queensland Brisbane River Session #72 [BLOODY MASSIVE]

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi all

Well this morning I woke up earlier than anticipated so I got the gear ready, and took the cart down to the jetty. It had three rods, the net, some bait consisting of frogmouth pillies, prawns, and Bony Bream, and an esky. I arrived about 5:45AM to a medium tide and a flat water, not a ripple to be seen in sight. The temperature of the misty air was very nice for fishing, and the odd 'hello' from walkers was the only thing that broke the silence. The smell of the Brisbane River and wet forest was making a weak aroma which I liked (good memories of course!). The sun was still rising, and I was ready for a fish.

The salmon line was deployed with the head part of a Bony Bream, and casted out as far as it would go. One line had a little Motor Oil placcy, and the other line still needed rigging. I didn't even have that done after about 20 minutes of being on the jetty, and nothing had happened then. I did see a large school of baitfish 'boil' when I casted my line in, meaning that they may be around. While I was tying on a hook though, the salmon line buckled over and off screamed line like no tomorrow.

I picked up the rod, tightened the drag, and the fight was on. I lifted up the rod, then cranked the reel handle as hard as I could. Unfortunately, I then felt something that ruined that experience.

"Foosh!"

That was the fish spitting the hook on me. I left the bait out for a bit longer but soon enough realised what happened. I reeled the line in slowly, and up came nothing. I made an educated guess that it might be a Thready, as the leader wasn't very frayed and the speed of the run taken was far faster than any shark I had ever come close to catching. I switched everything over to a new rig just to be safe, and then deployed the next bit of biddy.

My dad was down by now, and he did a bit of cast netting. On the first throw, he got a juvenile Yellowfin Bream, and some little prawns. We kept them (the prawns) for bream bait, seeing as though the only thing I'd be using if I didn't catch anything would be herring (dead). We did some more throwing, and got together a small amount of herring and prawns (as well as one lone mullet). 

I started flicking the SP around as well. I flicked it under it mangroves, around the mudflats, and under the pier numerous times for no love. I was using a 'hop-hop' technique, which I figured would've made the lure very enticing for a flathead or cod. Just as I was walking towards the jetty, the salmon line went off. This time the fish did not take that much line, so I tightened the drag and struck straight away. It felt good- heavy weight and shakes. Then, just like the last one, it spat the hook! This time also had me coming back empty handed, so once again I replaced my trace as there was a little bit of fraying and put out the final bit of Bony Bream, the tail bit.

Everything went slightly quiet now; nothing on the plastics still, and no hits on the rod which had a little live prawn out. I then decided to do a bit of cast netting. My dad and I use the same technique, except he has a variation of it which requires you to give it a larger whip. I tried this - one throw was OK, with about 60% opening (he gets 90%,99% of the time) and then the next was a doozy as the net was pretty well closed and banana-ed. (Funnily enough, we got a prawn in this throw ). 

I saw the salmon line get some action then - a bit of line went off. I picked it up, held it out there for a minute, then reeled it in. There was still an intact bait, so I threw it back out waiting for another fish. My dad had to head off now, and in his last throw he got the mullet then. It was about 15 minutes until I saw a peck-peck-peck on the salmon line. I assumed the bait would've stayed on but after checking it I realised that it was gone. I reeled in, disappointed, and chucked out a half frog mouth pilly.

It was about 15 minutes of nothing, at around 7:30AM, when the line buckled over completely. Line was screaming off, and I eventually got there, tightened the drag, and prepared myself. After a bit of cranking, he went for the pylons. I managed to coax him out though, and then he took the fastest run a fish has ever taken for me out into the middle of the river. He was near the surface but wasn't coming up now. I gained line on him but as he was about to surface, he took an even faster and stronger run straight back down. This happened about three times now, and by this time I had a serious case of the shakes. After many tense moments I finally gained enough line to get an ID on him.

"HOLY MOLY! THAT'S MASSIVE"

Or at least that's what everyone thought (and I bellowed) when I saw it. Some passers by luckily came down to give me a hand netting it up, and in no time it was on the jetty. I got some quick photos, seeing as though the hook was a goner cut that off, and then I measured him. 115CM long. Jeez, Louis! 

I picked up the fish and lowered him back into the drink, ready for the release. He gave a massive kick off, and that was probably the best feeling I had in a while! Here are some photos of the fella (pic heavy) - 

Landing Him

Up you come

115CM of Threadfin Salmon

I could hardly lift him!

Up ya come!

Trying not to dislocate a shoulder

Back ya go!

