag, but let's just say I didn't see that hook and sinker ever again. 

I noticed what looked like a tumbleweed but seemed to have come out of the mangroves on the pier/wharf. It had some fish blood and scales on it as well (which I later washed off), but my mate and I figured that if they're going to leave their crap around they may have thought that they land side of the jetty was water and chucked there line in there... It was horribly tangled and probably would've ended up in the drink if I hadn't chucked it into the cart. 

Catch of the day?  

After that lonely bite, it was once again deadly quiet. None of the baits were touched, and unfortunately for me my mate headed home because of the mozzies. They get pretty bad here, but luckily they don't seem to really like me . I kept checking the lines, and nothing was happening accept the odd picker attack on the herring. It wasn't long before I decided to bail because of the sheer lack of fish, so I was home by 5PM that day and getting my gear away. 

Here are the stats of that trip - 

Stats of trip - 

Tide: High, 12:40PM, 2.1M, Low, 6:50PM, .5M

Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous

Bait caught: - 

Bait used: Mullet, herring, eel, rock whiting head

Fish caught: -

Tackle used: 12lb, 14lb, 30lb braid mainlines, 20lb, 30lb fluorocarbon leaders, 80lb mono trace, size 4/o circle and suicide hooks, size 2 and six ball sinkers, size 2500 Diawa Shinobi and Shimano Nasci, Size 650 Penn SSM reel, 6"6' Abu Garcia Venotat rod, Size 2M Rogue Firepoint boat rod, 8 foot Ugly Stik. 

Weather: Sunny, nice to be about

Overall Success Rate: 10%

Alright, now to the final report (and least boring). It was a fun little trip as we were out and about in the kayak. The first thing we did after the 4:30AM start was catching livies. There was bait busting up everywhere at the jetty so I was confident we could get some. The first cast we did my dad got a nice poddy mullet, and then a couple casts later he hit a school of herring. After we got a couple more herring we decided the prawns weren't on and we'd have to make do with what we had - 

A few solid herring

After the bait, we decided to paddle up with the last of the rise in. We got to the first location, a very deep bend on the river, to fish the change of tide. First off we dropped down the salmon line with a poddy mullet, and I dropped down a line with a smaller herring. It was pretty nice sitting there before the sun came up, and we were hoping for a screaming run to break the silence. After a bit of paddling we we were deadly still because we were right on the ebb tide. It didn't last long though, and we eventually started drifting. Seeing as though we'd been in this spot for about half an hour, we decided to pull up the lines here and get going. 

Paddling there

The next spot we got to was a little inlet type thing on the side of the river. I had been flicking a plastic on some nearby mudbanks (I got one thing which felt like a hit but may have just been a snag) but had my hopes up for this spot. I had flicked the plastic all along the bank, and there was a little, abandoned, wooden jetty which I was flicking towards. I got a snag and when we came over I realised how shallow it was. Oops! The plastics weren't working, even though I had fished the whole place, so I switched to a little bream hardbody. I was doing the same thing with this, flicking it to and from the snags, etc. We tied up to a pylon marker as well, and even though we had mullet and herring out in a good eddy we were not rewarded. After spending about half an hour at this spot, we figured that it was time to move on... But seeing as though the pylon had a big ladder, I couldn't help getting out and climbing up.

Woohoo! (you can also see the eddy we were fishing)

We headed up to another spot I wanted to check out, an old cement wharf that has been abandoned (and consequently has made some mad structure beneath it). After the paddle (and very disappointingly losing the live mullet) we got to the spot. We decided to paddle under it so it was easier to access everything. It was a tight fit, but luckily we made it under without breaking anything. I was dropping my soft plastic down next to each pylon in hope of enticing a cod or bream, and jigging it for about three minutes before moving to he next. We paddled up to the end of the wharf, and after some very good manoeuvring from my dad we came out from the under. It was only then we saw the signs saying "NO ENTRY", and, "FALLING OBJECTS - HARZARDS!"... Looks like we broke the law for still no fish  

Approaching ang going under a slightly creepy but shady wharf  

We decided to give the area  outside a quick flick for breambo's, so I flicked a soft plastic around the bank and my dad held a rod with a small herring on it. I got what I also think was a hit on the plastics (but it may have just been the plastic getting stuck in a clump of mud), and my dad missed an OK strike on the herring. He also thought he got some nibbles, but missed the strike and seemed to not have had anything happen to his bait as it was in perfect nick. We moved from this spot to some more nearby pylons, which we did a couple drifts through. I got some hits on the herring, but I couldn't manage to hook and land anything at that spot.

The tide was truly ripping out by now, so we decided to call it quits. We were going back, but since my dad and I were both in desperate need of a rest we stopped at the boat ramp. After a quick stretch, my dad got two mullet in the cast net... They were both good sizes for shark bait, so I decided to rig up an unweighted, live mullet for trolling behind the yak on the way home. My dad got a whiting the next throw (Wintery, but the spots were very faint, so I just decided to let it go anyways). We were paddling past the boat club, past the houseboat, but soon we were back at the park for no result. I lobbed the live mullet out on the circle hook to try and entice one last bite, but it wasn't looking good for the fish. We then pulled up the yak, packed it, and set off on the way home for another full on donut with the only reward a bit of fresh bait. 

