queensland Brisbane River Session #90

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi all

I managed to convince @Cavvy to take me out for a Saturday night fish on the yak. Our plan was to watch a movie that was being played by the local councillor at our park (or a little bit of it anyways), then set off and try for a thready on a lure. This was our third (I think) lure only session going out on the river, so we were hoping tonight would be the night.

We set off and were probably in the water around 7:00PM. The tide was rising, and because it was a full moon there was a fair bit of run. With all the rain we've had in the last couple of days, I knew there would be some fresh about. Anyways, we shot off down to the first jetty down from the local park, armed with a Holt Prawn, 3 inch, in White Flash, with a 1/8^th jighead, and a very lightly weighted Z-man 4 inch Pearl Paddletail lure. A massive thanks to Benno ( @benno573 ) for selling me a Shimano Raider rod, it casts excellent! And it's so light!  Can't wait to blood it with a fish. 

Anyways, we got to the jetty, and boy, is it good with only two rods and the light pole out of the way (modified the pole and sent it to the back of the yak for dad to worry about) - makes it so much easier to cast! Speaking of casts, I fired one in ASAP, and it landed in the light pool. I was giving the lure a rather rapid retrieve, so it stayed in the top of the water column. The aim of using these small lures is to imitate a small prawn fleeing, which are attracted to light. I should probably fish them unweighted so I can retrieve them slower so I'll have to purchase some unweighted hooks small enough for the Holt lures.

I kept flicking casts, but unfortunately, despite practising in the backyard, my casting wasn't peachy... I tried throwing my lure straight ahead, only for it to go off to the left. Maybe it's time I practise sitting down, haha (I wish I had better balance to stand and cast). Anyways, lots of casts with the Holt prawn ensured that I eventually got it snagged on a mooring rope which goes across an ideal patch of water, so we went and got that off. After that, I switched to the Z-man lure. I was giving this more of a slow roll, with twitches. After another snag on the rope, which actually simulated a fighting fish well (or maybe I'm just that desperate to be hooked up again ), we gave it a few minutes to see if there was any surface activity. I gave a couple casts off towards the bank in hope of a flatty here, but alas, no bites were had. When I fish the bottom on the full moon, which is when there is most run, I think I should use a minimum of a 1/4 jighead so my lure can really be on the bottom, not drifting around half way in the water column. 

Full and Bright!

We gave this spot a few more flicks, but decided it was time to head off. I reckon we would've been flying along at about 10KM/h at one point, with Dad and I paddling as hard as we could. Anyways, it was a really short trip up to the first jetty with lights. I gave here a few casts, but it was not ideal ground as there were some people watching us in their house (always makes me nervous when that happens. I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the greenie experience ). 

We got to the next jetty, and decided this would be about as far as we went up. This one was decked out for fishing, and I've seen this person's fish pictures - threadfin, grunter, squire (I kid you not!!!), flatties, cod, perch, catfish, eels, sharks, a 1.5M one in fact, and much more. How I wish I lived on the river... . I flicked both lures here numerous times, and my casts were far better looking now. Unfortunately, no fish were landed after lots of effort! Some yobos came through on a boat blaring out music too, which ruined the serenity around here. I was quite concerned at first as they were approaching all these moored boats with speed - luckily they did slow down though. Another hazard was a little jetty, maybe 4x4m², anchored in the river. It had no lights, and would be very messy if you crashed into it! 

We decided it was now time to head back, as we'd seen no surface activity and this was only meant to be a short session. I switched up my plastic though, to a heavier 1/6^th jighead on some Tsunami-K-mart-Cheapo-Paddletail Lure. I was fishing the bank with this one, and I landed some casts right in close to the mangroves, then either gave it a hop-hop or slow roll retrieve. I was hoping for a flatty with this method, so continued all the way back. After a short but hard slog we made it back to the local park, but on the way back there had been rubbish everywhere! Jerrycans, what looked like a gumtree, scum in the water, and heaps of foliage was all clouding up the water! In fact, a bit of water splashed into my mouth, and I thought, "Surely not..." so I cupped some up in my hands and drank it, and guess what?! It tasted just like dam water from Lake Moogerah (I know because on the canoe trip we did on school camp my refreshment method was drinking water when we were stopped from the dam!). So I guess that's why there were no threadies displaying aerobatics, or more specifically, no bait/not much bait about. Bummer!