Well, after that exciting series of events... Quite frankly... Disaster Struck! The Thready resurfaced floating in the river. We tried desperately to get him in the net before he got too far out, but it was too late. We couldn't get him. "Please go down, Please go down, Please Swim away, Please swim away" was all I could say. It wasn't looking good, and I was about to dive in (the people stopped me), so I tried the next best thing - hooking him again. This was a complete no go, and I failed miserably each time. 

There was only one option - I called dad, quickly explained to him what had happened and why the kayak needed to come down. Fifteen minutes later, my faithful fishing mate was there and my dad and I were paddling down the river, as fast as our arms could carry us, to the threadfin salmon. We got to him about 500 Metres down. I grabbed him, and the first thing we did with a sharpened screwdriver was to vent him. He stabbed it into the very inflated part, and heard the hiss of air come out.

That confirmed my suspicions- bloody barotrauma had got to the poor bugger. 

We paddled to the bank, allowing air to go through his gills the whole time. I prayed he would give a massive kick and go straight back down. He didn't... YET. We found some rocks under someone's jetty walkway, and stopped there. My dad did a kamikaze jump straight out of the kayak into chest deep mud and water. LOL. I waited with him for a long time, with not much progress except the fish getting a tiny bit stronger. I paddled the double kayak back to the jetty up the river, to say hi to my mate.

I told him the situation, and I was still praying the fish would be gone by the time I got back there. It didn't end up swimming off though, so there was more trying to do. I was back with my dad for another ten minutes, and after watching the fish kick I had hopes. I went back to tell my mate, who said, "Well, it's either a happy released fish or BBQ salmon dinner, Hamish!".

The whole time, my dad was in waist deep water standing on a dodgy rock bar. He said he could feel the odd thing brushing past his leg when he was down there, like an eel. Yuck!  

Since he paddles too, I decided to ask him if he wanted a go. He replied yes, so I quickly paddled back to dad to tell him. The fish was not progressing, not even in the slightest. We swapped life jackets and sunnies, and now my mate was going to give the fish a check out. In this ten minute period, I frantically messaged everyone who I could that might know about what the hell to do with a fish that's been vented in the swim bladder and swimming for an hour, as well as make the URGENT thread in AFO.

Lets just say it's not URGENT anymore!

After that, my mate was back, so we swapped over. The fish was swum for around an hour and a half-two hours by this point, and we still needed to try and released him. My mate informed me my dad said I had a choice - to release him and waste him or keep him. I got there and I saw that the fish had pretty well died on Dad. I was very sad at this moment, and I felt really bad about keeping him. I knew this was always a possibility though so I have only myself to blame for catching these fish.

We loaded him up on the yak... Got him back and had a brief admiration session of the fish. It was absolutely huge. Dad loaded the fish in the yak, and got going straight away. He needed to get the ice on the fish as soon as possible so it tasted as best as it could. By the time I was home with my mate, we had ice on the fish and we were ready to fillet him up. We decided that I would do it, and that we would let him ice down a bit longer.

In the Esky

It was then my Mum and Dad had the silliest idea ever- to take the fish to a fish shop to get it filleted. "What kind of BS is that", I thought... After some convincing, we piled into the car and got there. Even though they then refused to fillet it (my dad literally said, "Hello, I have a large fish here, will you fillet it for payment?". That was responded to with, "Yes, $15!") they had some good Bony Bream, Mullet, and other baitfish in there so that may be a cheap seller for me if I run low.

Once we got back home, I started the filleting job. I was doing well until I hit the backbone, and then... I forfeited and handed the knife over to Dad . After lots of struggle though, we ended up with 3.2KG of meat, and probably about an extra 500g of fish crap. We threw the frame away, as it was to big to freeze, and now the meat is sitting in the fridge waiting for a BBQ dinner with me and my mates families tomorrow. 

Dad Filleting

3.2KG of meat

About 10KG (it seemed WAY more than that... I can lift a 12KG barbell and could hardly lift that so either dodgy scales or I've gotten weaker, LOL)

Quick photo

That was the salmon done. The biggest fish of my life, that I've ever seen and caught. I felt very bad about it, but what happened has happened. Next time though, I do not think I will be putting out the salmon line. It also seems the ones that are smaller are far more hardy than big ones, so a few of them would be nice. 

Thanks for reading this report, and I hope you enjoyed. It sure was an epic day. Here are the stats of the trip. 