Good job if you've read up to here, I hope you enjoyed this report. Sorry for any errors in the text. Here are the stats of this trip -

Stats of trip - 

Tide: 5:22AM, 1.4M, High, 11:15AM, .6M, Low

Moon Phase: Waning Crescent

Weather: Sunny, slight clouds

Bait caught: Herring, mullet, whiting

Bait used: Herring, mullet, (live)

Fish caught: -

Tackle used: 12lb, 14lb, 30lb braid mainlines, 20lb, 30lb fluorocarbon leaders, 80lb mono trace, size 4/o circle and suicide hooks, size 2 and six ball sinkers, size 2500 Diawa Shinobi and Shimano Nasci, Size 650 Penn SSM reel, 6"6' Abu Garcia Venotat rod, Size 2M Rogue Firepoint boat rod, 8 foot Ugly Stik. 

Time fished: 5:00AM - 9:00AM

Air pressure: 1023

Humidity: 65%

Overall Success Rate: 30% - at least we got out

Cheers Hamish  

[ellicat]

You gave it a fair crack. Hopefully the next few months will see some bullies about for you.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

7 hours ago, ellicat said:

You gave it a fair crack. Hopefully the next few months will see some bullies about for you.

Thanks Brian, hopefully the next time I give it a go I can manage a catch  

Summer should bring me some good bullies... Right baits, right rig, good spot - I might even try to get one on 10lb mainline!

Cheers Hamish

[Brodie_S]

2 hours ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Thanks Brian, hopefully the next time I give it a go I can manage a catch  

Summer should bring me some good bullies... Right baits, right rig, good spot - I might even try to get one on 10lb mainline!

Cheers Hamish

Seems like you’ve had a few crappy session’s hate it when that happens . Still getting good use of the free river rod I see idk about 10lb for Bull sharks maybe the one’s around Brisbane are small but where I’m from they are around 1-3 metres in the river I would use atleast a 6-9kg rod with 6000-7000 reel loaded with 200m of 50lb braid and 80lb mono leader with a long wire trace ATLEAST if I ever try to catch a shark in the river i would use 275m of 65lb on a penn 650 spin fisher with my daiwa 6-9kg and a 2 metre trace of very thick mono connected via a FG with a very strong wire trace and mustad hooks . Learned my lesson from the Whitsundays hooks bent .sharks biting through the wire spooling my reel etc I had the worst 7000 size reel in the world with the worst line lay I had around 50m of 20lb mono and another 50m of 50lb on top which clearly isn’t enough line using crappy cheap hooks and cheap Kmart wire traces did not go well one time I used a whole GT that had been filleted because I heard sharks like GT I did enjoy eating that fish and so did the shark and I got smoked and had to thumb the spool so my line didn’t come off my reel and on top of that it managed to snap the wire trace in half and I had many other times similar things happened 

[GregOug]

Thanks for the reports Hamish. I waded through it all. I note you’re adding the fish caught section now which is good. Just need to be able to put something next to it now!

[Drop Bear]

I admire your tenacity mate. Good on ya. 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

On 12/10/2020 at 11:07 PM, Breaming with bro said:

Seems like you’ve had a few crappy session’s hate it when that happens . Still getting good use of the free river rod I see idk about 10lb for Bull sharks maybe the one’s around Brisbane are small but where I’m from they are around 1-3 metres in the river I would use atleast a 6-9kg rod with 6000-7000 reel loaded with 200m of 50lb braid and 80lb mono leader with a long wire trace ATLEAST if I ever try to catch a shark in the river i would use 275m of 65lb on a penn 650 spin fisher with my daiwa 6-9kg and a 2 metre trace of very thick mono connected via a FG with a very strong wire trace and mustad hooks . Learned my lesson from the Whitsundays hooks bent .sharks biting through the wire spooling my reel etc I had the worst 7000 size reel in the world with the worst line lay I had around 50m of 20lb mono and another 50m of 50lb on top which clearly isn’t enough line using crappy cheap hooks and cheap Kmart wire traces did not go well one time I used a whole GT that had been filleted because I heard sharks like GT I did enjoy eating that fish and so did the shark and I got smoked and had to thumb the spool so my line didn’t come off my reel and on top of that it managed to snap the wire trace in half and I had many other times similar things happened 

I'm a bit late getting back to everyone on this.

Looks like you are keen to get a shark, BwB. Hopefully some of my next sessions will be a bit more fruitful!

On 12/10/2020 at 11:30 PM, GregOug said:

Thanks for the reports Hamish. I waded through it all. I note you’re adding the fish caught section now which is good. Just need to be able to put something next to it now!

Hi Greg

That would be lovely... Maybe a nice threadfin salmon?

On 13/10/2020 at 2:43 PM, Drop Bear said:

I admire your tenacity mate. Good on ya. 

Thank you Robbie, now to catch some.

Cheers Hamish