The plastic I used for flatties. 

Anyways, at the last jetty I did some finishing casts with the Holt prawn for nothing. That was no biggy though, I was glad to have made it out. It was sure a lovely night with the full moon, and even though the tunes from the movie being played spoiled the quiet I still enjoyed myself. Today, I had a near disaster, silly old me decided to take the bottom plate off my Nasci to clean in there, then some metal pole (called the oscillating guide), fell out, and then bent, fast forward to some texting to @Breaming with bro for help, who saved the day because he knew what was happening, I need to purchase a new bit then I'm hoping I'll be right . (Thanks again for the help Bro.)

At least I kept it neat!

 Thanks for reading if you got this far too, and here is the stats of the trip - 

Tide: 4:35PM, .3M, Low, 10:15PM, 2.1M, High, 

Moon Phase: Full Moon, lots of run

Tackle Used: 20LB FC Rock Leaders, 12lb and 14lb J-braid and Berkley Fireline, 2500 Shimano Nasci and Diawa Shinobi, Shimano Raider Snapper Rod 4-7KG, Abu Garcia Veritas 3-5KG.

Lures Used: Holt Productions 3 inch Swim Prawn in White Flash, with a size #2 1/8^th TT Jighead, Z-man 4 inch Pearl Paddletail soft plastic with BKK Owner Unweighted Hook, Tiny ball sinker tied on this too, Tsunami Sand Fish Plastic.

Fish Caught: -

Air Pressure: 1014

Weather: Slightly cloudy, no wind, rather bright

Humidity: 76%

Recent Rain (week): Smidge below 220mm. 

Temp: High, 25^oC, Low, 22^oC

Overall Success Rate: 50% - at least we found some more lights...

Cheers Hamish

[ellicat]

Sounds like a tough night on the fishing front.

[Brodie_S]

Shame your not getting anything lately hopefully soon the fishing will fire up a bit. I’m always happy to help with reel issues anytime hopefully once you get another support rod/oscillating guide the reel will be back into working order. 

[SuperHans]

16 hours ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Today, I had a near disaster, silly old me decided to take the bottom plate off my Nasci to clean in there

Man I know that feeling. Soon after I bought my first bait caster I figured I would pull it apart and give it an oil. (I had never seen the inside of one before. I had stripped plenty of egg beaters and alveys since I was a kid, so I thought "how hard could it be?" and "giving it a squirt of oil will surely make it work better").

Well............I heard a spring go flying past my ear, which I couldn't find in the thick carpet, and it never worked properly again- I wonder why   So I just stick to threadlines.

[Brodie_S]

1 hour ago, SuperHans said:

Man I know that feeling. Soon after I bought my first bait caster I figured I would pull it apart and give it an oil. (I had never seen the inside of one before. I had stripped plenty of egg beaters and alveys since I was a kid, so I thought "how hard could it be?" and "giving it a squirt of oil will surely make it work better").

Well............I heard a spring go flying past my ear, which I couldn't find in the thick carpet, and it never worked properly again- I wonder why   So I just stick to threadlines.