Stats of Trip - 

Tide: 2:40AM, 1.6M, High, 8:20AM, .5M, Low

Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent - not too much run

Air Pressure: 1010.7

Humidity: 68%

Temp: High was 33^oC

Weather: Sunny, few clouds

Time Fished: About 5:45AM - 7:45AM

Fish Caught: Threadfin Salmon x 1

Bait caught: Mullet, herring, prawns

Bait used: Bony Bream, Half Frogmouth Pilly, Prawns, Herring

Tackle Used: 12lb, 14lb, 30lb braid mainlines, 20lb and 80lb mono leaders and traces, size 2 and 5 ball sinkers, 4/o and 6/o suicide and circle hooks, large barrel swivel, size 2500 Diawa Shinobi 2500 on Abu Garcia Veritas, SHimano Nasci 2500 and Ugly Stik, Penn SSM 650 on Rogue Firepoint Boat rod 

Overall Success Rate: I can't give it 100% (as much as you wanted to read that @Another Wazza) as it didn't swim off. Settle for 50%.

Cheers Hamish

P.S. No one has made an attempt to guess why I changed my profile pic on December 19^th and only then, . 

[Another Wazza]

Mate, that is one cracking effort!, it may not be a 100% success story for you, but sometimes things don’t pan out exactly how we’d like them to, that said, don’t let it take the shine off what is an awesome fish!, hat off to both of you for trying so hard to get him going again, seeing it just float off down the river would have been a tragedy, but at least now it’s not going to waste.

I wouldn’t be hanging the salmon line up just yet either, don’t let 1 rough experience deter you man,  the next one you catch could swim away just fine,

All in all, still a great effort

Edited December 20, 2020 by Another Wazza
Spelling

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Hi all

Well this morning I woke up earlier than anticipated so I got the gear ready, and took the cart down to the jetty. It had three rods, the net, some bait consisting of frogmouth pillies, prawns, and Bony Bream, and an esky. I arrived about 5:45AM to a medium tide and a flat water, not a ripple to be seen in sight. The temperature of the misty air was very nice for fishing, and the odd 'hello' from walkers was the only thing that broke the silence. The smell of the Brisbane River and wet forest was making a weak aroma which I liked (good memories of course!). The sun was still rising, and I was ready for a fish.

The salmon line was deployed with the head part of a Bony Bream, and casted out as far as it would go. One line had a little Motor Oil placcy, and the other line still needed rigging. I didn't even have that done after about 20 minutes of being on the jetty, and nothing had happened then. I did see a large school of baitfish 'boil' when I casted my line in, meaning that they may be around. While I was tying on a hook though, the salmon line buckled over and off screamed line like no tomorrow.

I picked up the rod, tightened the drag, and the fight was on. I lifted up the rod, then cranked the reel handle as hard as I could. Unfortunately, I then felt something that ruined that experience.

"Foosh!"

That was the fish spitting the hook on me. I left the bait out for a bit longer but soon enough realised what happened. I reeled the line in slowly, and up came nothing. I made an educated guess that it might be a Thready, as the leader wasn't very frayed and the speed of the run taken was far faster than any shark I had ever come close to catching. I switched everything over to a new rig just to be safe, and then deployed the next bit of biddy.

My dad was down by now, and he did a bit of cast netting. On the first throw, he got a juvenile Yellowfin Bream, and some little prawns. We kept them (the prawns) for bream bait, seeing as though the only thing I'd be using if I didn't catch anything would be herring (dead). We did some more throwing, and got together a small amount of herring and prawns (as well as one lone mullet). 

I started flicking the SP around as well. I flicked it under it mangroves, around the mudflats, and under the pier numerous times for no love. I was using a 'hop-hop' technique, which I figured would've made the lure very enticing for a flathead or cod. Just as I was walking towards the jetty, the salmon line went off. This time the fish did not take that much line, so I tightened the drag and struck straight away. It felt good- heavy weight and shakes. Then, just like the last one, it spat the hook! This time also had me coming back empty handed, so once again I replaced my trace as there was a little bit of fraying and put out the final bit of Bony Bream, the tail bit.

Everything went slightly quiet now; nothing on the plastics still, and no hits on the rod which had a little live prawn out. I then decided to do a bit of cast netting. My dad and I use the same technique, except he has a variation of it which requires you to give it a larger whip. I tried this - one throw was OK, with about 60% opening (he gets 90%,99% of the time) and then the next was a doozy as the net was pretty well closed and banana-ed. (Funnily enough, we got a prawn in this throw ). 

I saw the salmon line get some action then - a bit of line went off. I picked it up, held it out there for a minute, then reeled it in. There was still an intact bait, so I threw it back out waiting for another fish. My dad had to head off now, and in his last throw he got the mullet then. It was about 15 minutes until I saw a peck-peck-peck on the salmon line. I assumed the bait would've stayed on but after checking it I realised that it was gone. I reeled in, disappointed, and chucked out a half frog mouth pilly.

It was about 15 minutes of nothing, at around 7:30AM, when the line buckled over completely. Line was screaming off, and I eventually got there, tightened the drag, and prepared myself. After a bit of cranking, he went for the pylons. I managed to coax him out though, and then he took the fastest run a fish has ever taken for me out into the middle of the river. He was near the surface but wasn't coming up now. I gained line on him but as he was about to surface, he took an even faster and stronger run straight back down. This happened about three times now, and by this time I had a serious case of the shakes. After many tense moments I finally gained enough line to get an ID on him.

"HOLY MOLY! THAT'S MASSIVE"

Or at least that's what everyone thought (and I bellowed) when I saw it. Some passers by luckily came down to give me a hand netting it up, and in no time it was on the jetty. I got some quick photos, seeing as though the hook was a goner cut that off, and then I measured him. 115CM long. Jeez, Louis! 

I picked up the fish and lowered him back into the drink, ready for the release. He gave a massive kick off, and that was probably the best feeling I had in a while! Here are some photos of the fella (pic heavy) - 

Landing Him

Up you come

115CM of Threadfin Salmon

I could hardly lift him!

 

 

Up ya come!

Trying not to dislocate a shoulder

 

Back ya go!

Well, after that exciting series of events... Quite frankly... Disaster Struck! The Thready resurfaced floating in the river. We tried desperately to get him in the net before he got too far out, but it was too late. We couldn't get him. "Please go down, Please go down, Please Swim away, Please swim away" was all I could say. It wasn't looking good, and I was about to dive in (the people stopped me), so I tried the next best thing - hooking him again. This was a complete no go, and I failed miserably each time. 

There was only one option - I called dad, quickly explained to him what had happened and why the kayak needed to come down. Fifteen minutes later, my faithful fishing mate was there and my dad and I were paddling down the river, as fast as our arms could carry us, to the threadfin salmon. We got to him about 500 Metres down. I grabbed him, and the first thing we did with a sharpened screwdriver was to vent him. He stabbed it into the very inflated part, and heard the hiss of air come out.

That confirmed my suspicions- bloody barotrauma had got to the poor bugger. 

We paddled to the bank, allowing air to go through his gills the whole time. I prayed he would give a massive kick and go straight back down. He didn't... YET. We found some rocks under someone's jetty walkway, and stopped there. My dad did a kamikaze jump straight out of the kayak into chest deep mud and water. LOL. I waited with him for a long time, with not much progress except the fish getting a tiny bit stronger. I paddled the double kayak back to the jetty up the river, to say hi to my mate.

I told him the situation, and I was still praying the fish would be gone by the time I got back there. It didn't end up swimming off though, so there was more trying to do. I was back with my dad for another ten minutes, and after watching the fish kick I had hopes. I went back to tell my mate, who said, "Well, it's either a happy released fish or BBQ salmon dinner, Hamish!".

The whole time, my dad was in waist deep water standing on a dodgy rock bar. He said he could feel the odd thing brushing past his leg when he was down there, like an eel. Yuck!  

Since he paddles too, I decided to ask him if he wanted a go. He replied yes, so I quickly paddled back to dad to tell him. The fish was not progressing, not even in the slightest. We swapped life jackets and sunnies, and now my mate was going to give the fish a check out. In this ten minute period, I frantically messaged everyone who I could that might know about what the hell to do with a fish that's been vented in the swim bladder and swimming for an hour, as well as make the URGENT thread in AFO.

Lets just say it's not URGENT anymore!

After that, my mate was back, so we swapped over. The fish was swum for around an hour and a half-two hours by this point, and we still needed to try and released him. My mate informed me my dad said I had a choice - to release him and waste him or keep him. I got there and I saw that the fish had pretty well died on Dad. I was very sad at this moment, and I felt really bad about keeping him. I knew this was always a possibility though so I have only myself to blame for catching these fish.

We loaded him up on the yak... Got him back and had a brief admiration session of the fish. It was absolutely huge. Dad loaded the fish in the yak, and got going straight away. He needed to get the ice on the fish as soon as possible so it tasted as best as it could. By the time I was home with my mate, we had ice on the fish and we were ready to fillet him up. We decided that I would do it, and that we would let him ice down a bit longer.