Yeah baitcasters a lot more tricky to work on btw what were you oiling on the baitcaster

[SuperHans]

2 hours ago, Breaming with bro said:

Yeah baitcasters a lot more tricky to work on btw what were you oiling on the baitcaster

Hi BWB,

it was a long time ago (25 years I guess) and didn't have a clue. I figured I could work it out and failed miserably. I'm now a firm believer in "If it ain't broke don't fix it"  and haven't been tempted to look at a bait caster since- I'll stick to simpler reels

[Brodie_S]

40 minutes ago, SuperHans said:

Hi BWB,

it was a long time ago (25 years I guess) and didn't have a clue. I figured I could work it out and failed miserably. I'm now a firm believer in "If it ain't broke don't fix it"  and haven't been tempted to look at a bait caster since- I'll stick to simpler reels

Yes baitcasters are a lot tricker then spinning reels but any shimano reel above the nasci is tricky to take apart and any reel by daiwa above the caldia is pretty tricky to take apart especially the exist LT those reels look like a nightmare to take apart. I think daiwa reels overall are the hardest to take apart and service correctly 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

21 hours ago, ellicat said:

Sounds like a tough night on the fishing front.

Yes, sure was Brian. Hopefully I'll be a bit successful next time.

21 hours ago, Breaming with bro said:

Shame your not getting anything lately hopefully soon the fishing will fire up a bit. I’m always happy to help with reel issues anytime hopefully once you get another support rod/oscillating guide the reel will be back into working order. 

Yeah, I hope so to Bro. I will order the new part ASAP, so hopefully my reel will be back up and running then.

7 hours ago, SuperHans said:

Man I know that feeling. Soon after I bought my first bait caster I figured I would pull it apart and give it an oil. (I had never seen the inside of one before. I had stripped plenty of egg beaters and alveys since I was a kid, so I thought "how hard could it be?" and "giving it a squirt of oil will surely make it work better").

Well............I heard a spring go flying past my ear, which I couldn't find in the thick carpet, and it never worked properly again- I wonder why   So I just stick to threadlines.

Hi SuperHans. Haha, that must've sucked! One day I will known enough to do my own service on a reel... Baitcasters and Eggbeaters!

Cheers Hamish

[Ed.]

7 hours ago, SuperHans said:

Man I know that feeling. Soon after I bought my first bait caster I figured I would pull it apart and give it an oil. (I had never seen the inside of one before. I had stripped plenty of egg beaters and alveys since I was a kid, so I thought "how hard could it be?" and "giving it a squirt of oil will surely make it work better").

Well............I heard a spring go flying past my ear, which I couldn't find in the thick carpet, and it never worked properly again- I wonder why   So I just stick to threadlines.

You are not alone in that experience, I think that anyone that has serviced a small baitcaster will have had that same experience at some stage .

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

20 hours ago, Ed. said:

You are not alone in that experience, I think that anyone that has serviced a small baitcaster will have had that same experience at some stage .

Hmm. This puts me off ever taking apart a baitcaster. I guess I'll start cheap and go from there.

Cheers Hamish

[Ed.]

3 hours ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Hmm. This puts me off ever taking apart a baitcaster. I guess I'll start cheap and go from there.

Cheers Hamish

Once you pull one apart, you should have an idea on how to put it back together again, also if yours has the Belleville washers in it (usually behind the star drag nut), just make sure you put them exactly back the same way.  You can always video record the dis-assembly on your phone, so you can play it back if you're unsure of something.

[Drop Bear]

So good to see your persistence mate. 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

On 30/03/2021 at 5:30 PM, Ed. said:

Once you pull one apart, you should have an idea on how to put it back together again, also if yours has the Belleville washers in it (usually behind the star drag nut), just make sure you put them exactly back the same way.  You can always video record the dis-assembly on your phone, so you can play it back if you're unsure of something.

Good tips Ed. Thanks.

13 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

So good to see your persistence mate. 

Cheers @Drop Bear 

[GregOug]

On 29/03/2021 at 6:17 PM, Breaming with bro said:

Yes baitcasters are a lot tricker then spinning reels but any shimano reel above the nasci is tricky to take apart and any reel by daiwa above the caldia is pretty tricky to take apart especially the exist LT those reels look like a nightmare to take apart. I think daiwa reels overall are the hardest to take apart and service correctly 

I don’t think it’s the taking apart that is tricky. It’s the putting them back together!