In the Esky

It was then my Mum and Dad had the silliest idea ever- to take the fish to a fish shop to get it filleted. "What kind of BS is that", I thought... After some convincing, we piled into the car and got there. Even though they then refused to fillet it (my dad literally said, "Hello, I have a large fish here, will you fillet it for payment?". That was responded to with, "Yes, $15!") they had some good Bony Bream, Mullet, and other baitfish in there so that may be a cheap seller for me if I run low.

Once we got back home, I started the filleting job. I was doing well until I hit the backbone, and then... I forfeited and handed the knife over to Dad . After lots of struggle though, we ended up with 3.2KG of meat, and probably about an extra 500g of fish crap. We threw the frame away, as it was to big to freeze, and now the meat is sitting in the fridge waiting for a BBQ dinner with me and my mates families tomorrow. 

Dad Filleting

3.2KG of meat

About 10KG (it seemed WAY more than that... I can lift a 12KG barbell and could hardly lift that so either dodgy scales or I've gotten weaker, LOL)

Quick photo

That was the salmon done. The biggest fish of my life, that I've ever seen and caught. I felt very bad about it, but what happened has happened. Next time though, I do not think I will be putting out the salmon line. It also seems the ones that are smaller are far more hardy than big ones, so a few of them would be nice. 

Thanks for reading this report, and I hope you enjoyed. It sure was an epic day. Here are the stats of the trip. 

Stats of Trip - 

Tide: 2:40AM, 1.6M, High, 8:20AM, .5M, Low

Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent - not too much run

Air Pressure: 1010.7

Humidity: 68%

Temp: High was 33^oC

Weather: Sunny, few clouds

Time Fished: About 5:45AM - 7:45AM

Fish Caught: Threadfin Salmon x 1

Bait caught: Mullet, herring, prawns

Bait used: Bony Bream, Half Frogmouth Pilly, Prawns, Herring

Tackle Used: 12lb, 14lb, 30lb braid mainlines, 20lb and 80lb mono leaders and traces, size 2 and 5 ball sinkers, 4/o and 6/o suicide and circle hooks, large barrel swivel, size 2500 Diawa Shinobi 2500 on Abu Garcia Veritas, SHimano Nasci 2500 and Ugly Stik, Penn SSM 650 on Rogue Firepoint Boat rod 

Overall Success Rate: I can't give it 100% (as much as you wanted to read that @Another Wazza) as it didn't swim off. Settle for 50%.

Cheers Hamish

P.S. No one has made an attempt to guess why I changed my profile pic on December 19^th and only then, . 

Holy crap Hamish , that's a  horse ! , done well mate you won't forget about t that one in a hurry .

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

4 minutes ago, Another Wazza said:

Mate, that is one cracking effort!, it may not be a 100% success story for you, but sometimes things don’t pan out exactly how we’d like them to, that said, don’t let it take the shine off what is an awesome fish!, hat off to both of you for trying so hard to get him going again, seeing it just float off down the river would have been a tragedy, but at least now it’s not going to waste.

I wouldn’t be hanging the salmon line up just yet either, don’t let 1 rough experience deter you man,  the next one you catch could swim away just fine,

All in all, still a great effort

Hey Wazza

Thank you, that’s true. It sure was a shame that we couldn’t get him swimming after the big effort. 

I plan to make a release weight and release cage and after that I will start using the salmon line again. That way, I’ve got the best chance of releasing one if I get anything big again.

12 minutes ago, Sneaky1 said:

Holy crap Hamish , that's a  horse ! , done well mate you won't forget about t that one in a hurry .

Hey Sneaky

Yes, Holy Crap for sure! I don’t think I’ll ever forget this fish. And I don’t think I’ll get a bigger one for a while.

Cheers Hamish

[ellicat]

Well, your AFO anniversary is December 19, so I guess that is why the new avatar.

Epic day, Hamish. Losing a fish is just part of fishing. I'm sure you'll enjoy the feed, I've heard they're pretty tasty.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Just now, ellicat said:

Well, your AFO anniversary is December 19, so I guess that is why the new avatar.

Epic day, Hamish. Losing a fish is just part of fishing. I'm sure you'll enjoy the feed, I've heard they're pretty tasty.

Hi Brian

Yes, spot on. Only problem is I can’t change it for another year now  

Thanks for that, while it may be tasty it was the hardest thing I’ve ever tried filleting. Lumps of bone everywhere! 

Cheers Hamish 

[ellicat]

2 minutes ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

it was the hardest thing I’ve ever tried filleting

I've heard that before. @benno573is good at it and may be able to share some tips.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

1 minute ago, ellicat said:

I've heard that before. @benno573is good at it and may be able to share some tips.

That would be great. I watched a good video (from someone called Ryan Moody) a while back. It talked about two lumps below the fins, which I went over, but then the back bone was like a roller coaster with the up and down!

Cheers Hamish 

[Brodie_S]

Awesome job on thesalmon hamish hopefully next time you get one this big you can release it . Never the less awesome job glad you could smash one of your 2021 goals before 2021

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

1 minute ago, Breaming with bro said:

Awesome job on thesalmon hamish hopefully next time you get one this big you can release it . Never the less awesome job glad you could smash one of your 2021 goals before 2021

Thanks very much Bro, I sure hope so too. Next time I will have the correct venting equipment for them so hopefully they can go off.

And yeah, how good is that. I beat it in the wrong year

Cheers Hamish 

[kmcrosby78]

Congrats on an absolutely awesome fish Hamish and kudos to you and @Cavvy for all of your efforts trying to save the fish. As much as you are disappointed, make sure you still savour this very memorable catch and good to see you have plans to gear up with release weights to assist next time - you are a great advertisement for fishermen . Enjoy that BBQ!!

[GregOug]

Well done Hamish! I noticed the avatar change but didn’t say anything because you’d already given it away by posting that you had ticked off the metre plus salmon goal.
 

And don’t worry too much about it not being releasable. Many anglers, myself included, like to catch fish to eat them. I am of the school of thought that a one metre salmon and a decent whiting are both fish. Why is it wrong to keep one but not the other? Why is the salmon more entitled to being released than the whiting? In fact, that is one of the reasons I don’t chase whiting. Can’t see the point in killing twenty little fish for a feed when one big fish can provide the same amount of food. I also have never tried whitebait for the same reason. Hundreds of them needed for a single feed. I think that is far worse than keeping one large fish.

[Drop Bear]

Mate! thats great stuff well done. It makes me very happy to see someone work so hard for this and it finally paying off.

Have you eaten any yet? How did it go? 

I probably would have necked it as soon as I caught it haha. 

 

[Old Scaley]

Congrats, @AUS-BNE-FISHO. Welcome to the metre club! We all knew you would get there sometime but you have done faster than most. Filleting them is tricky and you have to let your knife do the work, just riding up and down over the bumpy backbone. I have only filleted smaller ones though and can imagine the big girls would be harder. Don’t feel bad about keeping it. No one could have done more to save it and they are not an endangered species. 

[ellicat]

Happy anniversary, by the way.

 

72 Reports in a year !  Right up there with Ray and Dino.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

9 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Congrats on an absolutely awesome fish Hamish and kudos to you and @Cavvy for all of your efforts trying to save the fish. As much as you are disappointed, make sure you still savour this very memorable catch and good to see you have plans to gear up with release weights to assist next time - you are a great advertisement for fishermen . Enjoy that BBQ!!

Hey KM

Thanks for that, and yep, we will still savour this moment for a long time to come. The BBQ will be good. I'm thinking BR Salmon will be tasty!

6 hours ago, GregOug said:

Well done Hamish! I noticed the avatar change but didn’t say anything because you’d already given it away by posting that you had ticked off the metre plus salmon goal.
 

And don’t worry too much about it not being releasable. Many anglers, myself included, like to catch fish to eat them. I am of the school of thought that a one metre salmon and a decent whiting are both fish. Why is it wrong to keep one but not the other? Why is the salmon more entitled to being released than the whiting? In fact, that is one of the reasons I don’t chase whiting. Can’t see the point in killing twenty little fish for a feed when one big fish can provide the same amount of food. I also have never tried whitebait for the same reason. Hundreds of them needed for a single feed. I think that is far worse than keeping one large fish.

Hello Greg

The avatar change was from a 74cm threeady caught at Dutton Park, to a 84cm thready caught at the local park - I only put my biggest salmon from the 19^th December 2019-19^th December 2020, and it just happens that this one was caught the day after! That is fair enough as well - in fact, you do make a very good point. I just see it as these are a rare fish, and whiting are not. But I see where you are coming from.

2 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

Mate! thats great stuff well done. It makes me very happy to see someone work so hard for this and it finally paying off.

Have you eaten any yet? How did it go? 

I probably would have necked it as soon as I caught it haha. 

 

G'day Robbie

Thanks for that, it sure made me happy too .

I am trying some tonight for dinner. Hopefully it tastes nice. I was thinking that if a Drop Bear caught site of us he may eat our fish.

27 minutes ago, Old Scaley said:

Congrats, @AUS-BNE-FISHO. Welcome to the metre club! We all knew you would get there sometime but you have done faster than most. Filleting them is tricky and you have to let your knife do the work, just riding up and down over the bumpy backbone. I have only filleted smaller ones though and can imagine the big girls would be harder. Don’t feel bad about keeping it. No one could have done more to save it and they are not an endangered species. 

Hiya Steve

Thanks for that - I tried a fair bit and eventually succeeded! That felt good alright!  Thanks for the filleting tips. We went back and cut off all the meat we missed, and there was parts are the head as well as right on the spine. I think the bigger they get the bigger their lumps are on the backbone.

32 minutes ago, ellicat said:

Happy anniversary, by the way.

 

72 Reports in a year !  Right up there with Ray and Dino.

Thanks Brian - in fact, it would've been a bit over 72 as I've done other reports for the Bay, Yeppoon, etc  

Cheers Hamish 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

P.S. Just added two video clips for anyone who wants to watch 'em.

[RustyHooka]

It is great to see your catch, Hamish - thanks for posting your yarn and the great pics too.  Your dad looks just about as chuffed as you!

I hope it ate well.

[Old Scaley]

Hamish, you probably could have kept the backbone, cut it into pieces about 150mm long, season them and throw them straight on the BBQ. Lots of deliciousness to be had around the bones.  Next time.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

4 minutes ago, RustyHooka said:

It is great to see your catch, Hamish - thanks for posting your yarn and the great pics too.  Your dad looks just about as chuffed as you!

I hope it ate well.

Hey RustyHooka

Welcome to the forum. I’m glad you enjoyed - he was amazed as well well. My dad was so angry he left though as he missed it by about 20 minutes. Lol.

Hopefully it tastes good.

3 minutes ago, Old Scaley said:

Hamish, you probably could have kept the backbone, cut it into pieces about 150mm long, season them and throw them straight on the BBQ. Lots of deliciousness to be had around the bones.  Next time.

Hi Steve

Oh man! I never even knew you could do that. Thanks for the tip.

Cheers Hamish

[ellicat]

1 hour ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

it would've been a bit over 72 as I've done other reports for the Bay, Yeppoon, etc

Yes you have. 72+ sessions is top number of times to have gone fishing in one year. Just shows your dedication and persistence that has lead to this great fish.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

3 hours ago, ellicat said:

Yes you have. 72+ sessions is top number of times to have gone fishing in one year. Just shows your dedication and persistence that has lead to this great fish.

Yes, sure is and I s’pose the dedication has paid off! I rounded it up to about 80, and calculated that I got fishing about 3 times every two weeks on average. 

Cheers Hamish

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Alright, so tonight we BBQed up some salmon, veges, and kababs for tea... It was delicious!!! I absolutely loved it. The fresh Thready has got to be one of the best fish I've ever eaten.

Pics to come.

Cheers Hamish

[GregOug]

6 hours ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Yes, sure is and I s’pose the dedication has paid off! I rounded it up to about 80, and calculated that I got fishing about 3 times every two weeks on average. 

Cheers Hamish

Just buy a boat Hamish. The average will immediately drop to near zero.

[GregOug]

33 minutes ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Alright, so tonight we BBQed up some salmon, veges, and kababs for tea... It was delicious!!! I absolutely loved it. The fresh Thready has got to be one of the best fish I've ever eaten.

Pics to come.

Cheers Hamish

And so the Threadfin Salmon population of the Brisbane River suddenly plummets. Whatever can the cause be?

[Junky]

That is a monster. Well done. 

 

Nothing wrong with keeping fish either.  

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

10 hours ago, GregOug said:

Just buy a boat Hamish. The average will immediately drop to near zero.

You mean multiply by at least 2!

10 hours ago, GregOug said:

And so the Threadfin Salmon population of the Brisbane River suddenly plummets. Whatever can the cause be?

Low Blow!

7 hours ago, Junky said:

That is a monster. Well done. 

 

Nothing wrong with keeping fish either.  

Thanks Junky, now that I’ve eaten some I can see that too  

Cheers Hamish

[jon]

Legendary fish there mate. It’s great to see all of your hard work and efforts pay off big time that’s a real trophy fish mate well done 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

10 minutes ago, jon said:

Legendary fish there mate. It’s great to see all of your hard work and efforts pay off big time that’s a real trophy fish mate well done 

Thanks heaps jon, this’ll sure be one I remember for a long time to come.

Cheers Hamish 

[Kat]

Hey Hamish

Fantastic Catch!  Wow, I don't know why but ai feel so proud of you.  I really hope you end up doing something you love related to fishing.  The best career is one that you love and are passionate about.

Now I don't want to offend you or anyone else but I really am confused as to why you seem to feel guilty about not being able to release threadfin.  Frustraion and disappointment maybe - but no guilt.  As Greg said the bait you use have as much right to life and may also be breeders.  You were not wasteful and we all have to eat.  Even if you let it go back into the river dead it would have fed other river life.  

Fantastic effort at saving its life to both of you!

cheers Kat

 

[Brodie_S]

Threadfin salmon are a lot rarer then most other speices so I can understand where hamish is coming from i think it’s Similar to jewfish in NSW I’m pretty sure jewfish now are a threatened speices I doubt threadfin are that rare though 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

53 minutes ago, Kat said:

Hey Hamish

Fantastic Catch!  Wow, I don't know why but ai feel so proud of you.  I really hope you end up doing something you love related to fishing.  The best career is one that you love and are passionate about.

Now I don't want to offend you or anyone else but I really am confused as to why you seem to feel guilty about not being able to release threadfin.  Frustraion and disappointment maybe - but no guilt.  As Greg said the bait you use have as much right to life and may also be breeders.  You were not wasteful and we all have to eat.  Even if you let it go back into the river dead it would have fed other river life.  

Fantastic effort at saving its life to both of you!

cheers Kat

 

Hi Kat

Thanks for that - unfortunately I don't know too many jobs other than TV presenter and commercial fisherman that involve fishing, unless I write some books I suppose.

You make a very good point. Now that I look back on it, the only reason I felt bad was because it was so big, and really great looking. It hasn't gone to waste and is now in the freezer and my tummy  

4 minutes ago, Breaming with bro said:

Threadfin salmon are a lot rarer then most other speices so I can understand where hamish is coming from i think it’s Similar to jewfish in NSW I’m pretty sure jewfish now are a threatened speices I doubt threadfin are that rare though 

Hi BwB

Jewfish (Mulloway) are certainly not endangered or threatened - Black Jew, on the other hand, have been harvested commercially on a scale to much for it to be sustainable, so there is no no catch order on them at the moment. That is another good point though. 

Cheers Hamish

[samsteele115]

Amazing stuff mate! Great fish, excellent skill and persistence has lead to the first of many meteries 

[GregOug]

6 hours ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

 

Low Blow

Cheers Hamish

I didn’t mean with this one. I meant after you have now tasted how good they are, everyone will be after them.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

3 minutes ago, GregOug said:

I didn’t mean with this one. I meant after you have now tasted how good they are, everyone will be after them.

Alright. Fair enough. Lol. Maybe you might have to put a session in chasing 'em, Greg?

Cheers Hamish

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

1 hour ago, samsteele115 said:

Amazing stuff mate! Great fish, excellent skill and persistence has lead to the first of many meteries 

Cheers Sam, I hope to get some more sooner or later!

Cheers Hamish

[Towknee]

Hi Hamish,

As always, informative report. Great to see your efforts pay off! Bet he put up a great fight for you. 

I got to try Threadfin for the first time when a mate caught one in the Fitzroy river. Very tasty indeed! 

cheers,

Tow Knee

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

3 minutes ago, Towknee said:

Hi Hamish,

As always, informative report. Great to see your efforts pay off! Bet he put up a great fight for you. 

I got to try Threadfin for the first time when a mate caught one in the Fitzroy river. Very tasty indeed! 

cheers,

Tow Knee

Hi Towknee

Thanks for that - I must say the fight and speed of runs were some of the best I've ever experienced. 

The salmon sure are delicious. A very big upgrade from Aussie Salmon. Lol.

Cheers Hamish

[Brodie_S]

2 hours ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Hi Kat

Thanks for that - unfortunately I don't know too many jobs other than TV presenter and commercial fisherman that involve fishing, unless I write some books I suppose.

You make a very good point. Now that I look back on it, the only reason I felt bad was because it was so big, and really great looking. It hasn't gone to waste and is now in the freezer and my tummy  

Hi BwB

Jewfish (Mulloway) are certainly not endangered or threatened - Black Jew, on the other hand, have been harvested commercially on a scale to much for it to be sustainable, so there is no no catch order on them at the moment. That is another good point though. 

Cheers Hamish

Are you sure Mulloway aren’t threaten I’ve heard of heaps of people releasing them now and even DPI have put in programs to increase population And  everywhere I’ve read on the internet it says they are a threaten speices . 

[ellicat]

They're not in Qld. If they were the scientists at Fisheries would make them a 'no take' species.